Expertise and Naturalistic Decision Making in Organizations: Mechanisms of Effective Decision Making

Abstract

Abstract This article aims to address various issues as seen through the naturalistic decision making (NDM) perspective, a relatively nascent yet vibrant research tradition that seeks to understand how professionals are able to translate their experience into quality decisions within complex “real-world” environments. It documents the types of adaptations that experts make within organizations that enable decision-making effectiveness in the face of complexity. To this end, the article first provides an overview of the NDM movement. Secondly, it explores the role of individual expertise in decision making in NDM environments. Thirdly, it explores the issue of expert teams. This article draws from NDM investigations of individual and team decision making within organizations from a variety of domains as well as basic research on the nature of expertise.