Orderness: A New Definition of Alignment

Abstract

Decision alignment is the essential to management and critical to participant performance in business simulation exercises. Fundamentally, alignment involves the optimal matching of decision problem characteristics with a known approach strategy. Most conceptualizations of alignment correctly focus on the identification of misalignment; however, these conceptualizations fail to offer the theory needed to guide the decision-maker toward alignment. The decision order alignment visualization described in this article provides the theory for identifying misalignment coupled with an actionable tool for guiding alignment strategies. A visualization tool is introduced that can be incorporated into business simulation exercises offering both developmental and evaluative feedback opportunities on decision effectiveness.