Guiding process Decision Maker
The process of organising (= Organisation) cannot avoid deciding who, on a social level, should be involved in deciding and who should be excluded. The question is: ‘Which functional areas and people take a (particular) decision and who must accept this decision?’
This generates itself on the level of formal organisation: hierarchy, organisational charts, rights to decide within roles and functions (such as procurations), meeting structures, budgeting rights, management objectives and many more. At the same time, there is an informal level upon which certain persons have high levels of influence: the elder, who must always be asked, the advisory board which ought not be ignored, external family members in a family concern, powerful area managers who have their finger in every pie, unions who no one can bypass etc..
The guiding process ‘decision maker’ is recognisable in the configuration of decision rights and procedures within the organisation. The participation in decision-making is on the one hand a constant, important bone of contention in organisations, because, in the struggle about problems and interests, gaining influence in the form of factual authority, social leadership and power over future consequences is highly attractive. On the other hand, it must be clear that decision makers have a hard task and those who are excluded from it have it easy. The former must protect themselves from questions of blame, the latter can present complaints without risk.
The multi-faceted discussions about problems of hierarchy, attempts inside democratic organisational structures, the tendency to constantly re-structure or to create double- and triple matrix organisations, show the significance and the struggle surrounding this guiding process.