'I Won't Back Down?' Complexity and Courage in Federal Decision-Making

44 Pages Posted: 16 Dec 2013

See all articles by Steven Kelman

Steven Kelman

Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS)

Ronald Sanders

Booz Allen Hamilton

Gayatri Pandit

Booz Allen Hamilton

Sarah Taylor

Booz Allen Hamilton

Date Written: October 29, 2013

Abstract

Senior government executives make many decisions, and not-infrequently these are difficult. By “difficult” decisions, the literature generally means ones characterized by complicated and uncertain information, and hard tradeoffs among conflicting value objectives. In a range of interviews with high-level U.S. Federal Government Executives, we found interesting differences between outstanding, noticably successful executives and controls regarding their “most difficult” decisions, both how they defined them and how they made them. Outstanding executives characterized the hardest decisions they made not as ones characterized by complexity but as ones requiring courage. Several other notable differences in decisionmaking style also emerged.

Suggested Citation

Kelman, Steven and Sanders, Ronald and Pandit, Gayatri and Taylor, Sarah, 'I Won't Back Down?' Complexity and Courage in Federal Decision-Making (October 29, 2013). HKS Working Paper No. RWP13-044, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2366901 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2366901

Steven Kelman (Contact Author)

Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) ( email )

79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States
617-496-6302 (Phone)
617-496-5747 (Fax)

Ronald Sanders

Booz Allen Hamilton

8283 Greensboro Drive
McLean, VA 22102
United States

Gayatri Pandit

Booz Allen Hamilton

8283 Greensboro Drive
McLean, VA 22102
United States

Sarah Taylor

Booz Allen Hamilton

8283 Greensboro Drive
McLean, VA 22102
United States

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