A632.7.3.RB - Collaborative Decision Making

A decision that is made with reflection, and additional input, may be substantially more effective. A humbling thought is that, one person can’t possibly know everything. This is an important idea in relation to involving other stakeholders. Another factor to consider, is the widely discussed concept of “the butterfly effect”; in an issue of The American Scientist, Jamie Vernon states that this concept’s purpose was to “illustrate the idea… that small variances in the initial conditions could have profound and widely divergent effects on the system’s outcomes” (2017).  Involving stakeholders may be so influential, just as the butterfly effect suggests, to resolutions, the entire result could be dramatically different without this involvement.

One instance I was faced with making a critical decision was in the enrollment of this degree, Master’s in Project Management. I knew once I finished my Bachelor’s, I wanted to further my education, but with so many options, it was difficult to come to a conclusion alone. One study shows the possible negative effects of involving a stakeholder to early in the decision making process and that “there is an art to managing stakeholder discourse” (Farmer, Benson, Mcmahon, Principe, & Middleton, 2015). The first step I took in the process of furthering my education was to identify the different decisions I would need to make; this included picking a school, program/degree, and financial assistance. After some research (on my own), I was able to discover the university I wanted to go to and the loan I would have to take to pay for it (two out of three!). At this point, I had one decision left to make, which degree to pursue at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

In order to make a decision on which degree to choose, I went to my stakeholders including my family, friends, colleagues, and employer. My family and friends, not knowing much of my career or industry, just urged me to do whatever I was most interested in. My colleagues often gave me their own professional experiences which directed me towards management degrees, rather than technical ones. The next stakeholder I advanced was my employer, who may have the most interest in what educational background I can offer. After giving the vice president of my company, options between three different degrees, he thought I should go along with project management which would be best elevated by my responsibilities at work.

In this situation, I feel that the involvement of stakeholders led a supported decision that I do not regret. I think it’s very important to use stakeholders that are appropriate to the topic; if a stakeholder is not suited to give input or advice, this may leave the decision makers with frustrated and troubled (Steghöfer, et al., 2018). At the end of the decision to further my education, I learned how to support a decision by involving stakeholder, how to approach the stakeholder, and that an appropriate stakeholder must be used.

Farmer, M. C., Benson, A., Mcmahon, G. F., Principe, J., & Middleton, M. (2015). Unintended Consequences of Involving Stakeholders Too Late: Case Study in Multi-Objective Management. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management,141(10), 05015003. doi:10.1061/(asce)wr.1943-5452.0000512

Steghöfer, J., Burden, H., Hebig, R., Calikli, G., Feldt, R., Hammouda, I., . . . Liebel, G. (2018). Involving External Stakeholders in Project Courses. ACM Transactions on Computing Education,18(2), 1-32. doi:10.1145/3152098

Vernon, J. L. (2017). Understanding the Butterfly Effect. American Scientist,105(3), 130. doi:10.1511/2017.126.130