The relationship between task complexity and decision‐making consistency

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between task complexity and decision-making consistency using a normative decision model. The Decision Analytic Questionnaire (DAQ), an instrument designed to measure nurses' decision making under increasingly uncertain and complex conditions, was administered to a stratified random sample of 101 paid volunteer medical-surgical nurses drawn from three public teaching hospitals. Probit analysis was used to construct a profile of the decision maker whose decisions coincided with those of the model. Results indicated that nurses made clinical decisions that coincided with those recommended by a normative decision model but that agreement diminished as task complexity increased (p less than .005). The results also indicated that consistency was task specific, that predictive variables were a function of decision task and that more predictor variables were needed to explain consistency as task complexity increased.