{"id":16575,"date":"2026-08-15T14:24:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T10:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naderbagherzadeh.com\/en\/?p=16575"},"modified":"2026-08-21T02:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T22:54:15","slug":"en-research-articles-human-judgment-organizational-decision-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naderbagherzadeh.com\/en\/en-research-articles-human-judgment-organizational-decision-making\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Do Organizational Decisions Come From?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Abstract\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t Human Judgment, Institutional Conditions, and Decision Coherence\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
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Where Do Organizational Decisions Come From?<\/h2> \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Why can two leaders examine the same evidence, work under the same policy, and still reach very different decisions?<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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This is not an abstract concern.<\/b><\/p>


An organisation may have experienced professionals, detailed procedures, governance committees, extensive data, and increasingly capable AI systems. Yet a consequential decision can still feel disconnected from reality, responsibility, or the people who will carry its effects.<\/p>

The usual explanation is that either the individual failed or the system failed.<\/p>

That division is too simple.<\/b><\/p>

Human judgment is shaped by experience, values, assumptions, fear, identity, professional roles, and perceived responsibility. It is also shaped by incentives, authority structures, organisational norms, available information, time pressure, technologies, and whether people are genuinely permitted to question a preferred course of action.<\/p>

A serious account of organisational decision-making must therefore examine both the person who judges and the conditions within which judgment becomes possible.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Information Alone Does Not Determine Decision Quality<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Research on decision-making has long challenged the assumption that human beings evaluate every option with complete information and unlimited analytical capacity.<\/p>

Herbert Simon\u2019s work on bounded rationality established that decisions are made within cognitive and environmental limits. People work with incomplete information, finite attention, and practical constraints rather than perfect rationality (Simon, 1955).<\/p>

Tversky and Kahneman later demonstrated how judgment under uncertainty can be shaped by heuristics and systematic biases (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974).<\/p>

These research traditions support a measured conclusion: greater intelligence, more information, or better analytical tools do not automatically produce responsible judgment.<\/p>

Leadership research adds another layer. Work on authentic leadership has examined the relevance of self-awareness, internalised values, balanced information processing, and relational transparency (Avolio & Gardner, 2005). Ethical leadership research has also considered how individual conduct and situational influences contribute to the ethical behaviour observed within organisations (Brown & Trevi\u00f1o, 2006).<\/p>

The institutional environment matters as well. Edmondson\u2019s study of 51 work teams found that psychological safety was associated with learning behaviour. When people believe that interpersonal risk-taking is possible, they may be more willing to raise concerns, discuss errors, and contribute information that would otherwise remain hidden (Edmondson, 1999).<\/p>

Taken together, these research streams suggest that organisational decisions cannot be understood through individual character or system design alone.<\/p>

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Good People or Good Systems?<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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One view places responsibility primarily within the individual.<\/p>

From this perspective, organisations need more ethical, self-aware, and courageous decision-makers. If leaders possess the right values, responsible decisions should follow.<\/p>

The limitation is clear. Even a reflective person can be constrained by distorted incentives, restricted information, punitive authority structures, unrealistic targets, or a culture in which disagreement carries professional consequences.<\/p>

The opposing view places responsibility primarily within systems.<\/p>

According to this position, behaviour will improve when organisations design better incentives, controls, reporting structures, audits, and accountability mechanisms.<\/p>

This view identifies an essential part of the problem. Yet systems do not interpret their own rules, recognise every emerging risk, or challenge their own assumptions. People design, operate, accept, resist, and revise them.<\/p>

A system may formally permit dissent while informally rewarding silence. A leader may publicly endorse transparency while treating inconvenient questions as disloyalty. An AI governance policy may require human oversight while giving the human reviewer neither sufficient time nor meaningful authority to intervene.<\/p>

The better unit of analysis is therefore the interaction between human judgment and institutional conditions.<\/p>

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The GRIT\u2122 Proposition: Examining the Origin of Judgment<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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The hardcover edition of The Global Rare Impact Theory (GRIT\u2122): From Inner Rare Authenticity to Global Impact by Nader Bagherzadeh, presenting the official print edition of the book.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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The Global Rare Impact Theory (GRIT\u2122) is a developing, transdisciplinary conceptual framework. It proposes that responsible impact may depend partly on the quality of awareness, judgment, and responsibility from which action emerges.<\/p>

Within GRIT\u2122, Inner Rare Authenticity\u2122<\/strong> refers to the developing alignment among awareness, values, lived experience, and responsible contribution. It is not treated as unrestricted self-expression or personal preference.<\/p>

GRIT\u2122 does not claim that individual awareness can replace sound governance. It also does not assume that institutional reform can remove the need for human responsibility.<\/p>

Instead, it introduces an earlier question into decision analysis:<\/p>

Before asking whether a decision is effective, rational, or ethical, can we examine where the judgment behind it is coming from?<\/p><\/blockquote>

Within GRIT\u2122, Awareness of Decision Origin<\/strong> is a proposed construct referring to a person\u2019s capacity to recognise the forces participating in the formation of judgment.<\/p>

These forces may include:<\/p>