Several points should be considered when thinking about decision-making that should not be collegial. Situations in which collegiality is not appropriate have the following characteristics
- [[expertise]] is extremely high.
- Expert opinion is important in matters where [[specialized knowledge]] or [[skill]] is required. For example, when specific knowledge is essential, such as medical or legal decisions or highly technical issues, the expert's sole decision is often required.
- When quick decision making is needed:.
- In situations that are urgent and require a quick response, there may not be time to go through a council. For example, in disaster response and crisis management, commanders and leaders need to make decisions quickly.
- If responsibility should be clear:.
- A collegial system may also be unsuitable in situations where responsibility must be clearly assigned in a decision. In some situations, such as corporate management decisions, where responsibility for the outcome must be taken later, it may be preferable for the leader or leaders to make the decision alone.
- If opinion dispersion is large:.
- When there is a wide divergence of opinion among participants, a collegial system may not reach a decision or an overly compromised decision may be reached. In these situations, it may be useful to have some experts or a neutral third party make the decision.
- information asymmetry :
- If information is not shared equally among all, or there are differences in understanding, collegial decision-making may not yield appropriate results. Greater information asymmetry makes it harder to make well-informed decisions.
Considering these situations will help us determine when we should avoid collegiality and rely on individual or minority opinions.
This page is auto-translated from /nishio/合議で決めるべきではない意思決定 using DeepL. If you looks something interesting but the auto-translated English is not good enough to understand it, feel free to let me know at @nishio_en. I’m very happy to spread my thought to non-Japanese readers.