The Effect of Decision‐Making Styles and Contextual Experience On Executives' Descriptions of Organizational Problem Formulation*

David A. Cowan

Journal of Management Studies, 1991, vol. 28, issue 5, 463-484

Abstract: This study investigated the sensitivity of executives' descriptions of the problem‐formulation process to decision styles, to the decision functions that comprise decision styles, and to executive experience. to refine previous research in this area, four types of organizational problem were included for comparison: strategic, operating, human relations, and technical. In addition, the study included executive experience with each problem type, rather than general management experience. the results indicated that decision functions explained more of the variation in problem descriptions for all four of the problem types than did either decision styles or experience. Particularly, the sensing perceptual function related to problem descriptions of the illstructured problem types, strategic and human‐relations, and the thinking judgemental function related to problem descriptions of the well‐structured problem types, operating and technical. Though this offered support for the premise suggested by Ramaprasad and Mitroff (1984) regarding the usefulness of decision functions, it also raised concern about the available technology for measuring executives' experience in particular contexts.

Date: 1991
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