The John Adair Handbook of Management and Leadership

Chapter 3: Decision-making and problem-solving 45

depends on the skills of leadership, influencing, communication

and motivation.

One survey (of 200 leaders of industry and commerce) ranked ‘the

ability to take decisions’ as the most important attribute of top

management.

The logical or rational manager will invariably follow this decision-

making model:

However, US research into decisions by public sector officials

suggests that decision-makers rarely settle for the ‘best’ or optimum

Define objective

Collect

information

Develop

options

Evaluate

and decide

Implement

Monitor
consequences

Sense

effects