DEVIL'S ADVOCACY IN MANAGERIAL DECISION‐MAKING

Abstract
There is some debate about the potential value of using devil's advocates in top‐level organizational decision‐making. In this paper, the contrasting views on this question are summarized briefly and the field and laboratory research on the devil's advocate and related techniques is discussed. This research is then used as the basis for detailed suggestions on the effective use of devil's advocates in improving managerial decisions.