Leaders as Decision Architects – a Comprehensive Analysis
Decision-making is one of the focal points in contemporary business management. Moreover, the today’s economies are particularly vibrant and dynamic, making it necessary to make the decisions quickly. In their article ‘Leaders as Decision Architects’, John Beshears and Francesca Gino argue that the decision-making context should be substantially modified. In particular, the authors emphasize that all critical behavioral issues, which surround a decision-making process, should be identified, and the factors, which maximize the chances of errors, should be removed. Special attention is laid to the importance of mitigating the impacts of different emotional biases and poor motivation. Generally, the main argument of their work is that by changing the environments, in which the decisions are taken, the managers can increase the ratio of successful business ventures (Beshear & Gino, 2015).
However, the authors have not recognized the importance of factual basis in decision-making. In other words, while they specifically emphasize that by removing biases and creating a favorable decision-making environment, the number of mistakes can be substantially reduced, they failed to stress that all decisions should be based on the data only (Module, 1). Specifically, removing personal, social and other biases is definitely a good idea; however, in order to maximize the chances of making the soundest decision, the managers should rely on the data only.
Particularly, organizations, which seek to reduce the number of mistakes in decision-making, should embrace a policy, which discourages assumption-based decision-making (Bazerman, 2002). In addition, it is necessary to conduct different workshops, training employees to remove emotional aspect from the process.
Finally, it is necessary to ensure that individual approach is necessary for each decision-maker (Module, 2). In other words, for different employees different decision-making environments are necessary. Generalizing backfire on the managers, and the opposite atmospheres may be created.
Generally, the article remarkably emphasizes that the creation of a favorable decision-making environment is a complicated process with many determinants. Yet, provided that each of them receives proper managerial attention, organizational excellence can be seriously maximized.
References
Bazerman, M. (2002). Judgment in managerial decision-making. New York: Wiley.
Beshear, J. & Gino, F. (2015). Leaders as decision architects. Harvard Business Review, 51-62
Module 1 – Foundations of Managerial Decision Making. Educational Materials
Module 2 – Improving Individual Judgement in Managerial Decision Making. Educational Materials
