Strategic Decision Making: A Contingency Framework, and Beyond

This chapter presents a contingency framework for thinking about the kinds of strategic decision processes we might expect to be effective for particular types of decision. The two contingency variables are the decision’s politicality (ambiguity about ends) and complexity (ambiguity about means). It is argued that strategic decisions should be viewed from the perspectives of five models. Decision making by central authority and by computation are two ty pes of rational decision making; orderly, controlled and objective. These processes should not be neglected, but as ambiguity increases the other models become more important. Complexity (ambiguity about means) tends to be associated with the need to use decision making by expertise, the third model, whereas politicality (ambiguity about ends) involves negotiation, the fourth model. With highly ambiguous issues it is impossible to distinguish between ends and means; under these conditions the intense use of expertise and negotiation go hand in hand, but inspiration is also needed if decisions are to be made and action taken; this is the fifth model. Evidence suggests that organizations use mixed modes and that these are related more to the decision issue than to the organizational context.

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