Special 5-Day Report

I. Decision-Making in the Digital Age: What Price Speed?

by Kepner-Tregoe

Decision making in the Digital Age is faster -- but not necessarily better -- a new study finds. A survey of 479 managers and 339 workers, conducted by management consultants Kepner-Tregoe, Inc. and certified by Yankelovich Partners, reveals that today's decision makers are racing against the clock. As a result of this increased time pressure, many organizations find themselves in "decision overdrive" -- going too fast to be effective and losing focus and precision in the process. Here are some of the highlights of the survey.


I. Racing Against the Clock: More Decisions to Make, Less Time to Make Them

Sixty-five percent of workers and 77 percent of managers said that over the past three years the number of decisions they were called on to make during a typical workday increased. At the same time, 82 percent of workers and 85 percent of managers said that the average amount of time they were given to make each decision either decreased or stayed the same.


II. Decision Makers Miss Opportunities

Nearly three quarters of workers and four-fifths of managers say that they miss opportunities because they don't make decisions quickly enough. Eighty percent of the former group and 83 percent of the latter also believe that their organization misses opportunities as a result of top management's inability to make timely decisions.

Sixty-eight percent of workers and 69 percent of managers said that the decisions they make sometimes or often fail because they aren't implemented quickly enough. And, when asked to assess how frequently top management's decisions fail due to delays in implementation, 67 percent of workers and 75 percent of managers indicated some degree of failure due to delayed implementation.


III. Decision Making in a Competitive Environment: How Fast and Effectively Companies Are Moving

When asked to compare the speed of their organization's decision making to that of rivals, only one quarter of workers and less than one third of managers say they are moving faster than the competition.

Respondents report seeing quality suffer when speed takes precedence in decision making, especially in budgeting/finance, organizational restructuring, personnel/ human resources, customer service, and quality/productivity.

When asked to specify in which ways decision making is compromised under time pressure, nearly half of all respondents point to poor information sharing, and 38 percent to failure to involve the right people.


IV. Causes of Decision-Making Delays

Over 40 percent of both groups cite the need for multiple approvals as the most frequently encountered barrier. Other common roadblocks are: organizational politics, changing priorities, and getting people to agree up front on what they want the decision to accomplish.


V. Information Technology That Is Driving Decision Making

We asked survey participants to tell us where, specifically, IT has become the most important source of information for decision making. At the top of both workers' and managers' lists: budgeting/finance (31 percent of workers and 47 percent of managers), purchasing (29 and 36 percent, respectively), and customer service (28 and 29 percent). Others that followed closely were: daily production management, quality/productivity, personnel/human resources, and process improvement.


VI. Where Decision Makers Get Their Information, How Satisfied They Are with That Information

As expected, when survey participants were queried as to where they get the information on which they base their decisions today, as compared to three years ago, the most dramatic change reported was an increase in the use of e-mail (by 75 percent of workers and 82 percent of managers). Other sources that are far more widely used today than three years ago include the Internet (by 72 percent of workers and 81 percent of managers) and the World Wide Web (by 68 percent of workers and 77 percent of managers).


VII. The Shift in Information Sources and Its Effect on the Speed and Quality of Decision Making

When we asked survey participants to assess how the shift in information sources reported above has affected decision-making speed and quality, the big surprise came not from the 58 percent of workers and 69 percent of managers who said it has had a positive effect on these two essentials of decision making, but from the one quarter of respondents who believe it has either had no effect, or a negative one.


VIII. Organizations' Decision-Making Memory

When asked if their organization maintains a database of information relating to past decision making, 90 percent of workers and 92 percent of managers either said "no" or couldn't answer the question. Of the less than one tenth of each group who said "yes," nearly 80 percent couldn't assess the utility of their database.


IX. Facilitation of Decision Making

We asked participants if there is a common decision-making process or approach that is used throughout their organization. Over four-fifths of both workers and managers either said "no" or reported that they do not know.


Editor's Note: This article is the first in a series of five articles that will address the key survey findings. Subsequent articles will focus on the second, qualitative phase of the study in which key executives from 11 of the world's most respected companies were interviewed to gain insights into the way they are successfully dealing with decision making overload.


A complete copy of the Kepner-Tregoe report Decision Making in the Digital Age can be purchased for $395.00, plus shipping and handling, from the Kepner-Tregoe website. Or contact Dolly Weldon-Gordon at 609.252.2665 or via e-mail at dweldon-gordon@kepner-tregoe.com. For more information about Kepner-Tregoe, contact Dr. Peter Tobia, via phone 609.252.2634 or e-mail: ptobia@kepner-tregoe.com.