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Purpose – To critically examine various ethical decision making models and use them to arrive at five hypotheses to understand the methods used by small and medium enterprise (SME) owner-managers in Australia when faced with ethical issues or dilemmas.Design/methodology/approach – This analysis involves literature reviews of rational decision making process, alternative methods of decision making and various ethical decision making models including Rest’s four-component model to arrive at the five hypotheses.Findings – The five hypotheses contend that SME owner-managers tend to resolve ethical issues using methods similar to Rest’s four-component model. Some may utilise all four components while others may skip one or more components of the model. Others may engage in intuition and heuristic methods of decision making. Ethical decisions by SME managers may be influenced by factors such as organisational factors, moral exemplars and reflection. The final hypothesis contends that SME managers could consider using the Balanced Scorecard as an instrument to monitor and manage business ethical issues.Research limitations – The literature reviews are not exhaustive but provide sufficient information for the purposes of this chapter.Practical implications – The significance of this study is that the hypotheses can be used to conduct interviews with SME managers and findings from the interviews could be developed into a practical tool for practising managers and a standard or guidelines for managing ethical issues in an SME.Originality/value – This chapter fulfils the need to understand the ethical decision making process and methods used by practicing SME managers in Australia.

This article aims to analyze how gender and decision-making styles of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) impact the financial performance of the firms they manage.

Data were obtained for 2017 for 185 SMEs in Chile, an emerging economy, including firm information, CEO's sociodemographic characteristics and CEOs' decision-making styles. Generalized Least Squares (GLS) models were estimated to explain the influence of gender and decision-making styles on firm performance, controlling for a series of covariates. To test whether gender moderates the effect of decision-making styles on firm performance, interaction terms were included. Furthermore, models were subject to several robustness procedures, with no significant differences in results.

The authors find evidence of significant relationships for both gender and the avoidant style. Likewise, the authors find evidence of interaction effects between gender and decision-making styles, particularly between gender and the dependent style.

Findings contribute to prior research by analyzing the relationship between CEO gender and SME performance in the context of a Latin American emerging economy; by providing evidence of the impact of decision-making styles on the financial performance of SMEs; and by examining how a specific decision-making style, namely the dependent style, operates differently according to CEO gender, shedding some light on its ambiguous character as described by prior research. For policymakers and authorities, findings indicate the importance of incorporating women to SMEs and supporting their way towards higher management.

Esta investigación analiza cómo el género y los estilos de toma de decisiones de los gerentes generales (CEOs) de las pequeñas y medianas empresas (PYMEs) impactan en el desempeño financiero de las empresas que administran.

Se obtuvieron datos del año 2017 para 185 PYMEs ubicadas en Chile, una economía emergente, incluyendo información de la empresa, así como características sociodemográficas y estilos de toma de decisiones de los gerentes generales. Se estimaron modelos de Mínimos Cuadrados Generalizados (GLS) para explicar la influencia del género y los estilos de toma de decisiones en el rendimiento de la empresa, controlando por una serie de covariables. Para determinar si el género modera el efecto de los estilos de toma de decisiones en el rendimiento de la empresa, se incluyeron términos de interacción. Además, los modelos fueron sometidos a varios procedimientos de robustez, sin encontrar diferencias significativas en los resultados.

Los autores encuentran evidencia de relaciones significativas tanto para el género como para el estilo evitativo. Asimismo, los autores encuentran evidencia de efectos interacción entre el género y estilos de toma de decisiones, particularmente entre el género y el estilo dependiente.

Los hallazgos contribuyen a investigaciones anteriores al analizar la relación entre el género del CEO y el rendimiento de las PYMEs en el contexto de una economía latinoamericana emergente; al proporcionar evidencia del impacto de los estilos de toma de decisiones en el rendimiento financiero de las PYMEs; y al examinar cómo un estilo de toma de decisiones específico, a saber, el estilo dependiente, opera de manera diferente según el género del CEO, esclareciendo su carácter ambiguo tal como ha sido descrito en investigaciones anteriores. Para las autoridades y los responsables de políticas, los hallazgos indican la importancia de incorporar mujeres a las PYMEs y apoyarlas en su ascenso hacia la alta administración.

