Impact of the Decision-Maker's Characteristics in the Organization and His Performance - Research Proposal Example

The subject of strategic planning and strategic decision-making is vital to any company that is looking to have a future. The world economy has faltered in many places, and the companies that are able to last are the ones that are able to have the best and brightest working on their strategic planning and making the tough decisions. “Although strategic management has drawn its theories of the firm from both economics and organization theory, its area of interest is different from both. Its primary goals are to explain firm performance and the determinants of strategic choice” (Grant 1996). Research can be helpful in this area as understanding what makes the process successful is beneficial for all companies. This research proposal is to examine the impact of the decision-makers characteristics and his/her performance in the organization. These characteristics that will be studied include age, gender, experience, education, background and other unique factors that prepare the individual for the role they are in. According to Powell and Ansic (1997), “Recent interest in gender differences in business decision-making under risk has arisen from the increased participation of women in the work force” making it vital for gender to be included as a characteristic even though it is one that cannot be changed or selected for in a business environment. The justification for the research is to help determine the characteristics that excellent decision-makers share to help in recruiting, promotion decisions and other business applications. “Managers make business decisions under conditions of uncertainty, with many alternative solutions having different economic and social consequences for multiple stakeholders. Clearly, most business decisions create inevitable trade-offs” (Kohut & Corriher 1994). Just a few bad decisions can ruin a company’s future, so it truly is vital to understand what makes a good decision-maker. The proposed research’s objective is to take the data gathered through this research to examine the qualities that can comprise a great decision-maker for a variety of business purposes. This research can help with putting the best individuals into key decision-maker positions within businesses along with identifying the potential characteristics that should be nurtured and selected for during the hiring process. The focus of the proposed research will be on top decision-makers in the sampled organizations to compare their characteristics with their career performance. The theoretical perspectives that can inform this research are knowledge based theory and upper echelon theory. Previous studies have been completed towards the upper echelon theory, but have “focused on the direct relationship between team characteristics and organizational performance, hence ignoring the intermediating role of behavior and decision-making” (Butler, Lockett and UcBasaran 2006). The best method of investigation for this topic would be a case study. The proposed means of collecting data would be an interview, questionnaire and documentation. “Questionnaires, measurement scales, statistical techniques and research designs from other studies should be examined to see if they might be useful” (Hair et al. 2011). Each of the subjects will need to fill out a questionnaire, followed up by an interview and the documentation behind their decision-making career to be gone over to determine the type of decision-maker the person is within the company. This will be crucial to determining which members of the decision-making staff are making the most effective decisions for the future of the company. The sampling for this research proposal will be the top decision-makers for the sampled organizations that are being used. It will include the CEOs, CFOs, directors and any board members that the company may have in place. For those companies that are too large to include every top decision-maker, it will be important to evaluate the documentation to take a sampling of the most successful decision-makers in the company for the purpose of this research. The types of respondents for this research proposal will be the upper echelon members of the strategic planning and decision-making team of the sampled organizations. These respondents will all be executives of the sampled companies as they are the ones that are putting the future plans into place for a company by making critical decisions based on the information that they have at hand. One potential problem with the type of respondents for this research proposal is that they may have a difficulty in making time for the survey and interview, but once they are apprised of the value of this research, they may be willing to make time for it. The level of analysis for this particular research proposal would be a mid-range analysis as it is looking at the micro-level of the impact that these particular individuals have on the meso-level of the organization itself. According to Daft, “Organizational behavior examines concepts such as motivation, leadership style, and personality” (2010) and is key to understanding the characteristics of each individual decision-maker which makes them successful in their role. The unit of analysis for this research proposal will be the top decision-makers of the sampled organizations. The practical implication of this work is achieving a better understanding of what characteristics makes up the character of a top decision-maker that has made successful decisions for the company that employs them. This work can be helpful to the sampled organizations and the UAE for a variety of reasons. One is that the company can use this information internally to continue making great decisions. There are always occasions where a person will need to be hired or promoted to fill an opening within a company where decision-making will play a huge role in the position. This may not even be at the upper echelon of the company, but decisions are made at all levels. It would be a good strategy for the company to look for candidates that contain these same characteristics that have been identified through this research at any level. If the person proves that they are an excellent decision-maker, it is possible that they will move their way up to more responsibilities and more critical decisions for the company. Recruiting is another way that this information will be valuable to the sampled companies as it may provide some insight into what employees may be best to employ. The characteristics that make up a person that excels at decision-making will probably also provide a top-notch workforce. There are top executives of companies that started at entry levels of the company that they now manage. The UAE in general will also be able to work with the information that is gathered from this research as it may provide some insight into what students may need to achieve to become better decision-makers. Students today are the future leaders of tomorrow, so it would be very beneficial to understand any potential skills or education that they need to be effective leaders. “Thus, attitudes that are cultivated and fostered in business school form the basis of how the corporate cultures evolve” (Brown et al. 2010). Of course, some of the characteristics that are identified as potential reasons behind the success of a respondent may not be something that can be fostered in a classroom, but there will be results that can be applied for students. References Brown, T, Sautter, J, Littvay, L, Sautter, A, & Bearnes, B 2010, 'Ethics and Personality: Empathy and Narcissism as Moderators of Ethical Decision Making in Business Students', Journal Of Education For Business, 85, 4, pp. 203-208, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 26 November 2012. Butler, J. E., Lockett, A., & UcBasaran, D. 2006, Venture capital and the changing world of entrepreneurship. Greenwich, Conn, Information Age Pub. Daft, R. L. 2010. Organization theory and design. Mason, Ohio, South-Western Cengage Learning. Grant, Robert M. 1996, ‘Toward a knowledge-based theory of the firm’ Strategic management journal, 17, pp. 109-122, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 26 November 2012. Hair, J. F., Celsi, M., Money, A., Samouel, P., Page, M. J., 2011, Essentials of business research methods. Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe, Inc. Kohut, G, and Corriher, S, 1994, ‘The Relationship of Age, Gender, Experience, and Awareness of Written Ethics Policies to Business Decision Making’ SAM Advanced Management Journal, 59, pp. 32-32, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 26 November 2012. Powell, M, and Ansic, D. 1997, ‘Gender differences in risk behaviour in financial decision making: An experimental analysis’ Journal of Economic Psychology, 18, 6, pp. 605-628. Read More