Undecidable Decision-Making Premises
Can something that is not decidable be a basis for other decisions? It is exactly this which should be expressed with this rather strange term. Maybe the simplest way to understand this is imagining that, as a visitor to an organisation, you observe that everyone is extraordinarily friendly and on first name terms, and you ask yourself whether there are really no conflicts here and whether everyone is really so close.
Such a question would be interpreted as a (bad) joke, a stupidity or off the rails. In organisations, many factors come into play. They are not decided, but they are also not decidable. In our example, no boss or other person could come along and order a formal address and a distanced interaction (even if such a thing is attempted many times in the other direction). At best, the effect would be a superficial adaptation in behaviour which would usually not last long, because it would feel completely ‘wrong’. Therefore, undecidable decision-making premises always have a relationship to the experience of the employee and, for this reason, they cannot be changed by means of instructions (=decisions). This would only lead to the famous ‘be spontaneous’ paradox, where an involuntary response is to be deliberately evoked. As undecidable decision-making premises are a part of the organisational culture, they cannot, therefore, simply be changed by declarations (from management). Other forms of influence are needed.