Instructor’s Manual Abstracts
Vol. 2, Issue 2 IM Abstract: Democratic Lotteries: Should Organizational Decision-Makers Consider Decision-Making by Chance?
Stephen D. Risavy and Meredith J. Woodwark
Authors contributed equally and are listed alphabetically by surname.
Case Overview
Best-selling author and podcaster Malcolm Gladwell brought democracy activist Adam Cronkright to the Lawrenceville School in Princeton, New Jersey, for his podcast to debate the merits of student government elections versus democratic lotteries with 20 of the school’s high school students. Based on his work implementing lotteries in schools in Cochabamba, Bolivia, Cronkright contended that democratic lotteries were a fairer way to select student representatives than elections because they resulted in student councils that better reflected the school’s diverse population compared with traditional elections. He argued that whereas lotteries gave each student who wished to participate an equal chance to do so, elections privileged the few students who were comfortable performing during a campaign and willing to face peer rejection. According to Cronkright, elections amounted to popularity contests where few students participated, the students elected were not necessarily the best leaders, and the set of elected representatives did not reflect the diversity within the population they were representing. Cronkright outlined the findings of his tests of the lottery system in two schools where he found that lottery-selected councils took on more challenging issues, discovered unrecognized leadership talent, and were preferred by students and teachers. Interested in other possible applications of the concept, Gladwell explored its potential use for selecting the student government at the New Jersey private school, as well as for awarding research grants at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). After the debate, the Lawrenceville students must decide whether to retain the current election system or switch to lotteries, and students studying this case must decide whether contemporary organizations should seriously consider adopting democratic lotteries.
Learning Objectives
By working through this case, students should be able to
- Describe the advantages and disadvantages of several decision-making processes and how they can impact important organizational outcomes.
- Evaluate whether and how lottery-based systems could be applicable and appropriate to the management of organizational workplaces to overcome known decision-making errors and biases.
- Assess the potential short- and long-term impact of using a lottery-based decision-making process in a variety of organizational decisions.
- Explain and justify an opinion about whether democratic lotteries or decision-making by chance in organizations should be seriously considered.
Course Suitability
This case is designed for undergraduate or graduate courses in organizational behaviour and human resource management (OB/HRM), specifically when discussing the topics of diversity management, decision-making, and leadership. The case contrasts the merits of a rarely used decision-making system, democratic lotteries/sortition (e.g., selection by stratified random chance), with those of alternative systems, such as managerial discretion. Because the case touches on complex and potentially sensitive issues—and because it integrates a broad range of OB/HRM topics—it is best used toward the end of a course.
Recommended Reading
Alexander, S., & Ruderman, M. (1987). The role of procedural and distributive justice in organizational behavior. Social Justice Research, 1(2), 177–198. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01048015
Avery, D. R., McKay, P. F., Tonidandel, S., Volpone, S. D., & Morris, M. A. (2012). Is there method to the madness? Examining how racioethnic matching influences retail store productivity. Personnel Psychology, 65(1), 167–199. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2011.01241.x
Greenberg, J. (1987). Reactions to procedural injustice in payment distributions: Do the means justify the ends? Journal of Applied Psychology, 72(1), 55–61. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.72.1.55
Hennig, B. (2017, May). What if we replaced politicians with randomly selected people? [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/brett_hennig_what_if_we_replaced_politicians_with_randomly_selected_people?language=en
Johns, G., & Saks, A. M. (2023). Organizational behaviour: Understanding and managing life at work (12 ed.). Pearson Canada Inc.
- Chapter 3
McKay, P. F., Avery, D. R., & Morris, M. A. (2009). A tale of two climates: Diversity climate from subordinates’ and managers’ perspectives and their role in store unit sales performance. Personnel Psychology, 62(4), 767–791. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2009.01157.x
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