Victor Vroom and Phillip Yetton provide a model that helps leaders decide when to use each approach. The model walks leaders through a series of questions about the decision to be made, and the answers will lead the decision maker to the suggested approach. The questions focus on a few key factors:
Is decision quality highly important?
Does the leader have sufficient information to make the decision?
Is it highly important for team members to accept the decision?
Are the team members likely to accept the leader’s decision if he makes it individually? What if he makes it with their consultation?
Do the team members’ goals match those of the leader and organization?
Is the problem structured and easily analyzed?
Do team members have high levels of expertise in the matter to be decided?
Do team members have high levels of competence in working together as a group?