Measuring decision expertise in commercial ski guiding in a more meaningful way

The development of ski guide decision expertise is situated within an environmental context influenced by massive consequence and feedback ambiguity. Typically, the quality of the decision process is described as being contingent on the evolved expertise of the decision maker. The central problem is that the development of decision expertise is dependent on feedback that often lacks clarity, particularly when nothing goes wrong. While there are methods for estimating expertise, it cannot be measured directly. The number of years of experience is often used, but it is an inadequate measure, as it does not necessarily correlate with increased decision competency. To address this issue, I propose a new measure that incorporates both depth and breadth of experiences to provide a more complete picture of expertise development. The approach is illustrated with a small sample of professional ski guides from Canada.Management ImplicationsThe article provides a new approach to measure decision making competence of ski guides. The findings are relevant forthe risk management through decision training,the development of new training events,the evaluation of the decision expertise of front line staff.