November 2007

Kirkpatrick’s Column
Participation and decision making

There are four approaches that managers can take in making decisions:

1. The manager decides without any input and informs subordinates of the decision.
2. The manager asks for input from subordinates (either individually or as a group), considers the input, then decides and informs subordinates of the decision.
3. The manager conducts a problem-solving conference with subordinates to reach a consensus on the decision.
4. The manager empowers the subordinates to make the decision.

The two objectives of decision making are to arrive at a “quality” decision and to get acceptance from the subordinates who are responsible for implementing the decision. Regarding the “quality” of the decision, good or bad quality decisions can be made using any of the four approaches. The concern for “acceptance,” however, may be closely related to the level of participation.

The first approach is nonparticipative. The level of acceptance depends on whether or not the subordinates will benefit from the decision and/or whether or not the manager is able to sell the decision to them.

The other three approaches have varying degrees of participation. In the second approach, the manager maintains control of the decision and must sell it to subordinates. Subordinates will accept it because they will benefit from it and/or they feel that the manager has really considered their input in making the decision. It is obvious that a subordinate will accept it if he or she had suggested the decision that was made. Others will accept it if they feel that their input was considered. A woman in one of my seminars told me that her boss had frequently asked her for her opinion but had never made a decision based on her input. I asked her whether she thought the manager had made the decision before asking her. She replied that she thought he had. The manager was using the first approach and tried to sell it by making a subordinate feel that her input had been considered.

The third approach uses a group decision. Subordinates will accept the decision because “we” made it. In the fourth approach, it is obvious that acceptance will be highest because the subordinates were “empowered” to make the decision without any input or control by the supervisor.

Managers should consider these four approaches when making a change. The best approach for getting the best quality and the highest level of acceptance depends on many factors. For some organizations, such as Johnsonville Foods of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, empowerment seems to be the answer. In other organizations, empowerment is not a practical solution because the subordinates are not qualified and/or interested in having that responsibility.

A policy of Honeywell was to push decision making to the lowest practical level. This means that each manager must consider many factors in deciding which approach to use. Every manager must consider many factors in deciding which approach to use, will probably use each of the four levels at one time or another. The challenge is to decide which one to use each time a decision needs to be made. The decision should be made on which approach will be the best quality and receive the greatest level of acceptance. In one of his books, George Odiorne stated, “The best option for change is one created by the people who must implement it, or one for which the implementers can claim ownership.”

Donald L. Kirkpatrick
From chapter seven of Managing Change Effectively,
published in 2001 by Butterworth-Heinemann