Collective Decision Making: Toward a Relational Perspective

The focus of the article is on the dominating assumptions in theories of decision making and the relationship between decisions and change. This discussion is used to understand strategic decision making in Danish companies in which, since 1973, employees have been able to elect representatives to the board of directors. It is the authors' observation that employers and employees develop joint perspectives on the realities facing their company and also try to influence the decision from the point of view of their respective interests. To understand these processes, it is claimed that interest and identities must be treated as endogenous rather than exogenous variables, that these processes need to be understood in a social constructivist rather than a social realist paradigm, and that a relational paradigm must replace the dominant substantialist paradigm. These positions challenge dominant assumptions in traditional decision-making theory. The authors work toward formulating a decision-making theory based on a relational perspective.