Definition of Execution and Decision-Making
The behavior of organizational individuals can be divided into two dimensions: decision-making and execution;
- Execution: Execution is the process of implementing actions based on a pre-determined and fixed path, or in other words, execution is the process of carrying out the current rights exchange scheme between the organization and its individuals to achieve the ultimate rights conversion.
- Decision-Making: Decision-making is the process of determining a single behavioral path based on information, cognition, worldview, interests, and other factors when there exists a specific range of optional paths. Decision-making is used to determine the efficiency and form of future rights exchange schemes within the organization, which are then implemented through execution.
In an organization, all behaviors of organizational individuals can be categorized as either execution or decision-making. Execution by an organizational individual must be based on a singular path. If an individual faces non-singular choices during execution, it implies a certain degree of decision-making is involved, as the process of moving from multiple paths to a single path is decision-making. The future efficiency and form of rights transformation in the organization are determined by decision-making.
Under the framework of Intelligenism, the execution behavior of organizational individuals does not involve the application of information, as execution is merely the process of acting along the singular path determined by decision-making. However, the execution process can generate information. In contrast, decision-making itself does not create new information; instead, it collects and applies existing information. When an individual decides without executing it, there is no interaction with the external environment, so the external environment remains unchanged, and no information is generated as a result of the decision-making process.
There is no such thing as pure execution devoid of any decision-making elements. We can define absolute execution as 0 and absolute decision-making as 1. Every organizational individual’s behavior within the organization lies somewhere within the execution/decision-making range of (0,1). When an individual’s organizational behavior leans closer to 0, it indicates a lower decision-making component, and conversely, a higher decision-making component when closer to 1. In a perfect and thorough execution process, no information is invoked—it is purely the realization of a certain path. Information invocation occurs in decision-making behavior, where information is utilized, organized, and analyzed by the individual to arrive at the final decision result, which is the singular path for execution. Since each organizational individual’s behavior lies somewhere within the (0,1) execution/decision-making range, the amount of information invoked by different individuals within the organization varies.
In the example of a restaurant organization, the purchasing manager’s decision on which wholesaler to buy seafood from is a decision-making behavior. During this process, the manager uses available information to make a decision (formulating the final purchasing execution plan). After the decision, if the purchasing manager needs to implement this decision, they must decide whether to assign a purchasing agent or go personally. In this scenario, choosing who performs the purchase is another decision-making process initiated by the manager. Whether formulating the purchasing plan or selecting who executes it, both the manager and the purchasing staff only impact the external environment when they take action, and this action is execution. During human reading, an individual merely acquires information from the book without selecting a singular path from multiple options, so reading itself is an execution behavior rather than a decision-making one. In daily life and work, decision-making and execution often alternate or occur simultaneously. For instance, typing on a computer is an execution behavior, but deciding what to type is a decision-making behavior. Typing causes changes on the computer screen, generating information. If one only makes a decision without executing it, no new text appears on the screen, and the information that would have been generated through execution does not materialize. During the typing process, decision-making and execution alternate or simultaneously impact the individual and the external environment. In the era of slavery, when slaves moved heavy objects, it was not purely execution; decisions about how to move, apply force, or navigate were all decision-making behaviors. However, many of the slaves’ decision-making paths were restricted, such as being unable to demand a cart or devise a collaborative plan. Thus, for organizational individuals, execution and decision-making are complementary. In the organizational framework of Intelligenism, executors are typically defined as individuals primarily responsible for “execution” tasks, meaning some of their behavioral path selection rights are transferred to decision-makers. Based on this setting and reasoning, neither the organization nor its managers can completely eliminate an individual’s decision-making behavior; they can only impose certain restrictions on specific paths.