Decision making behaviors in different cultures: A comparative research between Turkish and Japanese managers

Decision making whether it is individual or organizational level, lays the foundations of modern life. Economic, social and technological advances makes individuals have significant decisions regarding his/her family life, health, education and career paths. Moreover, the factors that would affect the decisions become much more complex both qualitative and quantitative nature. This is much more critical in terms of business life. Today's business organizations try to handle highly important decisions in investment, research and development or allocationg resources between complex and ambiguous environments which affect the future of the organizations Due to the excessive information flows, time pressure and abundance of decision alternatives, decision making becomes an invaluable competitive power for the actors of business life. From this point of view, critical importance of decision making heightened interest among scholars regarding this discipline. However, there stil remains a untouched domain, that is culture-decision making interaction. In fact, decision making behavior is not independent from the context of that society. Moreover, intellectual, economic and technologic changes such as globalization of business practices, increase in joint ventures and international partnership and increase in workforce diversity makes to understand the effects of culture on behaviors in organizational settings, a strategic necessity. From this point of view, examining the effects of different cultures on decision making behavior and through this way contributing to the Turkish type management and organization model are the focal points of this thesis study. Following this aim, decision making behaviors (decision making style and attitudes within decision making process) of Turkish and Japanese managers are examined through an research project which combines both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The results of the study demonstrate that managers from different cultures espouse differing decision behaviors and they focus in different stages in decision making process. These differences are explained by some cultural facts. Furthermore, this study justify that qualitative methodologies are indispensable in cultural studies. The findings of the study produce significant theoretical and practical information and suggest directions for future research.