The participatory leadership model Vroom and Yetton

So that organization reach its objectives, it is essential that the information arrives at the right time to the appropriate centers where the necessary decisions have to be made. The fundamental decisions of manager are what to decide, who has to decide, how to decide and depending on what. The essence of decision making sews in the formulation of alternative courses, and the choice between alternatives after an evaluation of its effectiveness to achieve the objectives

He Participatory leadership model of Vroom and Yetton (1973) relates leadership behavior and participation for decision making. From the recognition that the structures of the task present different demands in routine activities and in non -routine activities, the leader's behavior must adapt to the type of task structure. Model that is normative and provides a sequential set of rules that intend to determine the form and amount of participation in decision making, depending on the different types of situation. Represents a decision tree that incorporates 8 contingencies and 5 alternative leadership styles.

TO. Assumptions.

1. The leader's behavior must be specified without ambiguity.
2. No leadership method is applicable to all situations.
3. The most appropriate unit for the analysis of the situation is the particular problem to be solved and the context in which it occurs.
4. The leadership method used in a situation should not constrain the method or style used in others. TO.
5. There is a certain number of discrete social processes through which organizational problems can be solved and these processes vary in terms of the potential amount of participation of subordinates in problem solving. The choice can be made by the leader.
6. Leadership methods vary with the number of subordinates that are affected by the situation.

The 5 leadership styles are established according to the degree of participation of subordinates and apply according to the situation. In situations, the leader must solve the problem or make the decision for himself, using information available at the time.

In other situations, it must obtain the necessary information from its subordinates before deciding on their own solution to the problem. It can also happen that the leader consults the problem individually with his subordinates and requests his ideas, but does not meet them for the study of the problem. Then make the decision, which may or may not reflect the suggestions of the subordinates. In other cases, the leader consults the problem with his subordinates in groups, obtaining ideas and suggestions. Subsequently, it makes a decision that may reflect or not the suggestions of those subordinates.

The greater degree of participation occurs when the leader consults the problem with his subordinates as a group and together generate and evaluate alternatives, and try to reach an agreement (consensus) on the situation. In addition to these types of Differentiable leadership Depending on the degree of participation of subordinates, the model assumes various alternatives that allow the characterization of the situation-problem that is to solve. Depending on the concrete contingencies of each situation, the leader can select the leadership behavior and the degree of participation of a decision tree. Variables when establishing alternatives:

• degree of leader information to make a high quality decision by itself,
• degree of experience of the leader to make a high quality decision by itself,
• degree of information that have the subordinates collectively to generate a high quality decision,
• problem structure,
• degree of acceptance of the decision by the subordinates, the previous probability that the autocratic decision of the leader receives acceptance of the subordinates,
• degree of motivation of subordinates to achieve the organizational objectives explicit in the problem,
• probability that subordinates conflict in differences in their favorite solutions.

Leaders use participatory methods when: the quality of the decision is important, it is important that the subordinates accept the decision, and it is unlikely that this occurs if they are not allowed to participate in the decision, it is possible to assume that the subordinates will pay more attention to the objectives of the group that at their own preferences. Leadership research should focus on the situation rather than the person.

For Vroom and Yetton Leaders are not rigid, but adjust their style to different situations. Contingency theories suggest that effective leadership is a function of: the place occupied by the leader in the organization, the type of task to be performed, the personality attributes of the leader and subordinates, of a certain number of factors related to the acceptance and dependence of the subordinates with respect to the leader. Contingency theories continue to be the main paradigm that dominates the panorama of leadership studies. Together with critical positions, alternative theoretical positions have appeared. Several investigations indicate the need to study the causes of leader's behavior and not only its effects.

decision making

They are related to problem solving. Conceptual models in decision -making have been developed from two different perspectives: Regulatory models, as Decisions must be made and what conditions have to be met in them. Have been developed by economists, analysts, mathematicians. They have left a completely rational man who coincides with the description of him "economic man" of classical theory. Descriptive models, They intend to simulate the conduct of the decision makers in the types of problems to which the model is applied. Developed by psychologists.

