Module 7. The soft skill: Judgement and decision-making 

From May to June 2022 Module 7 of VERSA will take place, aiming to develop de Judgement and decision-making skill of our participants. This soft skill is understood in the frame of our project as the ability to take into account the relative costs and benefits of the possible actions to choose the most appropriate. Thus, it is quite related to critical thinking, going one step further by implying to take the initiative in actions proactively, but also to problem solving, as making decisions is a necessary step in order to solve your problems. 

Mosier and Fischer (2010) consider that Judgement and decision-making can be divided in two parts: 

• Front-end judgment processes, related with paying attention to and evaluating information, problem identification, assessment of the situation, pattern recognition, etc. 

• Back-end decision processes, related with creation of responses, development of plans, evaluation of alternatives, weighing options, simulating a possible responses, etc. 

Therefore, in this ability two different processes get combined, one related with the previous process of analysing and assessing the situation, being aware of the details that might help you to make better judgments, and another one that highly depends on that initial process of analysis and that is oriented toward deciding and adopting the best procedure in order to achieve your goals. 

These authors also explain the elements that we should have into consideration in order to evaluate the adequacy of the judgment and decision-making processes: 

• Correspondence refers to the empirical accuracy of your decision outcome. This is the degree in which your decisions and actions derived from your judgment and decision making process achieve your predictions and expected goals. 

• Coherence refers to the rationality and consistency of your decisions across situations and times, maintaining the same logic procedure. 

Although it is impossible to always make the best decisions, training your Judgment and decision-making soft skill will help you to be more likely to be right in your choices based on the prior collection and examination of reliable information about the situation, and the analysis of the possible outcomes that may arise from your actions. 

References 

Mosier, K. L., & Fischer, U. M. (2010). Judgment and decision making by individuals and teams: issues, models, and applications. Reviews of human factors and ergonomics, 6(1), 198-256. https://doi.org/10.1518%2F155723410X12849346788822