In my humble practice as a corporate actor, I have experienced presumptions and assumptions being made in the course of operations.
To give context to the discussion, I propose to work with two scenarios as indicated below:
1. With little or no time taken to appreciate the environment and detail of matters, Madam “X” makes uninformed negative sweeping statements about a situation to the gallery of colleagues in the corporate. The statement is received with surprise and discomfort, particularly because it is false and a distortion of facts in certain areas.
2. During a budget planning meeting, the Finance Manager, Mr. “Y” submitted that trends in the market over the past two years informed the projections on the prices of fuel, electricity, staple food etc. The meeting graciously proceeds to examine the figures with a view to develop a budget for the company for onward transmission to the Board for approval.
From my reading, “ a presumption is an assumption made based on reasonable evidence, while an assumption is a belief or idea taken for granted without direct evidence. Presumptions often have a stronger foundation in facts or logic compared to assumptions.”
Other definitions suggest that “ presumption is the acceptance of something as true although it is not known for certain. Assumption is a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof.”
In the two scenarios given above, which one represents best practice and behavior? My view is that at times, presumptions are necessary to make as they serve as a launch pad for fact finding and development of substantive submissions or working instruments.
A presumption is characterized by “reasonable” inferences such as historical trends, generally accepted principles/standards and so on.
Assumptions, on the other hand, seem not to be supported by evidence, making reliance on them difficult to justify. To suggest that assumptions should never be used would be misleading. It is proposed that use of assumptions should be the exception rather than the rule.
As actors, it is advisable to be mindful that an organization is designed to be harmonious in terms of governance and operations. This can be achieved by investing in practices that promote consistency, establishment of facts and their analysis , processes and procedures, among other things.
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