Search results

This paper aims to examine managerial decision-making approaches, their antecedents and consequences in the Arabian Gulf context. Using recent survey data, the study offers a critical assessment of prevailing myths about decision-making styles in the Arabian Gulf.

Survey data were collected from a sample of 432 managers working in public and private sector companies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A combination of statistical techniques including confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and hierarchical regression analysis was used to test research hypotheses.

The findings of this study question the myth that UAE or Gulf managers mostly pursue consultative and participative styles of management. Most UAE managers continue to practice an autocratic and a pseudo-consultative style of decision-making, undermining the value of employee input in the decision-making process. The data revealed a strong negative relationship between autocratic management style and a range of personal and organizational outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, performance and innovative human resource management practices pertaining to work-family life balance and diversity programs. Most employees perceived autocratic management style as a major source of job stress, absenteeism and turnover. Socio-demographic characteristics of managers and their work organizations, considered as antecedents of decision-making styles, played a limited role in shaping decision-making approaches or their consequences. Globalization and associated socio-cultural changes that UAE and other Gulf region countries have experienced over the past two decades seem to have only a marginal impact on decision-making styles.

Use of perceptual survey data places some constraints on the generalizability of our findings. Future research may address this issue with multiple data sources including an in-depth case study.

The findings of this research should be of special interest to both domestic and multinational companies in seeking alignment of their management approaches with the emerging competitive business environment in UAE and other Gulf countries. Theoretically, the paper documents the value of the continuum theory of managerial behavior in UAE and the Arabian Gulf context.

The study represents a first major effort to develop and test a comprehensive conceptual model of antecedents and consequences of managerial decision-making styles in UAE, which may be extended to other countries in the Arabian Gulf region. The value-added contribution of the study may be seen in its critical analysis of prevailing beliefs and assumptions about management practices in the Arabian Gulf.

The study aims at clarifying whether locus of control may act as a bias in organisational decision‐making or not.

Altogether 44 managers working at Skanska (a Swedish multinational construction company) participated in the study. They were asked to complete a booklet including a locus of control test and a couple of decision tasks. The latter were based on case scenarios reflecting strategic issues relevant for consultative/participative decision‐making.

The results revealed that managers with low external locus of control used group consultative decision‐making more frequently than those with high locus of control. There was also a tendency showing that high externals more frequently used participative decision‐making than low externals. This was in line with the general trend, indicating that managers on the whole predominantly used participative decision‐making.

The results of the present study are valuable for HRM practice, especially with regard to the selection of individuals to management teams.

This study focuses primarily on exploring the role of organizational culture and level of technology used in the organization as predictors of decision‐making styles in a non‐western country, the United Arab Emirates. Results suggest that organizational culture, and level of technology used in the organization in addition to decision‐maker’s education and management levels are good predictors of decision‐making styles in such an environment. Results also indicate that a tendency towards the participative style prevails among Arab, young, middle management and highly educated managers.

The “Peter Principle” is contradicted here. Alternative methods of decision making and research are examined and it is concluded that many organisations have untapped reservoirs of skill and experience which, if utilised, could increase the talent available to companies.

The process of making an original music album is highlighted to illustrate aspects of the music production process in addition to how leadership and related factors play out during this process. Background information is detailed regarding musicians as entrepreneurs, the music production process, group dynamics, learning approaches, aspects of group dynamics, and an emphasis on more shared, distributive forms of leadership. The conceptual framework and results of the ethnographic field study describe a music production process consisting of the following phases: Pre-Production; Production; and Post-Production, with decision-making, direction-setting, and overall leadership approaches playing out at each phase. Reflections, key learnings, and recommendations for future research are presented, all centering on the usefulness in identifying the process of original music production.

