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This case study aims to explore the perceptions and attitudes towards risk within a UK local authority and the subsequent effects on decision-making. Through a qualitative analysis of both primary and secondary data, this study advances current understanding of the complex relationships between risk and decision-making. The study concludes by suggesting how local governments may better provide value to constituents.

This research follows a single case study approach. Data were collected through both a focused online survey and semi-structured interviews. Respondents were selected through purposive sampling in order to capture direct insights and understanding of the concepts under consideration. The study focuses on a single local authority within the UK.

Building on extant literature, this case study highlights both the individual and organisational considerations towards risk perception. Following the analysis of collected data, the study highlights the influence of risk aversion and public involvement within decision-making.

By aiming to improve and advance understanding of risk and decision-making in a local authority setting, the relevance of this research may be wider than internal organisational structures. The study provides recommendations for further research towards facilitating the inclusion of the citizen within decision-making processes.

This study examines whether financial literacy is a relevant factor that determines authority in household financial decision-making, an area that is often viewed as boring, difficult and full of uncertainties. Cognitive ability and personality traits are also included as additional explanatory variables.

The logistic regression technique was applied using a sample of more than 2,300 microfinance institutions' clients in three provinces in Indonesia.

This study finds that financial literacy correlates positively with authority in household financial decision-making only among men. This does not mean that financial literacy is irrelevant for women's agency, since the skill might be important for authorities in other decision-making areas, including those outside households. Meanwhile, the relationship between cognitive ability and household financial decision-making authority is more universal.

This study does not collect information on the levels of financial literacy of other household members and does not capture respondents' perceptions of household financial decision-making.

The overall low level of financial literacy calls for the need for more targeted efforts to address this issue by policymakers. Education policy should also be designed to improve cognitive ability, as this ability is important for human agency and well-being.

Household decision-making has received significant attention in the literature. Authority in household decision-making is important because it represents a person's agency and has a profound impact on well-being. To the best of author's knowledge, studies on the importance of skills in household financial decision-making are very limited.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the current school‐based management (SBM) policy reform in Indonesia, with an emphasis on the impacts of shifting authority and responsibility to school level, as well as challenges confronted by the school council members, followed by remedial measures to minimize the problems.

The paper employed a mixed‐method research design comprising an extensive empirical survey followed by semi‐structured and focused group interviews and examination of relevant documents. The data reported here are on the basis of an empirical survey involving 504 school council members from Ngada‐Flores, followed by 42 interviews and focus group discussion (FGD) with all relevant stakeholders.

The research findings demonstrate how devolution of power and authority to school level can create partnership in participatory school decision making in terms of setting a school mission, shared‐vision, annual programs, school budget, school textbooks, school buildings, school‐based curriculum and even students’ discipline policies. In turn, devolving power and authority to school level has created several changes in schools, including in‐school culture changes, and increased participation of school communities. These factors have led to the improvements in teaching‐learning environments and student achievements.

The findings of this study are specific to the context of Ngada‐Flores, Indonesia. The possibility for the general applicability of the findings is limited by the scope, the sample, and the cultural context of this study. Accordingly, even though there could be common features, the findings may not have general applicability to other systems.

The paper suggests that capacity building in school level is required for the effective implementation of SBM policies and programs, including in‐service training, regular professional development sessions and workshops on effective school leadership and management, as well as school development planning.

This paper could be significant because of the absence of similar studies in the Indonesian context. The findings could be helpful in informing practitioners, the local and national authorities and all those interested in school education on how SBM with devolution of power and authority to school‐level decision makers assists in‐school improvements and student achievements, as well as problems and challenges confronted by school leaders in the implementation of SBM.

In every manufacturing company, irrespective of size, product and other variables, management are constantly involved in quality‐related decisions which have a direct effect on product quality. An analytical method is described for assessing an organisation's approach to quality management. On application, managers are provided with information on the reality of their quality assurance activities. An overview of some of the issues involved in decision making is provided, followed by an outline of the research methodology, and, finally, the “method” is presented with some results arising from its application.

