Organizations make decisions all the time: who to hire, which vendor to use, what marketing strategy to employ, which businesses to acquire, and even what mission to adopt. In some cases, a single person has the unilateral ability to make a decision — but the majority of consequential changes to the status quo require the consent of more than one person. Organizations impose checks and balances to ensure that decisions are made appropriately.

One method for establishing checks and balances is to require approvals from a decision-maker’s superiors or from an independent department. An alternative method for checks and balances is to use committees to make decisions.

Which approach is best in which situations?

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