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The purpose of this article is to extend and reinforce previous research intended to demonstrate that a process model of decision making is conducive to strategic decision success. Using a strategic decision matrix with a two‐dimensional focus, 16 high‐visibility strategic decisions from different corporations in the 1990s are evaluated and classified to support the hypothesis that a formal decision‐making process is conducive to successful strategic decision outcomes. The results of this evaluation clearly indicate that, in the absence of a managerial decision‐making process, successful outcomes are unlikely to materialize. Conversely, although a process‐oriented approach to strategic choice affords no guarantee of a successful outcome, the likelihood of this occurrence tends to increase with this approach. This revisiting of strategic decision success confirms earlier research in this critical area. Hopefully, it will elicit subsequent research of a similar nature.

This article posits a paradigm of levels of success for strategic decision outcomes. A high level of strategic decision success is normally preceded by a positive strategic gap in which the strengths of the organization clearly outweigh its weaknesses. Three comprehensive cases are set forth as practical applications to illustrate and confirm the paradigm of levels of strategic decision success. Philip Morris’s decision in 1984 to diversify into the food processing industry is proffered as the epitome of a highly successful strategic choice. General Motors’ decision in 1978 to reinvent the corporation is advanced as a hallmark of a marginally successful strategic outcome. And Walt Disney’s decision in 1996 to acquire Capital Cities/ABC is cited as an example of a strategic choice with an indeterminately successful outcome. The conclusions in all three cases are supported by current research findings.

Management decision constitutes the most important thing that managers do. Given the significance and complexity of this activity, one would expect to find a literature in which there is general agreement as to its defining characteristics and dimensions. Such is not the case. Much writing that purports to treat various aspects of management decision takes place outside the organization or involves individuals who are not or are not likely to become practising managerial decision makers. The consequence of this diffused and disjointed approach is a general misconception of the essence of management decision. More specifically, there is a general lack of appreciation of what management decisions are, who makes them, and where they are implemented. Intends to correct these generic misconceptions by advancing a set of theories and concepts that embodies the essence of management decision. The assimilation of these perspectives and viewpoints should enhance the reader’s conception of what management decision is and is not thereby contributing to higher levels of decision success in organizations of all types.

Presents and compares two contrasting managerial attitudes towards strategic decisions. The first attitude is called maximizing behaviour, and it is founded on a set of assumptions that are unattainable in real‐world decision making. The use of this attitude invariably results in a failed strategic decision. The second managerial attitude is called satisficing behaviour, and its use is demonstrably conducive to strategic decision success. Applications of real‐world successful and failed strategic decisions tend to confirm the case for satisficing behaviour in quest of successful strategic outcomes.

Strategic decisions represent the most important product of managerial endeavors; and strategic choice is the most critical variable in strategic management. This article advances a set of foundations in which the effectiveness of a total organization may be ascertained from the effectiveness of the strategic decisions made by its senior executives. A categorization of strategic decision effectiveness is presented that is derived from managerial attitudes toward a given strategic choice and the process from which it originates.

Conceptualizes a paradigm for strategic decision success that is based on a formal, managerial decision‐making process, advanced as part of a set of managerial attitudes towards the process and towards the decision itself. The resultant typology of strategic decisions is related to four sets of real‐world applications to validate the paradigm and to confirm the hypothesis that a formal managerial decision‐making process is conducive to strategic decision success. Concludes that an attainable objective set in an open, decision‐making process and pursued through a judgemental process in quest of a satisficing outcome is more likely to succeed.

Discusses general skills clusters identified by other researchers as necessary for leadership success. Reports a US study by questionnaire survey on the specific skills viewed by male and female managers as essential for top management posts. Reveals a great deal of agreement, but women as well as men harbour stereotypes of women as being less able to handle their emotions under stress, less career‐committed and not such good team‐players.

Discusses general skills clusters identified by other researchers as necessary for leadership success. Reports a US study by questionnaire survey on the specific skills viewed by male and female managers as essential for top management posts. Reveals a great deal of agreement, but women as well as men harbour stereotypes of women as being less able to handle their emotions under stress, less career‐committed and not such good team‐players.

Women in Management Review Volume 9 No. 1 of this journal contains five articles of interest. In the first, entitled “Power, Sex and Systems”, Virginia E. Schein examines the power‐related properties of professional and organisational systems and considers their influence on reactions to sexual harassment. It is argued that, when the socio‐cultural power model of male dominance operates within pluralistic/political professional and organisational systems, these systems can become breeding‐grounds for sexual harassment behaviours that are tolerated rather than told on. A contrast between careers within systems and less system bound jobs illustrates the influence of context on decisions to tell or tolerate.

Equal pay for men and women was a principle en‐shrined in the Treaty of Rome and was the subject of a European Directive in 1975. This investigation of progress towards equal pay in three member‐states, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, reveals the importance of differences in employment structures and reward systems in determining relative pay for women. The author argues that differences in the structure and size of pay differentials among countries suggest that more attention needs to be paid to the general system of labour market regulation than to explicit equal‐pay policies. She concludes that women would be more likely to benefit from a strategy of establishing labour standards and regulation than from equal‐pay Directives which have little effect on the general practices and principles of pay determination.