In an earlier study reported in the Journal of Educational Administration (17, 1, May 1979), Dufty and Williams analysed decision‐making procedures and managerial styles of Heads of Departments (HODs) at WAIT, now Curtin University, and compared their findings with an earlier study by Dufty of business managers. Of the two groups, the former were found to be more likely to use participatory and power‐sharing procedures than the latter. However, a decade on, the present paper analyses the same two aspects of leader behaviour in a broader sample of HODs in professional and business organisations. In contrast with the Dufty and Williams study, evidence is presented to show a high level of commonality (and a low rating of basic differences) between professional and business leaders. It is proposed that leaders in both kinds of organisations tend to reveal more people‐related styles and preferences for participative procedures in decision‐making in their leadership of their people at work.

An analysis of decision‐making procedures and managerial styles of department heads in an academic institution is used to test the contingency model of managerial leadership. The procedures and styles of thirty academic heads are compared with those reported in other studies of managers in private enterprises and public bureaucracies. In both the academic and non‐academic situations, decisions and styles range over autocratic, participatory and delegative approaches. Evidence is put forward that the academic heads are, on average, as effective as managers in the other sectors but that they tend to use participatory and power‐sharing procedures more than their counterparts in private industry and public service. The contingency theory of managerial leadership seems therefore to be supported by this study.

This study aims to: identify organizational and environmental factors affecting strategic decision‐making speed; examine the relationship between those factors and innovation performance; and clarify the relationship between strategic decision‐making speed and innovation performance.

A survey was conducted on 73 large‐scale firms operating in the manufacturing industry in Turkey, in May 2006 and December 2006.

The research findings related to the linkage between participation and strategic decision‐making speed indicate that extensive participation accelerates the pace of decision making.

This survey was conducted on CEOs and top managers of large‐scale manufacturing firms operating in Turkey. Cultural differences may become evident from those findings. Also, results might be different if only small and medium‐size firms, or firms in different industries were used.

This survey is one of the first to examine the strategic decision speed and innovation performance relationship, revealing the positive effect of strategic decision speed on innovation performance. It is the first one to be conducted in an Eastern country like Turkey, filling the gap in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of context and culture on leadership and decision‐making styles of Lebanese‐born executives working in the USA, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, and Lebanon.

Using a semi‐structured questionnaire, 76 successful Lebanese executives were interviewed in three regions of the world. Comparisons among the three groups are made on three elements: early ingredients for success particularly during childhood and educational years, emotional intelligence (EI) leadership styles, and decision‐making styles.

Although successful leaders, born and raised in Lebanon, share the early ingredients for success, they differ significantly in their decision making and EI leadership styles when working outside Lebanon with multicultural and diverse followers.

The research findings strongly suggest that future research on cross‐cultural leadership will be more fruitful when context and culture are taken into account, and if researchers use a non‐Western conceptualization of culture, and when the research is conducted by multicultural and interdisciplinary researchers.

The study lends support to the notion that successful leaders adapt to their new culture and context, learning from adversity and experience, and mastering the cultural context.

The purpose of this paper is to summarise the findings of a qualitative cross‐cultural study of participation in managerial decision making.

In this paper theme‐focused interviews were conducted with middle managers in five European countries and the transcripts were analysed using elements of the grounded theory method. In the context of the current study, grounded theory served as a suitable method for detecting both general patterns and country‐specific particularities.

The findings of the present study suggest that country‐specific models of participation exist which is embedded in broader country‐ and culture‐specific concepts. In addition, decision type, time‐related issues and conflict emerge from the study as the main general context factors influencing managerial choices on the use of participation. The comparison of the current qualitative findings with earlier quantitative research suggests a good match with two of the studies (that investigated participatory behaviour in context) but not the third (that investigated participatory values).

The exploratory character of the study imposes certain limitations on its findings which could be addressed in future research by studying other countries and cohorts and possibly by employing additional or different types of methodology.

The qualitative study findings are of interest to organisations engaging in business relations abroad as well as to individual expatriates in each of the five European countries included in the study.

In contrast to earlier quantitative studies with a similar focus, this research initiative explores the meaning and enactment of participation from a holistic perspective, taking context factors into account and integrating the findings into earlier research.