United NationsManagerial Competency
Judgement / Decision Making — UN competency
Identifying the key issues in a complex situation and taking sound decisions in a timely way, including under pressure.
What this competency means
Judgement and decision-making covers gathering relevant information before deciding, considering positive and negative impacts on others and on the Organization, proposing a course of action based on all available information, checking assumptions against facts, and taking difficult decisions when necessary.
Based on the UN Competency Framework
Behavioural indicators
- Identifies the key issues in a complex situation and gets to the heart of the problem quickly
- Gathers relevant information before making a decision
- Considers positive and negative impacts of decisions prior to making them
- Takes decisions with an eye to the impact on others and on the Organization
- Proposes a course of action or makes a recommendation based on all available information
- Checks assumptions against facts
- Determines that the actions proposed will satisfy the expressed and underlying needs for the decision
- Makes tough decisions when necessary
Our interpretation for interview preparation
Behaviours that weaken an answer
- Delays a decision until the option is taken away
- Decides on instinct without testing assumptions
- Ignores the effect of the decision on other units
PanelPrep interview guidance
What a strong example might demonstrate
Candidates preparing for competency-based interviews can use this competency to think about a decision they owned. A strong behavioural example would demonstrate the information gathered, the options weighed, the trade-off accepted, and the result — including anything you would decide differently now.
PanelPrep interview guidance
How to prepare for questions on this competency
Questions usually concern a decision taken with incomplete information, under time pressure, or with significant consequences.
STAR preparation
- Situation — set the context in two sentences: where, when, who was involved.
- Task — state precisely what you were responsible for, not what the team was responsible for.
- Action — spend most of the answer here, in the first person, showing the indicators above in practice.
- Result — quantify the outcome and add what you learned or changed afterwards.
PanelPrep interview guidance
Common interview question patterns
Illustrative patterns written by PanelPrep to help you practise. They are not published or endorsed by UN.
- Tell us about a decision you took with incomplete information.
- Describe a difficult decision that affected other people.
- Give an example of a decision you would take differently today.
PanelPrep interview guidance
Common mistakes
- Describing a group decision without your own reasoning
- Presenting only the option chosen, with no alternatives
- Refusing to acknowledge any downside
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The competency name, category and behavioural concepts on this page are based on United Nations, "UN Competency Development – A Practical Guide". Summaries, interview guidance, question patterns and preparation advice are original PanelPrep content.
Framework version: UN Competency Development – A Practical Guide. Source date: 2010-01-01. Last verified: 2026-08-09.
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