This paper illuminates the distinction between individual and organizational actors in business-to-business markets as well as the coexistence of formal and informal mechanisms of coordination in multinational corporations. The main questions addressed include the following. (1) What factors influence the occurrence of personal contacts of foreign subsidiary managers in industrial multinational corporations? (2) How such personal contacts enable coordination in industrial markets and within multinational firms? The theoretical context of the paper is based on: (1) the interaction approach to industrial markets, (2) the network approach to industrial markets, and (3) the process approach to multinational management. The unit of analysis is the foreign subsidiary manager as the focal actor of a contact network. The paper is empirically focused on Portuguese sales subsidiaries of Finnish multinational corporations, which are managed by either a parent country national (Finnish), a host country national (Portuguese) or a third country national. The paper suggests eight scenarios of individual dependence and uncertainty, which are determined by individual, organizational, and/or market factors. Such scenarios are, in turn, thought to require personal contacts with specific functions. The paper suggests eight interpersonal roles of foreign subsidiary managers, by which the functions of their personal contacts enable inter-firm coordination in industrial markets. In addition, the paper suggests eight propositions on how the functions of their personal contacts enable centralization, formalization, socialization and horizontal communication in multinational corporations.

The purpose of the chapter is to develop and substantiate the necessity for delegating authorities in the process of decision making in modern business systems, as well as conditions, principles, and criteria of successful delegation in view of the applied approach. The methodology of the chapter is based on the method of analysis of causal connections, which is used for determining the necessity and essence of delegation, evaluating and comparison of the possible concepts and means of its implementation in the process of decision making, and studying the managers' opinions for determining the problems of delegation. This allows determining the conditions and criteria of successful delegation and developing an optimal set of principles that allow for effective implementation of the process of delegating authorities. As a result, the authors determine conditions and limitations that determine the possibility of delegating authorities in the process of decision making and offer criteria of successfulness of the process: preliminary task setting, interest and readiness of employees, briefing, written form of delegating authorities for complex and responsible tasks, accessibility of any necessary information, support from manager, and controllability of the process and result. The concepts of delegation are studied, and priority of its new model is established. Based on this, 11 principles of successful delegation were formulated: determination of goal, certainty, parity of rights and responsibility, adequate support, motivation of effective solutions, participation, “finite character,” structural limitations, complex nature of tasks, succession, and vision of perspective.

Complexities of the process of delegation in the process of decision making in business systems are described – their knowledge helps developing own styles of delegation and improving it.

Abuse and misuse of Substitute Decision-Making (SDMg) authority impacts the lives of children and adults with decision-making disabilities. The concerns raised in this paper amplify previous attention addressed by advocacy agencies and law reformists such as the Law Commission of Ontario. I analyse problems associated with Plenary Guardianship from both the lived experience of the non-guardian perspective and from the authority bestowed to the Guardian pursuant to the Guardianship and Administration Act 1990 of Western Australia legitimating the unintended capacity to abuse one’s substitute decision-making authority. Substitute decision-making arrangements enable decisions to be made on behalf of a person with a decision-making disability; usually made when such arrangements are necessary and subject to safeguards. Detrimentally, the substitute decision-maker (SDM) can assert broader powers beyond sensible measures that include thwarting investigations undertaken by family members; removing family members from the life of the person for whom an order is made; inappropriately applying a paternalistic or ‘best interest’ approach to decision-making where other approaches are required; failing to consider the individual’s wishes or making decisions contrary to those wishes; having insufficient contact with the individual; and, sharing insufficient or incorrect information. Moreover, they may subject the individual for whom an SDM order is made to experimental medical treatment in tandem with imposing or condoning severe and harmful restrictive-practices. Consequently, the second issue addressed in this paper concerns normalising both chemical and physical restrictive-practices that are both morally abhorrent and clinically highly questionable. Furthermore, often undertaken by service providers and their contracted psychiatrists and treating teams, endorsed under authority of a collaborating Guardian or SDM.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the key determinants of effective school-based management (SBM) for improved teaching−learning environments and student achievements, while identifying the major reasons as to why poor implementation of SBM is associated with lower student achievements.

