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James D. Boulgarides, (1984),"The Decision Style Inventory : O.D. Applications", Management Research News, Vol. 7 Iss 4
pp. 17-20 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/eb027850
Ilkka Salo, Carl Martin Allwood, (2011),"Decision-making styles, stress and gender among investigators",
Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, Vol. 34 Iss 1 pp. 97-119 http://
dx.doi.org/10.1108/13639511111106632
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Decision Styles maker to the situation. These factors are analogous to the
early work of Lewin[10] in which he examined the relation-
ship between the individual and the group, organisation
Introduction
The styles that managers use in making decisions have
been discussed for an extended period starting with
Taylor[1] who proposed a single best style to the com- The response of the decision maker to these four forces is
pletely flexible managerial styles proposed by Tannen- determined, in part, by the individual's decision style. That
baum and Schmidt[2]. Much of the early work was con- is, decision style is intrinsic to the manager and can be
cerned with leadership or managerial styles rather than modified depending on the situational factors and the abili-
decision styles, while Simon[3] and others focused on ty to cope with the requirements or expectations.
decision making and types of decisions. Adorno[4]
covered concepts in authoritarianism and Rokeach[5] A Simplified Version of the Decision Process
researched the concept of dogmatism. Development of a
pure style model by Harvey et at. [6] led to the development A simplified decision process considers the decision maker
of a cognitive model by Schroder et al. [7] which examined as responding to a number of stimuli. The stimuli may be
Human Information Processing and Problem Solving. internally generated by the individual or it may be external-
ly imposed. A diagram of the simplified decision process is
The research conducted by Kilmann and Mitroff[8] used shown in Figure 2.
the Myers Briggs type indicator for the study of decision
making. The Jungian personality types included decision
making as one aspect of managerial behaviour. Research
by Driver[9] utilised a model of decision styles that was
based on his earlier work in human information processing
and cognitive psychology. Other researchers based their
approach to decision styles on task/person variables as the
basis for determining a manager's style.
The Decision Style approach described in this article com- The first phase of the simplified model is the perception or
bines cognitive complexity with the individual's concerns filtering of the stimuli. This phase is important when con-
for task or people. These variables incorporate many of the sidering human information processing and information
factors considered by other models which allows a holistic overload. It is also concerned with perceptual biases and
approach to decision styles. referent influences. This phase can be considered the In-
One might ask why the concern with decision styles and formation Style of the manager.
how they differ from leadership or managerial styles? To
The second phase deals with the cognitive aspects of pro-
answer this question, we will examine three different
blem solving or use and understanding of the information
aspects of decision making. The first is a situational ap-
perceived. This phase incorporates all aspects of negotia-
proach called the four force model. The second deals with
tion, creative problem solving, heuristics, logical analysis,
a simplified description of the decision process and the
interpretation, evaluation and risk taking. Cognition relates
third is a classification of a number of decision style
to the individual's ability to handle and process diverse
models which have been used to date.
cues, information load, emotional needs and intuitive
capability.
The Four Force Model The third phase of the process deals with the actions that
The four force model provides the contextual variables result from the decisions made. It is in this phase that the
that are relevant to decision making. The model considers managerial or leadership aspects of decision making are
The initial design used three questions for each of the four A more complete description of the decision style
factors. The current design uses five questions for each of categories shown in Figure 4 is given below:
the four factors or a total of 20 questions. Over 7,000 in-
1. Directive: These individuals have a low tolerance for
dividuals have taken the Decision Style Inventory which
ambiguity and tend to focus on technical problems.
has well over a 90 per cent face validity and over a 70 per
They have a high need for power and prefer tangible to
cent test retest reliability. It has been used with a number
intrinsic rewards. They emphasise speed and action and
of different occupational groups, such as women ar-
thus use limited information and few alternatives. They
chitects, chiefs of police, navy admirals, etc. The instru-
tend to be aggressive and authoritarian and focus inter-
ment is self scoring and takes approximately ten minutes
nally to the organisation with short-range and tight con-
to complete. There have been a number of longitudinal
trols. They are very effective at achieving results.
studies done with the instrument and the results indicate
that few individuals change their basic styles over time, 2. Analytic: This style is typical of the abstract thinkers
although there are shifts in style when there is stress or in- who have a high tolerance for ambiguity and thus use
formation overload. Continuing research indicates that the considerable information and are very careful in the ex-
decision style approach is a useful way of understanding amination of alternatives. They tend to optimise pro-
managers, their decision making, their problem solving, blem solutions and enjoy challenges. They often reach
their ability to interact with others in the organisation, and top posts in their companies and are innovative in their
that it is possible to match individuals to work based on solution to problems. They prefer written reports and
decision style preferences. look for variety in their work.
and Architects
Women
Managers 73.5 87.5 74.4 64.2 40.2
n=93
The individual has one or Women
more dominant styles with Architects
n = 244
66.4 94.2 84.8 54.5 35.6
management and on needs and direct interaction with the work force, the plant
manager needs a higher tolerance for ambiguity and an
decision styles ability to examine many options in order to determine op-
timum plant operation.
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