This study explored the relationship between employees' cognitive capabilities and firm performance by exploring the moderating role of decision-making style and the mediating effect of knowledge creation. Understanding the role of cognitive capabilities in value creation is crucial for human resource management to achieve the anticipated organizational performance.

Structural equation modeling, cognitive skills theory, cognitive skills acquisition theory and a knowledge creation framework were applied.

The first finding suggests that only A-shaped skills predict higher knowledge creation, while T-shaped skills do not. Second, knowledge creation predicts higher financial performance and a lower level of financial uncertainty. Third, T-shaped skills have no indirect effect on financial performance or financial uncertainty. Fourth, A-shaped skills exerted significant indirect effects on financial performance and uncertainty. Fifth, the rational decision-making style did not moderate the link between knowledge creation and financial performance, as opposed to the intuitive decision-making style.

A review of existing research indicates a lack of studies examining the effect of cognitive skills on organizational outcomes and contingencies under which cognitive skills lead to superior outcomes. This study advances research on T-shaped and A-shaped skills and knowledge creation by empirically exploring their interrelationships with financial performance. Managerial implications and suggestions for future research are also highlighted.

This paper aims to examine complex clinical decision‐making processes in trauma center units of hospitals in terms of the immediate impact of complexity on the medical team involved in the trauma event.

It is proposed to develop a model of decision‐making processes in trauma events that uses a Bayesian classifier model with convolution and deconvolution operators to study real‐time observed trauma data for the decision‐making process under tremendous stress. The objective is to explore and explain physicians' decision‐making processes under stress and time constraints during actual trauma events from the perspective of complexity.

Because physicians have blurred information and cues that are tainted by random environmental noise during injury‐related events, they must de‐blur (de‐convolute) the collected data to find a best approximation of the real data for decision‐making processes.

The data collection and analysis is innovative and the permission to access raw audio and video data from an active trauma center will differentiate this study from similar studies that rely on simulations, self report and case study approaches.

Clinical decision makers in trauma centers are placed in situations that are increasingly complex, making decision‐making and problem‐solving processes multifaceted.

The science of complex adaptive systems, together with human judgment theories, provide important concepts and tools for responding to the challenges of healthcare this century and beyond.

Considers the “rational” decision‐making model and argues that it neither describes actual decision‐making processes nor can be used as an adequate guide to effective decision making as it ignores potent social, political and cognitive influences. Suggests that the main assumptions of the model are, in practice, unrealistic, and offers an alternative framework, emphasizing cultural, structural and processual factors, as a more useful guide to effective decision making.

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework for integrating strategic thinking factors, organisational performance and the decision-making process.

The methodology involves a synthesis of literature and proposes a framework that explores the relationship between strategic thinking enabling factors, organisational performance and the moderating effect of decision-making styles.

The framework includes strategic thinking enabling factors (systems perspective, focused intent, intelligent opportunism, thinking in time and hypothesis-driven analysis), organisational performance and the moderating effect of decision-making styles (intuitive and rational).

This research results in a conceptual model only; it remains to be tested in actual practice. The expanded conceptual framework can serve as a basis for future empirical research and provide insights to practitioners into how to strengthen policy development in a strategic planning process.

A paradigm shift in the literature proves that strategic management and decision-making styles are vital in determining organisational performance. This paper highlights the importance of decision-making styles and develops a framework for strategic management by analysing the existing strategic management literature.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of two aspects of firm performance: financial and business performance and organizational effectiveness, on three dimensions of the strategic decision‐making process, rationality, intuition, and political behavior.

The empirical study goes well beyond the common anecdotal observations or reflections on strategic decision‐making by utilizing a mixed‐methods approach. Based on a multi‐method field study, 286 Egyptian managers who participate in making strategic decisions are surveyed; and 36 semi‐structured interviews are conducted.

The results suggest that strategic decision‐making in high‐performing firms is more rational and less intuitive and political. Interestingly, they also show that organizational effectiveness is a stronger predictor of strategic decision‐making process dimensions than of financial and business performance.

In Egypt, a widespread suspicion of academic research adds to the frequent difficulty of obtaining completed questionnaires from more than one senior manager in a company. Moreover, because of the difficulty of collecting objective financial data, subjective measures are used to gauge performance. Further research should test the generalizability of our results in narrowly defined samples, e.g. the banking industry or the automotive industry.