Both dimensions of quantitative and qualitative research were applied for the purpose of this study with active participation of 334 school stakeholders, including principals, teachers, parents, and school council members. In addition to the survey, 33 Interviews and FGDs were conducted with the participation of 61 key informants. These were followed by an examination of school documents, including students’ national examination results.

This study concludes that SBM drives the emergence of decision-making authority of principals, the presence of participatory school decision-making, and high involvement of school council for better teaching and learning environments. In turn, effective implementation of SBM policy is associated with healthier teaching−learning environment and better student academic achievements. However, less effective implementation of SBM is due to lack of proper understanding of the school stakeholders that resulted in lower academic achievement.

Adequate provisions of training on the part of school council members and school principals are required for significant results of SBM policy and programs for improved teaching–learning environment and increased student achievements. The training focuses on, among others: school leadership, school development planning and changing roles of school leaders under SBM reform.

This study builds on global and Indonesian developments of the decentralized education through SBM model. This study is highly significant in addressing the current debates in existing literature about whether or not SBM has resulted in school improvements and higher student achievements. Practically, this study provides adequate insight to educational leaders, policy makers and international donor agencies in demonstrating why SBM is effective in particular school settings as well as why SBM policy and programs are not effectively implemented in other schools that resulted in lower student achievements.

The purpose of this paper is to detail the measurement development of a set of indices that manifest culture in the context of business decision making.

Survey research was conducted eliciting opinion data from managers of firms in two countries, the USA and Hungary, for cross‐cultural comparison. Critical issues of measurement equivalency are assessed using item response theory (IRT) prior to the comparison of the US and Hungarian manager samples.

The following sub‐indices were identified as a result of the analysis: individualism in decision making; individualism and authority; logic/emotion; equality as people, equality of authority, tolerance for ambiguity in decision making; tolerance for ambiguity and flexibility, and time orientation.

While the framework provides a broad representation of the cultural value dimensions (CVD) in a business context, it cannot be said that it encompasses the entire dimension or where the true endpoints will lie for the each of the five continuums. As additional culture groups are tested, it will be possible to ascertain where the true midpoint and endpoints of the scale lie.

The framework was utilized to place the five CVDs in a business context, resulting in a very even representation of the manifestation of cultural values across decision‐making processes in a firm. As a result, a more complete picture of current CVD scores is provided by the data for the two populations sampled. The sub‐indices identified not only aid in the establishment of equivalence and allow for comparison of the two groups, but also provide deeper insight into the similarities and differences between the two groups that were masked in the original CVD structure.

The primary purpose is to present empirical measures of variables relating to practices engaged in by site‐based teams, and then to use these variables to test a model predicting significant outcomes of site‐based decision making. The practice variables of site‐based management (SBM) teams are essential in promoting research within a distributed leadership framework.

A path model is computed to test the relationships between factors relating to the support received by site‐based teams; site team communication and decision‐making practice, and perceived outcomes of SBM. Measures are based on survey data collected from 367 team members in 50 schools from fifteen school districts in a northeastern state in the US.

Results show that different factors relating to the support provided to site‐based teams and practices employed by these teams emerge as statistically significant predictors of various outcomes. Results suggest that the resources provided to support site teams, e.g. the devolution of decision‐making power, results in enhanced stakeholder influence, but whether this influence results in better decisions or improvement in teaching and learning depends on the communication and decision‐making practices site teams employ within a distributed leadership framework.

This study sought to identify site team decision making and communication processes that reflect how site teams conduct their work, defining how members of site teams perceive the “rules of the game.” In doing so, it offers a new and different perspective on how such processes impact outcomes associated with shared decision‐making processes, and thus a better understanding of the complex dynamics of school‐site decision making and the distribution of leadership in schools.