How strategic decision making processes managed:Decision maker influence on processes

This study has been conducted to gain insight on relations among managerial characteristics, process structure, process characteristics, and how these all effect process speed in strategic decisions. Humane acts within process characteristics such as political behaviours and conflicts, had been investigated to understand what types of process structures they emerged from, how they escalated or resolved, and what characteristics, had been important in such situations putting key participants of decisions in focus. In order to understand this experiences and allow rich emergence of different aspects 8 unstructured interviews have been conducted with key participants about 16 cases (2 each), from 7 different sectors. Narrated cases for each participant covered, one case that had been mainly affected by issues within organization, and other by issues outside. This approach provided an initial point of view to see how certain concepts could occur both from issues internal and external issues (e.g., conflict of interest, power plays) or only belonging to one such as ambiguity. Furthermore, 3 competencies of participants had been measured prior to case narrations; social confidence and social astuteness, needed for interpersonal relations, and risk taking tolerance needed to make decisions faster. Field study provided rich data on competencies that have been perceived as important in different contingencies, setbacks occurred, dimensions of different conflict types, and political behaviours practiced in order to resist or improve processes. Lastly, conceptual model of inner relations had been generated in accordance to research findings, along with propositions generated from combination of literature and participant narrations