Optimizing your decision-making style

When leaders face situations where they need to make critical decisions, they typically tend to search for the best ways to carry out a conscious strategy. However, there are times when disposing of the items in one’s in-basket often requires almost instantaneous decision making. In these moments, leaders need to pause for a few moments to decide before actually delving into the situation itself. In this sense, awareness precedes meaningful choice. The Participative Management Profile (PMP) provides employees with the exact guidelines needed to execute confident decisions.

How It Works

The PMP provides 20 typical work situations where the leader is in charge of choosing the most successful outcome. The respondent indicates one of four modes of decision making, and a profile is constructed that suggests the person's strengths and weaknesses in determining whether and how to involve others in decision making.

Uses and Applications

Participative Management Profile reflects on the four significant considerations that the leader should take into account in deciding how to involve his/her peers in making a given decision. These concepts are time, trust, importance, and acceptance and we have added a fifth consideration, teamwork, to reflect the desire of the leader to use a particular decision-making opportunity to create a higher level of effectiveness. The five considerations are put together to create the PMP Model shown below.

Time: Whether there is a need for an immediate choice
Trust: The degree to which people affected by the decision have confidence in one another
Teamwork: The desire of the manager to improve the functioning of the work group.
Importance: The criticality of the decision to the organization
Acceptance: Whether people are likely to have strong feelings about the decision or the process

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this assessment, participants will:

Learn an effective way to solve everyday problems
Identify strengths and weaknesses during the decision-making process
Create action plans for improvement

Product Details

Product Type: Assessment. The Facilitator Guide is an in-depth resource designed to help trainers swiftly administer the assessment.

Target Audience: Any manager or supervisor with decision-making responsibilities will find this tool useful.

Measures: This instrument measures the extent to which a leader optimizes commitment to implementing the decision on the part of the workgroup.

Dimensions: Decision making, critical thinking, and leadership skills.

Time Required: Assessment: 20 minutes. Scoring: 10 minutes. Discussion: 30 minutes.

Sample Assessment Report

View a sample of the PDF report your participants will receive.

What to Order

Online Assessment: Order One Per Participant.

The online assessment is administered to participants through the HRDQ Assessment Center and includes personalized reporting, full-color charts, interpretive information, worksheets, and action planning. Detailed report is delivered electronically to the facilitator/administrator when complete.

Paper Assessment 5-Pack: Order One Pack for Up to Five Participants.

A comprehensive takeaway that includes critical content, worksheets, and forms used during the workshop, as well as additional tools for on-the-job use.

Facilitator Guide: Order One Guide Per Trainer.

This detailed, step-by-step guide for planning and delivering a powerful learning experience gives you everything needed to facilitate a full-day workshop. It includes background information, assessment instructions, scripts, discussion questions, activities, and samples of the assessment.

HRDQue Card 5-Pack: Order One Pack for Up to Five Participants.

An excellent takeaway for participants, the HRDQue Card is a quick-reference tool that features the Participative Management Tree model and a description of each of the four methods of managing participation in decision making. A copy is provided with the Facilitator Guide, and we also offer additional copies for purchase.

About the Authors

William L. Bearly, Ed.E. is vice president of Organizational Universe Systems. He is an information system and organizational development consultant and has even pioneered the fusion of OD with the introduction of management information systems.

John E. Jones, Ph.D. (1935-2003) was president of Organizational Universe Systems. He was a key contributor to training and organization development and a professor, trainer, presenter, counselor, and consultant. He received a BA from Wofford College and an MA and Ph.D. in 1965 from the University of Alabama.

Online Assessment CenterDecision Making

Participative Management Profile

Online Assessment Center
Decision Making