The Critical Decision Vortex: Lessons From the Emergency Room

Abstract

The dominant model of decision making, rational decision making, is increasingly challenged by research on intuitive decision making and emotion. This article contributes to the debate by articulating a model of how rational decision making, intuitive decision making, and emotion influence each other: the critical decision vortex. The critical decision vortex emerges from a discussion between an emergency room (ER) doctor and a management scholar. The experience of the doctor diagnosing and treating patients in the ER provides the background for a reflection on decision making in critical conditions. One of the main findings of this collaborative effort is that to be effective, ER doctors, like managers, need to remain centered in the critical decision vortex; they need to attend equally to their analytical conclusions, the intuitive hunches that come from their xperience, and remain open and attentive to their emotions. e Keywords ational decision making, intuitive decision making, emotion, doctors r

More Dynamic Than You Think: Hidden Aspects of Decision-Making

“…For example, decisions to stand or sit and whether or not to intervene influenced interactions between facilitators and, relatedly, their affective experience. Supporting this observation is research by Coget and colleagues (Coget and Keller 2010), who found that effects of the same discrete emotion on the choice of intuitive vs. rational information processing differed according to the previous emotional experiences of the decision maker.…”

“…This state is in a constant flux. As with the interactions of medical practitioners in the critical decisions vortex (Coget and Keller 2010) where analytical and intuitive processing fluidly interact; this small workshop shows a more nuanced and dynamic flux occurs within, between and among individuals, and appears to be more immediate. So, whilst decision-making is a single time point, it is possible that a different multiplicity of states at different time points would result in materially different decisions at another single time-point.…”

A Systematic Review of Physician Leadership and Emotional Intelligence

“…Many authors endorsed EI as an important component of leadership development for physicians in general, [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] for successfully navigating the business of medicine for physician executives, [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] in academic settings, [49][50][51] for developing effective social networks in health care, 52 as a leadership component across specialties, [53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65] and as a way of partnering with patients. 66,67 Two studies (1 a...…”

The Job Demands and Resources Decision Making (JD-R-DM) Model

“…Nurses experience high pressure at work (for accuracy in handling many patients in a short time), and errors can result in patient death (Agor, 1984). High-stake jobs like nursing are demanding, unpredictable, and require analytical decision making to make precise, but effortful decisions (Coget & Keller, 2010;Hockey, 1997). Therefore, the highly demanding work environment may require usage of an analytical processing system to produce successful outcomes (Dane & Pratt, 2007;Sinclair & Ashkanasy, 2005, p. 42).…”