Does Your Company Interfere with Good Decision-Making on the Job?

Many of us are led to believe that one of the things we are hired for is the ability to make good decisions and problem-solve in the work environment. Depending on your job description and the culture of your company, however, your ability to actually make decisions may be inhibited. Sometimes, companies get so bogged down in politics, bureaucracy or other unhealthy dysfunction that the ability to make good decisions is virtually stripped from employees.

Work environments that are structured in a "top down" manner-meaning that decisions are made at the top and trickle down through the ranks to employees-tend to work in situations where ordinary employees or workers do not have to make decisions or choices but where they really just need to follow orders. While this style still exists in some companies, it is definitely less "in favor" than it used to be. Most modern companies go for a more interactive style of operation and this asks employees at all levels to contribute in the decision-making. Studies have proven that the more autonomy and decision-making individuals have on the job, the more content and satisfied they tend to be with their jobs and the companies they work for.

When your job description requires you to make choices or decisions or problem-solve and the workings of the company (or other individuals within the company) get in the way of your being able to do that-that is when you have problems. Employees who are second-guessed, critiqued or have been given ambiguous decision-making expectations will likely stop trying to solve problems and make decisions. If you know that you can make a decision but someone "higher up" will reverse your decision, criticize you or interfere with the follow-through, it will not take long before you just give up and defer. This can have disastrous results if your position requires you to make on-the-spot decisions.

Companies need to take stock in how healthy of an environment they have created. Does the company culture not only allow for, but support individual decision-makers as they make choices on behalf of the company? Are there individuals who get in the way of quick and reasonable decisions being made? Are the rules, paperwork, and governing departments too much of an interference to decision-making? All of these elements should be explored to make sure that decisions can be made and supported by those who need to make them.