Positive Psychology at Work:

Micro-Decision-Making

In organizations a lot of emphasis is put on the big set-piece decision-making forums that are meetings. However, people make decisions together in many informal ways. Gittell (2003) has examined decision-making in informal contexts, asking what affects the effectiveness of the decisions made. Her research found that two distinguishing criteria are the presence, or absence, of high quality communication and high quality relationships. High quality communication is defined as communication that is frequent, timely and accurate. When high quality communication and relationships are present between people who are dependent on each other for work outcomes, the coordination around the work becomes much easier. Such relational coordination enhances localized, problem-focused decision-making that helps with work performance and productivity. She argues that organizations need to create opportunities for communication and relationships of this high quality to occur outside formal decision-making forums, to facilitate the effective coordination of work.

It might seem obvious that such relationships and the easy coordination they offer are beneficial to the smooth running of organizations. Unfortunately, in many organizations various factors prevent this process from happening naturally. For example, the organization might be spread geographically across different workshops or sites, while different parts of the process will almost certainly fall under different organizational ...