INFLUENCE OF POWER BASES IN ORGANIZATIONAL DECISION MAKING: A CONTINGENCY MODEL*

The relative influence of four power bases was investigated in four decision-making contexts using data from forty successfully implemented decisions. The analysis suggests that position power decreases in influence while resource power and political power increase in influence as decision contexts vary from less to more uncertainty. Expert power derives its influence when organizational uncertainty is low and when technical uncertainty is reduced, whereas political power thrives when organizational uncertainty is high and when technical uncertainty remains high. Indexing the influence of power bases provides greater understanding of decision processes than the sociological or social-psychological approaches of studying participation.     

COMPUTER-BASED SUPPORT OF ORGANIZATIONAL DECISION MAKING*

The central issue of this research is the extent to which computer facilities can be used to support organizational decision-making processes beyond mere performance of information retrieval. This depends upon the extent to which computers can be made to emulate human perceptual and judgmental processes. We present a framework for understanding these cognitive processes and examine how it applies to organizational decisions. Moreover, the framework furnishes a basis for the design of a generalized, intelligent problem processor. This processor is general in the sense of its ability to support a decision maker's activities, regardless of the decision maker's application area (e.g., urban planning, water-quality planning, etc.). It is intelligent in the sense of its ability to comprehend English-like queries and subsequently formulate models, interface appropriate data with those models, and execute the models to produce some facts or expectations about the problem under consideration.     

THE ESCALATION OF COMMITMENT IN SEQUENTIAL DECISION MAKING: SITUATIONAL AND PERSONAL MODERATORS AND LIMITING CONDITIONS*

Two laboratory studies manipulated variables in order to observe their effect on the escalation of individuals' commitment to earlier investment decisions. The experimental results indicated that escalation of commitment to a failing course of action is not a general phenomenon. Information pertinent to the future prospects of reinvestment and to decision alternatives provided main effects. Neither study showed a main effect for initial success vs. failure. Decision-maker gender consistently influenced decisions in both studies through interactions with success/failure feedback and through the communicated attributions of “powerful others” regarding the causes of previous decision outcomes. Implications for theory and research are discussed.     

PARTICIPATION IN BUDGETARY DECISION MAKING,TASK DIFFICULTY,LOCUS OF CONTROL,AND EMPLOYEE BEHAVIOR: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY*

This study investigates the relationship between participation in budgetary decision making and attitude (toward job and employer), taking into account the effects of task difficulty and locus of control on participation and attitude. Managers from two companies participated in the study. Attitude was found to be related positively to participation and negatively to task difficulty. Implications of the results are discusses.     

PERFORMANCE OF THE EXPECTED UTILITY METHOD AND TWO OTHER NORMATIVE METHODS IN INSURANCE DECISION MAKING*

In an experiment, thirty-six professional insurance men employed the utility method, the worry method, and the comparison method in two insurance problems to determine the appropriate insurance coverage. It was found that the best act with the utility method almost always was no insurance, whereas the best act with the other two methods tended to be complete insurance. The utility method best act rarely agreed with the subject's actual preferred act, while the comparison method best act usually was the same or almost the same as the actual preferred act. While the worry method suggests that the subjects typically are risk averse, the utility functions obtained tend to show that the subjects typically are not risk averse.     

A LOGIT-MARKOVIAN MODEL OF CONSUMER PURCHASE BEHAVIOR BASED ON EXPLANATORY VARIABLES: EMPIRICAL EVALUATION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR DECISION MAKING*

This study describes and empirically evaluates an approach to modeling purchase behavior that integrates a Logit-Markov-based multivariate brand-choice model structure with stochastic components. Using actual market data for a frequently purchased consumer product obtained from a consumer purchase panel survey, the paper highlights some marketing applications of the model. Given its general structure, the model can aid marketing managers in defining and evaluating target market segments and in assessing the impact of alternative marketing strategies.     

A SIMULATION STUDY OF DECENTRALIZED DECISION MAKING*

This study develops a heuristic procedure for decision making coordination in a decentralized organization structure. The procedure consists of simplified rules of iterative communication between decentralized units and a central agent. The central agent assigns budgeted profit levels and adjusts such levels guiding the system toward optimality. The decision making procedure developed in this study is compatible with management by objectives practices and can serve as a prototype for decentralized management.     