They start from "the administrative man" that takes into account the empirical phenomena in the decision making. "The Economic Man" Regulatory model that optimizes the choice of decision. The decision maker does optimal selections In a very specified and clearly defined environment. It is assumed that the economic man: he is completely informed, he is infinitely sensitive to changes in the situation, he makes completely rational choices. His behavior would be described by: Know the entire relevant alternatives for the situation. The theory does not explain how the alternatives are obtained. Know the consequences that are linked to each alternative, this knowledge can be of three types: in situations of certainty, complete and exact knowledge of the consequences of each alternative.

In situations of risk, Know the consequences of each alternative that are exclusive to each other, and the probability of occurrence of each of them. In situations of uncertainty, Know the consequences but not their probabilities. They have a utility function, that is, a preference of ordination, or a hierarchy between all possible, tidy of the least preferred consequences. Select the alternative that leads to the preferred group of consequences, taking into account the characteristics of the situation: in case of certainty the alternative to select is evident from the premises.

In case of risk a rational selection indicates the alternative for which the expected compensation is greater, depending on the probability presented by each group of consequences. In the case of uncertainty, the completely rational choice is problematic, but rules such as the "minimum risk" can be used., where it is selected that offers a "worst group of consequences" better than those of the others. This model is established on three assumptions that are hardly fulfilled: all relevant alternatives are given to the decision maker. All consequences to each alternative are known. The rational man has a complete comparison management based on the usefulness for all the possible groups of consequences.

"The administrative man"

Descriptive Model of decision making. Simon, is one of the critics of the man's economic model believes that people are not so rational. The administrative man makes decisions based on a limited rationality, acts and values ​​are involved, satisfactory results are sought instead of optimal solutions, in many occasions they are adopted in collaboration with others. Facts and values ​​in making decisions, Decisions imply, together with de facto issues, others of value. The response to the former must be able to determine empirically and the response of the latter depends on the individual's values ​​system. Decisions focus mainly on matters of fact and others on matters of value. When decisions try to determine last purposes, the We will call "value judgments", When they imply the achievement of such purposes we will call it "Fact judgments". The behavior is finalist, is guided by goals to general objectives and is rational when choosing alternatives to choose its purposes. Rationality is interested in the construction of middle-minute chains and is limited in decision-making by value elements.

Limited rationality, Rationality is limited by the psychological characteristics of the subject. Information processing capacity is finite and this condition decision making. In decisions the subject rather than knowing all the alternatives, has to discover them by search. That search is stimulated when the objectives are not achieved and continues until they find a sufficient enough alternative to meet the objectives. The subject must be able to anticipate or anticipate the consequences of that alternative and compare it with those of the others. There are limitations that prevent an exhaustive knowledge of all the consequences. The central key on this issue is in the ability of the subject and since it is limited, the theories of limited rationality are based on the location of attention, according to which, the subject does not point to optimal solutions, but rather that Just look until it finds some that is satisfactory.

Satisfactory decisions vs. optimal decisions, There are also limitations due to the lack of capacity to process and compute all the relevant data, to achieve all optimal data. The administrative man continues in his search process only until he finds an alternative that satisfies the minimums in relation to the values ​​he is trying to achieve; Once found, the search is most likely to stop. The optimization of utility is constant over time. If the search for an acceptable alternative has been unsuccessful for a considerable time, the decision maker reduces the established minimums accepting alternatives rejected above.

The concept of satisfactory decision is related to the level of aspiration. The need for an administrative theory lies in the fact that there are limits to human rationality in practice and that these limits are not static but depend on the organizational environment in which decisions take place. An approximation similar to that of Simon is the theory of incrementalism formulated by Braybrooke and Lindblom: decisions tend to be incremental, instead of based on a set of clearly delimited objectives from the beginning from the beginning.

The decision maker adopts partial decisions that try to respond to external pressures. They insist on the progressive adjustment of acceptable levels based on the results of previous decisions. Introduces the fact that many decisions are not products of the mental and behavioral activity of a single subject but of several.

Collective decisions, A decision is frequent that it depends on two or more people, a difficult case to explain from the theory of economic man. The different members may have different minimums to accept an alternative as satisfactory. A unanimous decision will analyze alternatives until we find one that allows the satisfaction of the minimum levels of all members. A majority decision will consider alternatives until we find one that meets the minimum expectations of most members.

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