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The relationship between task complexity and decision‐making consistency
Author(s) -
Hughes Katharine Kostbade,
Young Wendy B.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
research in nursing and health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1098-240X
pISSN - 0160-6891
DOI - 10.1002/nur.4770130308
Subject(s) - task (project management) , consistency (knowledge bases) , psychology , medline , computer science , cognitive psychology , artificial intelligence , political science , engineering , systems engineering , law
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between task complexity and decision‐making consistency using a normative decision model. The Decision Analytic Questionnaire (DAQ), an instrument designed to measure nurses' decision making under increasingly uncertain and complex conditions, was administered to a stratified random sample of 101 paid volunteer medical‐surgical nurses drawn from three public teaching hospitals. Probit analysis was used to construct a profile of the decision maker whose decisions coincided with those of the model. Results indicated that nurses made clinical decisions that coincided with those recommended by a normative decision model but that agreement diminished as task complexity increased ( p ≤ .005). The results also indicated that consistency was task specific, that predictive variables were a function of decision task and that more predictor variables were needed to explain consistency as task complexity increased.