Information Use by Managers in Decision Making: A Team Exercise

Amy C. Edmondson; Ann  Cullen

Exercise | July 2008

Information Use by Managers in Decision Making: A Team Exercise

Abstract

The purpose of this exercise is to explore the challenges of information collection and analysis. Students will, experientially, gain insights into how information is used and be exposed to a framework for identifying and evaluating information. In addition, the exercise will enable students to explore the processes and dynamics of teamwork in decision-making, the challenges of group decision-making, and the strategies for engaging team learning skills and attitudes to improve both the quality of and commitment to group decisions.

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Decision Making; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Managerial Roles; Business Processes; Groups and Teams;

Format: Print

3 pages

Purchase

Citation:

Edmondson, Amy C., and Ann Cullen. "Information Use by Managers in Decision Making: A Team Exercise." Harvard Business School Exercise 609-027, July 2008.

Fascination with organizations that eschew the conventional managerial hierarchy and instead radically decentralize authority has been longstanding, albeit at the margins of scholarly and practitioner attention. Recently, however, organizational experiments in radical decentralization have gained mainstream consideration, giving rise to a need for new theory and new research. This paper reviews the literature on less hierarchical organizing and identifies three categories of research: post-bureaucratic organizations, humanistic management, and organizational democracy. Despite this extensive prior work, scholarly understanding of radical decentralization remains limited. Using the term self-managing organizations to capture efforts that radically decentralize authority in a formal and systematic way throughout the organization, we set forth a research agenda to better understand less-hierarchical organizing at its limits.

Today's global enterprises increasingly involve collaborative work by teams of experts operating across different professions, organizations, and industries. Extreme Teaming provides new insights into the world of complex, cross-industry projects and the ways they must be managed. The authors analyze contemporary cases that expose the complex demands of cross-boundary collaboration on management and inform our understanding of teams. Containing powerful insights and practical guidelines that allow managers to bridge professional divides and organizational boundaries in order to work together effectively, this is a new exploration of the challenges involved in today's global enterprises. The authors demonstrate that the work done in the modern organization is less and less about looking inward and creating strong teams inside the company and more about teaming across boundaries—that often are in flux. Extreme Teaming is a must-read book for all courses related to leading open innovation, teamwork and collaboration, project management, and cross-boundary work.

Faculty & Research

Information Use by Managers in Decision Making: A Team Exercise

Abstract

Citation:

About the Author

More from the Author