LOCUS OF CONTROL,TRUST, AND DECISION MAKING*

A theoretical connection was proposed between certain social personality variables, namely locus of control (Internal or External) and trust (High and Low) and the formal decision-making model of Subjective Expected Utility (SEU). Rather than adopting the traditional definition of these variables as “generalized expectancies” for behavior of self and others, locus of control and trust were reconceptualized as intrapersonal tendencies to favor, prefer, or otherwise bias the subjective probabilities entering into a decision computation. S's high in external control orientation did not differ from internals overall, but external males were more risk averse under certain choice conditions (female-sex-role appropriate dilemma, probability-estimate form). Low-trust S's were also more risk averse than high-trust S's, overall. Low-trust males generated maximally risk-averse choice solutions under the choice condition of feminine role problem appropriateness and probability estimation. In general, female S's made choices that were more consistent with SEU-predicted solutions than males.     

NONECONOMIC CRITERIA AND THE DECISION PROCESS*

This paper describes a method for systematically including consideration of noneconomic criteria in the decision-making process. It focuses on the Space Applications Program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, but is intended as a general outline applicable to decision problems in both government and business. The methodology involves four stages. First, a Criteria Set is developed by a panel of members with diverse backgrounds. Second, the criteria are made operational by posing a series of carefully worded questions to appropriate experts. Then the responses are scaled according to the degree of refinement considered necessary and appropriate. To allow flexibility and to accommodate differences in the degree of precision considered feasible, a number of scaling methods are identified. These range from a simple positive-negative response checkoff to summation of individually-weighted criteria with interaction among criteria. Finally, projects are selected on the basis of predetermined standards of choice.     

THE IMPACT OF PROBABILISTIC INFORMATION ON DECISION BEHAVIOR AND PERFORMANCE IN AN EXPERIMENTAL GAME

This research presents the results of a longitudinal experiment using experimental gaming. The results suggest that probabilistic information did change decision behavior and improve subject performance in the experiment. Moreover, there appeared to be a learning effect associated with the use of probabilistic information. Finally, the source of information (externally supplied by the researcher or generated by the subjects themselves) had an impact on decision behavior and performance in the experiment.     

SOME CONCEPTUAL COMMENTS ON TRUST-RELEVANT DECISION MAKING: A REACTION TO THE BONOMA AND JOHNSTON PAPER

Three conceptual and methodological issues of the preceding paper by Bonoma and Johnston are identified and discussed. A theoretical integration of interpersonal trust and locus of control is made, and some necessary conditions for an interpersonal trust-relevant decision-making situation are pointed out. Implications for the design of future research into trust-relevant decision making are drawn.     

CURRICULUM INTEGRATION IN THE DECISION SCIENCES: AN EVALUATION*

Recent interest in curriculum integration in the decision sciences has led to the proposal that topics in computer science, statistics, quantitative methods, operations research, and possibly mathematics might be integrated into a single unified set of courses. Such a unification may reinforce the learning process of the student and form the basis for the eventual synthesis of tools topics with functional area decision making. This integration proposal and speculation is examined using research in learning and motivation theory, and concludes that the integration of tools concepts with functional area topics is much more promising than the integration of tools topics alone. A pair of example course integrations is provided to illustrate in detail the application of learning and motivation principles to tools-into-functions curriculum integration.     

TOWARD TEACHING EXCELLENCE IN THE DECISION SCIENCES*

Recently the National Commission on Higher Education Issues found serious problems with college-level teaching and recomended educational reforms. This paper describes one attempt at reform—namely, a course at Georgia State University on university teaching for College of Business doctoral students. The 45-hour seminar, based on a university teaching model, covers setting instructional objectives, lecture and discussion methods, teaching methods for higher-level learning, test construction, course evaluation instruments, and instructional and technological innovations. Previous studies have demonstrated repeatedly that teaching improvement seminars can improve teacher and student performance in the classroom. This paper discusses how the seminar could be implemented at other colleges of business administration, extended to faculty development workshops, and ultimately result in a master teacher or instructional professorship.