How It Works
The importance of helping leaders explore participative management became apparent as the amount of confusion on the subject increased. The need was to have an inventory that not only might help to clear up the ambiguities but would provide simple, straightforward self-assessment and feedback on the subject of how leaders decide whether and how to involve their workgroups in the decision-making process.
The Participative Management Profile (PMP) focuses on enhancing the original (Maier) Model and writing items that illustrated the conditions under which various modes of decision making were indicated. PMP includes 20 common work situations that were not restricted to business or for-profit settings - ones with which most respondents would be able to identify. The items were written to the five items per decision-making mode. The instrument was then completed by creating an easy scoring system, interpretive material, and an opportunity for doing some action planning. In each of the 20 situations represented by the PMP, there are cues to which the respondents react in deciding how to decide.
Uses and Applications
The PMP is an instrument intended for use with organizational leaders at all levels. The 20 typical work situations provided charge the leader with deciding how to decide. 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.
Learning Outcomes
Building on previous research, HRDQ chose to create the PMP as a model-based assessment rather than use empirically-based scaling. In other words, we built a model based on the research and determined scales using the model rather than using statistical analyses. The model that PMP implements is normative; it specifies that under certain conditions, there is a "one best way" decision-making mode. The PMP incorporates what we see as the five major aspects of an optimized, decision-making process.