The results highlight the importance of performance in strategic decision making and seem to support the “culture free” argument advancing the position that cultural differences may not have a significant impact on the influence of performance on the strategic decision‐making process.

Although scholars have posited organizational performance as an important contextual variable influencing the process of strategic decision making, this influence is not well understood or articulated, especially in the Egyptian setting. This paper contributes to filling this gap.

Educational administration still relics greatly on “wise” generalizations from the experiences of outstanding practitioners. Hence, a great many decisions in educational practice are still at the “professional lore” level. With the rapid expansion in knowledge, emphasis has tended to shift to the expert and the technician. Nevertheless, value decisions should not be permitted to be eroded. The educational decision‐maker needs to be both humanist and scientist. A rational basis exists for such a nexus. There is need for the joint operation of knowledge and value systems in decision‐making Both systems pass from the rather uncritical “Common Sense Stage” through the Empirical to the Scientific Stage. Self‐conscious rational action becomes possible only at the Scientific Stage. It is only within comparatively recent times that decision‐making in education has begun to move into the Scientific Stage, primarily because scientific knowledge about human behaviour is largely a product of this century. A decision is seen to be concerned primarily with predictions of future events that are desirable to people. The decision process involves (1) monitoring, (2) control (diagnosis, selection, transformation) and (3) action.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the behavior of decision makers in portfolio management meetings on innovation projects and to study decision‐making behavior at these meetings.

The paper is based on the case‐study approach; a theoretical framework is derived from sociology to direct the analysis of a portfolio management meeting. Four factors explain the behavior of decision making: the portfolio models as defined by organizational rules; issues related to the organizational context; a tendency to behave as others expect and to make appropriate decisions; and organizational learning processes.

The paper finds that the set of rules for conducting portfolio meetings was only partially followed. The identity of decision makers was not as calculating actors, but was shaped and influenced by four things: the formal system and rules, observations of others, the organizational context, and organizational learning. Systems other than the portfolio management systems compete for the decision makers' attention, as multiple criteria are manifest. Signals from top management influenced the decision makers' interpretations of the organizational context and framed the decision making. As learning showed decision makers what behavior was acceptable, this behavior seems to be further enforced. Decision making thus becomes more a matter of making appropriate decisions than of optimal or rational decision making.

The study is limited to a single case study in one organization. Replications among other samples are needed to validate current findings.

This paper presents a framework for understanding how portfolio decision making is shaped and molded through appropriate decision making rather than by following the normative calculative approach. In practice, the decision maker must deal with multiple factors and criteria that make it difficult to carry out a traditional rational decision‐making process. Still, the functions of decision making meetings can extend beyond decision‐making. They may also serve as social occasions and as occasions for interpreting possible actions and sharing that information, making it possible to make appropriate decisions. Decisions are thus a construct rather than a calculative outcome.

Researchers and practitioners have traditionally maintained that organizational buying requires rational decision-making. However, individuals at organizations make decisions daily applying a confluence of rationalizations and emotions. This study aims to address the roles of personal feelings, facts and emotional advertising content in the organizational decision-making process.

In two studies, the authors apply both qualitative and quantitative methods to explore emotional and cognitive reactions to advertising. In Study 1, depth interviews were conducted with marketing and advertising content developers from a Fortune 100 technology company. In Study 2, a web-based survey was sent out to a Fortune 100 company’s buyer panel.

Results suggest that advertising using emotion-based themes helps to foster brand engagement tendencies and advocacy for a brand. Findings also demonstrate that organizational status (C-level executive’s vs non-C-level employees) moderates the relationship between buyers’ reliance on facts and their receptivity to advertising using emotion-based themes, such that reliance on facts increases the appeal of emotional advertising.

This research contributes to the organizational buying literature by addressing the dearth of research on the role of emotions in organizational decision-making and providing insight into the role of advertising in business-to-business (B2B) decision-making.

These results imply that advertising incorporating emotion-based themes provide meaningful information to B2B buyers and is especially effective when targeted at buyers at higher levels in an organization.

B2B buying behavior has traditionally been considered a rational undertaking. This research explores how decision-making orientation and the presence of advertising using emotion-based themes help to foster engagement and advocacy for the brand.