Better decision making with clear roles for experts and managers

This paper proposes a framework for coordinating decisions between managers and experts. Since managers and experts have different skills and focus on different kinds of problems, it is important to coordinate their decisions to ensure a good flow of decisions for the company. Therefore the framework is structured to help clarify coordination. There are three steps in the framework: ownership, scope and process. These concepts are familiar in the study of management and organizations, but their application to experts as a specific group of decision makers is relatively new. The paper starts with a brief look at how the role of experts has evolved in companies. This provides a context to see why experts have become more involved in decision making over the past decade. Next a framework for explicitly defining the role of experts in decision making is described. This is followed with three short cases that highlight different kinds of issues in organizing expert decisions. After these cases, key items are reviewed to show how the framework is applied. Finally, the conclusion summarizes the responsibilities of experts and managers in making decisions.