Developing a value-based decision-making model for inquiring organizations

The effective management of knowledge is critical for organizations that are striving to gain or maintain a competitive advantage and that are in the process of re-structuring for the new century. Decision-making is an important factor for growing organizational memory with newly created knowledge and a broader base of perspectives to use in subsequent decision-making situations. Given a particular decision context and a decision maker with a set of personal values, it may be very difficult to see all sides of the issue. Yet, being able to view the decision environment from multiple perspectives would enhance the decision maker´s ability to make better-informed choices. This article introduces the value-based decision-making (VBDM) model that extends Courtney´s (2001) new decision-making paradigm by suggesting that multiple perspectives may be achieved by considering a foundation of individual values as suggested by Spranger (1928/1966). This model provides a framework that decision-makers and researchers can use to better understand and facilitate the use of multiple perspectives in decision-making and organizational memory enhancement. This article also suggests the use of agent technology as a basis for multiple perspective decision-making support.