Does decision process matter? A study of strategic decision-making effectiveness

Academy of Management Journal

Volumn 39, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 368-396

  Dean Jr , James W ^a   Sharfman, Mark P ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0030304390     PISSN: 00014273     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5465/256784     Document Type: Article

References (78)

1. Aguilar, F. 1967. Scanning the business environment. New York: Macmillan.
2. Aharoni, Y., Maimon, Z., & Segev, E. 1978. Performance and autonomy in organizations: Determining dominant environmental components. Management Science, 24: 949-959.
3. Aldrich, H. E. 1979. Organizations and environments. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
4. Allen, R. W., Madison, D. L., Porter, L. W., Renwick, P. A., & Mayes, B. T. 1979. Organizationalpolitics: Tactics and characteristics of its actors. California Management Review, 22(1): 77-83.
5. Allison, G. T. 1971. Essence of decision: Explaining the Cuban missile crisis. Boston: Little,Brown & Co.
6. Armstrong, J. S. 1982. The value of formal planning for strategic decisions. Strategic Management Journal, 3: 197-211.
7. Astley, W. G., & Van de Ven, A. H. 1983. Central perspectives and debates in organizationtheory. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28: 245-273.
8. Bacharach, S. B., & Lawler, E. J. 1980. Power and politics in organizations. San Francisco:Jossey-Bass.
9. Bazerman, M. H. 1990. Judgment in managerial decision making (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.
10. Bell, D. E., Raiffa, H., & Tversky, A. (Eds.). 1988. Decision making: Descriptive, normative,and prescriptive interactions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
11. Bourgeois, L. J., III. 1984. Strategic management and determinism. Academy of ManagementReview, 9: 586-596.
12. Bourgeois, L. J., III. 1985. Strategic goals, perceived uncertainty, and economic performance involatile environments. Academy of Management Journal, 28: 548-573.
13. Bourgeois, L. J., III, & Brodwin, D. R. 1984. Strategic implementation: Five approaches to anelusive phenomenon. Strategic Management Journal, 5: 241-264.
14. Bourgeois, L. J., III, & Eisenhardt, K. M. 1988. Strategic decision processes in high velocity environments: Four cases in the microcomputer industry. Management Science 34:816-835.
15. Boyd, B. K. 1991. Strategic planning and financial performance: A meta-analytic review. Journalof Management Studies, 28: 353-374.
16. Burgelman, R. A. 1991. Intraorganizational ecology of strategy making and organizational adaptation: Theory and field research. Organization Science, 2(3): 239-262.
17. Carter, E. E. 1971. The behavioral theory of the firm and top-level corporate decisions. Administrative Science Quarterly, 16: 413-429.
18. Chakravarthy, B. S., & Doz, Y. 1992. Strategy process research: Focusing on corporate self-renewal. Strategic Management Journal, 13: 5-14.
19. Child, J. 1972. Organizational structure, environment, and performance: The role of strategicchoice. Sociology, 6: 2-21.
20. Cosier, R. A., & Rechner, P. L. 1985. Inquiry method effects on performance in a simulatedbusiness environment. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 36:79-95.
21. Cyert, R. M., & March, J. G. 1963. A behavioral theory of the firm. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall.
22. Daft, R. L., Sormunen, J., & Parks, D. 1988. Chief executive scanning, environmental characteristics, and company performance: An empirical study. Strategic Management Journal, 9:129-139.
23. Dean, J. W., Jr., & Sharfman, M. P. 1993a. The relationship of procedural rationality and politicalbehavior in strategic decision-making. Decision Sciences, 24: 1069-1083.
24. Dean, J. W., Jr., & Sharfman, M. P. 1993b. Procedural rationality in the strategic decision makingprocess. Journal of Management Studies, 30: 607-630.
25. Delbecq, A. L., Van de Ven, A. H., & Gustafson, D. H. 1975. Group techniques for program planning: A guide to nominal and delphi processes. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman.
26. Dess, G., & Beard, D. 1984. Dimensions of organizational task environments. AdministrativeScience Quarterly, 29: 52-73.
27. Dess, G. G., & Robinson, R. R. 1984. Measuring organizational performance in the absence of objective measures: The case of the privately-held firm and conglomerate business unit. Strategic Management Journal, 5: 265-273.
28. Eisenhardt, K. M. 1989. Making fast decisions in high-velocity environments. Academy of Management Journal, 32: 543-577.
29. Eisenhardt, K. M., & Bourgeois, L. J., III. 1988. Politics of strategic decision making in high-velocity environments: Towards a midrange theory. Academy of Management Journal, 31: 737-770.
30. Eisenhardt, K. M., & Zbaracki, M. J. 1992. Strategic decision making. Strategic Management Journal, 13:17-37.
31. Feldman, M. A., & March, J. G. 1981. Information in organizations as signal and symbol. Administrative Science Quarterly, 26: 171-186.
32. Ford, C. M. 1989. Creativity in managerial decision making: An examination of factorsthat influence the creativity of managers' decisions. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
33. Fredrickson, J. W. 1984. The comprehensiveness of strategic decision processes: Extension,observations, future directions. Academy of Management Journal, 27: 445-466.
34. Fredrickson, J. W., & Iaquinto, A. L. 1989. Inertia and creeping rationality in strategic decisionprocesses. Academy of Management Journal, 32: 516-542.
35. Fredrickson, J. W., & Mitchell, T. R. 1984. Strategic decision processes: Comprehensiveness and performance in an industry with an unstable environment. Academy of Management Journal, 27: 399-423.
36. Freeman, J., & Boeker, W. 1984. The ecological analysis of business strategy. California Management Review, 26(3): 73-86.
37. Friedlander, F., & Pickle, H. 1968. Components of effectiveness in small organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 13: 289-304.
