Vroom and Yetton’s Normative Model

This theory says that, “decision acceptance increases the effectiveness of action” and “Participation increases decision acceptance”. When I first read this I completely agreed with it, which is why I chose to elaborate and research more on it. I think that once you make up your mind about committing to a decision or action, whether it is a leadership role or not the individual will most likely make the action effective.

Vroom and Yetton’s Normative Model involves decision quality and decision acceptance to make it work. Decision quality by definition is the, “selection of the best alternative, and is particularly important when there are many alternatives. It is also important when there are serious implications for selecting (or failing to select) the best alternative”. Basically this states that it is important to weigh out all options and it also implies how important it is to make the right decision during the crucial parts of different processes.

Decision acceptance is, “the degree to which a follower accepts a decision made by a leader. Leaders focus more on decision acceptance when decision quality is more important”. Without the backing of followers leaders have nothing so it is important that their followers will accept the decisions they make. This is hard for leaders to predict, however, because they can’t necessarily mind read how their followers will feel. But at least the followers will see that the effort is made and that is all that matters.

Vroom and Yetton defined five different decision procedures:

A1: Leader takes known information and then decides alone.

A2: Leader gets information from followers, and then decides alone.

C1: Leader shares problem with followers individually, listens to ideas and then decides alone.

C2: Leader shares problems with followers as a group, listens to ideas and then decides alone.

G2: Leader shares problems with followers as a group and then seeks and accepts consensus agreement.

Different situations seem to affect each of these different interactions between the leader and followers. A1 and A2 are much more autocratic so when decision acceptance is important and followers are unlikely to accept an autocratic decision then these methods are more often used. C1 and C2 are more consultive so when decision acceptance is important but followers are likely to disagree with one another this is not appropriate because they do not give opportunity for differences to be resolved. In the case of G2 this is used when decision quality is not important but decision acceptance is critical this is the best method to use. Also with G2, when decision quality is important, all agree with this, and the decision is not likely to result from an autocratic decision this method is best.

It is recommended to use this model when, “there is a clear and accessible opinion about the decision quality importance and decision acceptance factors” in a situation. It is stated that this model is defined more by rational logic than by long observation, I think this is why this theory is so clear and easy to point out.

http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/theories/vroom_yetton.htm