Nonprofit Organizational Assessment

VIII. The Judge-Advisor
System
A Judge–Advisor System (JAS) is a type of advice structure often studied
in advice taking research, a subset of decision-making in the social sciences. The two
roles in a JAS are the judge and advisor roles. The judge is the decision maker who
evaluates information concerning a particular decision and makes the final judgment on
the decision outcome. The advisor is an individual who provides advice, information, or
suggestions to the judge. A key component of the dynamics in a JAS is the
differentiation between the two roles in that while the advisor provides input to the
decision, actual decision-making power resides solely with the judge. This one person
decision power differentiates the JAS and related models such as Hollenbeck's
Hierarchical Decision-Making Team model from more widely studied models where the
final decision is mutually decided upon by the team as a whole.
While JASs can be most easily thought of as between superiors and subordinates (such
as in student–advisor or worker–manager relationships), differential social or power
standings are not necessary. All that is required is that only one individual (the judge)
has the final say in the decision outcome; all other input given to the judge may be
taken under consideration but need not be acted on. Therefore, even a situation where
a friend receives advice from a peer can be considered a JAS.
Though examples of JASs are prevalent in real-world settings, they are studied most
frequently in laboratory experiments in which judge/advisor roles are randomly
assigned and situations/variables are manipulated at a between-subjects level. Such
manipulations allow for a systematic study of the factors that affect how a judge reacts
and responds to advisor advice.
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