38. Golden, B. R. 1992. The past is the past - Or is it? The use of retrospective accounts as indicatorsof past strategy. Academy of Management Journal, 35: 848-860.
39. Guzzo, R. A. 1986. Group decision making and group effectiveness in organizations. In P. S. Goodman & Associates, Designing effective work groups: 34-71. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
40. Hackman, J. R. 1991. Groups that work (and those that don't). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
41. Hannan, M. T., & Freeman, J. 1989. Organizational ecology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
42. Hart, S. L. 1992. An integrative framework for strategy-making processes. Academy of Management Review, 17: 327-351.
43. Hart, S. L., & Banbury, C. 1994. How strategy-making processes can make a difference. Strategic Management Journal, 15: 251-269.
44. Hickson, D. J., Butler, R. J., Cray, D., Mallory, G. R., & Wilson, D. C. 1986. Top decisions:Strategic decision-making in organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
45. Hitt, M. A., & Tyler, B. B. 1991. Strategic decision models: Integrating different perspectives.Strategic Management Journal, 12: 327-351.
46. Huber, G. P. 1985. Temporal stability and response-order biases in participant descriptions oforganizational decisions. Academy of Management Journal, 28: 943-949.
47. Huber, G. P., & Power, D. J. 1985. Retrospective reports of strategic level managers: Guidelinesfor increasing their accuracy. Strategic Management Journal, 6: 171-180.
48. Huff, A. 1988. Politics and argument as a means of coping with ambiguity and change. In L. R.Pondy, R. J. Boland, & H. Thomas (Eds.), Managing ambiguity and change: 79-90. New York: Wiley.
49. James, L. R., Demaree, R. G., & Wolf, G. 1984. Estimating within group interrater reliability withand without response bias. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69: 85-98.
50. wg: An assessment of within-group interrateragreement. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78: 306-309.
51. Janis, I. L. 1982. Groupthink (2nd ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
52. Janis, I. L. 1989. Crucial decisions: Leadership in policy making and crisis management. New York: Free Press.
53. Judge, W. Q., & Miller, A. 1991. Antecedents and outcomes of decision speeds in differentenvironmental contexts. Academy of Management Journal, 34: 449-463.
54. Langley, A. 1989. In search of rationality: The purposes behind the use of formal analysis in organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 34: 598-631.
55. March, J. G., & Olsen, J. P. 1976. Ambiguity and choice in organizations. Bergen, Norway:Universitetsforlaget.
56. March, J. G., & Simon, H. A. 1958. Organizations. New York: Wiley.
57. Mason, R. O., & Mitroff, I. I. 1981. Challenging strategic planning assumptions. New York:Wiley-Interscience.
58. Miles, R. H. 1982. Coffin nails and corporate strategies. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
59. Miller, D., & Friesen, P. H. 1983. Strategy-making and environment: The third link. Strategic Management Journal, 4: 221-235.
60. Mintzberg, H., Raisinghani, D., & Théorêt, A. 1976. The structure of "unstructured" decision processes. Administrative Science Quarterly, 21: 246-275.
61. Nutt, P. C. 1993. The formulation processes and tactics used in organizational decision making. Organization Science, 4: 226-251.
62. Pearce, J. A., II, Freeman, E. B., & Robinson, R. B., Jr. 1987. The tenuous link between formal strategic planning and financial performance. Academy of Management Review, 4:658-675.
63. Pettigrew, A. 1973. The politics of organizational decision making. London: Tavistock.
64. Pfeffer, J. 1981. Power in organizations. Marshfield, MA: Pitman.
65. Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. R. 1978. The external control of organizations: A resource dependence perspective. New York: Harper & Row.
66. Priem, R., Rasheed, A., & Kotulic, A. 1992. Rationality in strategic decision processes, environmental dynamism and firm performance: A test of competing theories. Working paper, University of Texas at Arlington.
67. Quinn, J. B. 1980. Strategies for change: Logical incrementalism. Homewood, IL: Irwin.
68. Ramanujam, V., Venkatraman, N., & Camillus, J. C. 1986. Multi-objective assessment of effectiveness of strategic planning: A discriminant analysis approach. Academy of Management Journal, 29: 347-372.
69. Robinson, R. B., Jr., & Pearce, J. A. II. 1983. The impact of formalized strategic planning on financial performance in small organizations. Strategic Management Journal, 4: 197-207.
70. Romanelli, E., & Tushman, M. L. 1986. Inertia, environments, and strategic choice: A quasi-experimental design for comparative-longitudinal research. Management Science, 32:608-621.
71. Schweiger, D. M., Sandberg, W. R., & Rechner, P. L. 1989. Experimental effects of dialectical inquiry, devil's advocacy, and consensus approaches to strategic decision making. Academy of Management Journal, 32: 745-772.
72. Schwenk, C. R. 1988. The essence of strategic decision making. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
73. Sharfman, M. P., & Dean, J. W., Jr. 1991. Conceptualizing and measuring the organizational environment: A multidimensional approach. Journal of Management, 17: 681-700.
74. Simon, H. A. 1978. Rationality as process and product of thought. Journal of the American Economic Association, 68: 1-16.
75. Skivington, J. E., & Daft, R. L. 1991. A study of organizational "framework" and "process" modalities for the implementation of business-level strategic decisions. Journal of Management Studies, 28: 45-68.
76. Staw, B. M. 1981. The escalation of commitment to a course of action. Academy of Management Review, 6: 577-588.
77. Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. 1974. Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science,185: 1124-1131.
78. Voyer, J. J. 1994. Coercive organizational politics and organizational outcomes: An interpretivestudy. Organization Science, 5: 72-85.