Take a look at the Driver Decision Style Exercise (DDSE) and the Driver-Streufert Complexity Index (DSCI), developed by Mike Driver. Both are available from Ken Brousseau at Decision Dynamics in Los Angeles.
Driver distinguished between a person's natural information processing tendencies, or what he called "operating style," and the information processing tendencies a person uses when aware of and concerned about the presence of others, which he called "role style."
The measures are robust and very practical. I have used them with Mike in several research studies and in consulting work together. What is especially useful about them is that they acknowledge that a person's decision style can and does change as a result of what Driver called "environmental load." Typically, under low load conditions a person will use very little information. Then, as load increases, the person will tend to use more information. Under extremely high load conditions, the person tends to revert to the low information-use pattern.
For a summary, see:
Driver, M. J., & Pate, L. E. (2002). Decision making. In F. Luthans (Ed.), Virtual Organizational Behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Driver, M. J., Svensson, K., Amato, R. P., & Pate, L. E. (1996). A human information processing approach to strategic change: Altering managerial decision styles. International Studies of Management & Organization, 26(1), 41-58.
Pate, L. E., Driver, M. J., Gatewood, E., Goodman, J. P., & Coombs, M. W. (1990, April). Decision style and new venture success: An analysis of INC.500 and YPO executives' environments. Babson Entrepreneurship Research Conference, Wellesley, MA. Published in N. Churchill, et al. (Eds.), Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 1990. Babson College, 1991.
Driver, M. J., & Pate, L. E. (1992, July). Decision styles and entrepreneurial success factors: Relationships between style and the structure of organizations, product lines, and environments among INC.500 firms. Babson Entrepreneurship Research Conference, Fontainebleau, France. Abstracted in N. Churchill, et al. (Eds.), Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 1992. Babson College, 1993.
Hope this helps.
Larry Pate
Redondo Beach, California
On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 1:54 PM, Brad Owens
<bpo@u.washington.edu> wrote:
I'm looking for a measure of decision-making style, preferably one that
employees can use to assess the decision-making style of their
leader/supervisor.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Brad
Bradley P. Owens
Doctoral Candidate
Michael G. Foster School of Business
University of Washington
(206)543-0552