The use of participation in decision making: A consideration of the vroom‐yetton and vroom‐jago normative models

Empirical evaluations of normative models of decision making provided by Vroom and Yetton (1973) and Vroom and Jago (1988) are reported. Thirty‐six military officers enrolled in a graduate program provided a total of 132 descriptions of actual decisions evenly divided between successful and unsuccessful outcomes. Decision process utilized and attributes of the situations which attended the actual decisions were identified and compared to prescriptions in each of the models. Strong support was provided for the ability of the Vroom‐Yetton model, which uses a feasible set approach, to predict decision outcomes. A single best, Maximum Overall Effectiveness ( O eff ) decision approach of the Vroom‐Jago model was not supported. However, when percentage O eff approaches were examined, the ability of the Vroom‐Jago model to identify the relative efficacy of various decision processes was strongly supported. The computational complexity of these models calls their practical utility for operational decision making into question; however, their potential contribution to management development and theory is discussed.