Decision Making: When Consensus is NOT right
So when do you NOT use consensus decision making?
An authoritarian decision is appropriate under some circumstances where consensus is either not possible or not practical. This sounds negative, but doesn’t have to be. An authoritarian decision is one made by someone with the “authority” to make the decision.
There are two primary factors that may dictate an authoritative decision is appropriate:
time and politics.
When time is of the essence, an authoritarian decision is best made. Getting groups together, discussing the process, and arriving at a consensus decision takes time. Time you don’t always have. If you are in a crisis or an emergency, don’t go for a consensus decision, make one yourself.
Make the best, most informed decision you can, but act.
Organizational politics can sometimes be a barrier to a good or practical consensus decision. Not every organization is a smoothly running machine. Sometimes internal divisions are significant and divisive.
If it is likely that internal groups will polarize around specific positions and be unbending, then it becomes almost impossible to obtain a good consensus decision (Congress and administration please take note!).
So, when the internal organizational politics of the situation indicate many different and widely divergent factions will preclude a quality consensus decision, use an authoritarian decision making style. Be thorough, informed and thoughtful, but make the decision.
What You Should Do: Recall the decisions you have seen made in the authoritarian style. Evaluate the circumstances to discover why the decision was made that way (and yes, there are authoritarian leaders out there who only know this one way to make decisions). Then examine the outcomes.
Authoritarian decisions are often expedient decisions. You have to make the decision this way. They aren’t always the best decisions, just the best decision time and circumstances will allow. Good administrators use both consensus and authoritarian decision making styles as situations dictate.
By Stephanie McFarland, APR, mcfarlandpr@gmail.com and Robert Dittmer, APR, bdittmer@bc-group.net
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