Year of Award
2012
Document Type
Professional Paper
Degree Type
Master of Arts (MA)
Degree Name
Communication Studies
Department or School/College
Department of Communication Studies
Committee Chair
Greg Larson
Commitee Members
Robin Saha, Steve Schwarze
Keywords
best practices, clean-up, cultural rationality, decision-making, deliberation, environmental management, remediation, technical rationality, tensions
Publisher
University of Montana
Abstract
Drawing from qualitative data gathered from environmental management professionals, this paper describes best practices for decision-making in environmental clean-up. Technical experts are knowledgeable about both cultural and technical rationality and employ both, as appropriate, to achieve more robust decisions. Experts use active, passive, and interactive communicative strategies to reduce uncertainties and manage tensions. Deliberation is used to achieve robust decisions. The analysis suggests that organizations can improve acceptability of decisions by authorizing experts to incorporate cultural rationality early in the decision process.
Recommended Citation
Hemphill, Cassandra J., "What They Consider, How They Decide: Best Practices of Technical Experts in Environmental Decision-Making" (2012). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 1180.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/1180
© Copyright 2012 Cassandra J. Hemphill