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Weekly UpdatesResults indicate that human resource decision processes were viewed as exhibiting significantly less rational behavior than both financial and marketing decisions. The rational behavior associated with financial decision processes was viewed as significantly higher than for marketing decisions. Human resource decision-making processes were viewed as exhibiting significantly higher levels of political behavior than financial and marketing decisions. The political behavior associated with financial and marketing decision processes was characterized as essentially equivalent.
These results strongly support Propositions 4 and 5. Human resource decisions were characterized as having a significantly (p[less than].0l) lower level of rational behavior than marketing and financial decisions. Proposition 6 was not supported since financial decisions were characterized as having a level of rational behavior significantly (p[less than].03) different (i.e., greater) than marketing decisions.
Although the main effect for political behavior was only marginally significant, exploratory bivariate analyses were conducted to help guide further research on this topic. Proposition 7 was strongly supported. Human resource decisions were characterized as having a significantly higher level of political behavior than financial decisions. Neither Proposition 8 nor 9 were supported. Marketing decisions were not characterized as having the equivalent level of political behavior as human resource decisions, thereby not supporting Proposition 8. Rather, the level of political behavior associated with marketing decisions was seen as significandy (p[less than].02) lower than for human resource decisions. Marketing and financial decisions were characterized as having essentially equivalent levels of political behavior and, thus, did not support the predicted higher levels for marketing decisions versus financial decisions. The lack of support for Propositions 8 and 9 primarily reflects a lower than expected level of political behavior associated with the marketing decisions.
No significant differences between functional decision types were found relative to either Importance or Complexity. Marketing issues were viewed as representing significantly greater potential opportunities than human resource issues. No other significant differences were found between the other functional decision comparisons for these variables, which suggests limited interaction effects between these covariates and functional classification.
DISCUSSION
Research Implications
This study provides important new dimensions to decision-making research. Specifically, the most important contributions of this study to the decision-making literature are:
* The establishment of a linkage between functional issue classification and rational and political behavior.
* A specification of how rational and political behavior are differentially related to functional classifications.
* A demonstration of the multivariate effects of several behavior-evoking classification schema on decision-making processes.
The results of this study provide empirical support for the proposition that functional issue classification is linked to managerial decision-malting behavior. This was especially evident relative to rational decision-making behavior which showed significant overall effects as well as significant differences between the three issue classifications. Although overall results for political behavior were marginally significant relative to functional issue classification, human resource decisions did exhibit significantly higher levels than financial and marketing decisions. This result provides a further level of support to the theoretical underpinnings guiding this study.
Much of the decision-making literature implies a consistency of process, both at the individual and organizational level (Barnard, 1938; Weick, 1979; Fredrickson, 1984). Results from this study do not support this assertion. Rather, it has been empirically demonstrated that an organization's decision processes will vary depending on the functional issue under consideration.
The second key contribution of this study is the specification of how rational and political behavior are related to functional classifications. Examination of the individual and decision-unit level results suggests that the level of rational and political behavior varied markedly by functional issue. These results further support the fundamental finding of this study that functional issue classification is linked to managerial decision-making behavior. These results further suggest that framing issues in terms of their functional content is an important influence on whether decision processes are likely to be rational rather than political (or vice versa). From a strategic perspective, an interesting question is the degree, if any, to which those who frame decisions select specific classifications in order to induce those behaviors which would be to their advantage.
The third key contribution of this study relates to the need to consider the potential joint effects of factors which influence managerial behavior in future decision-making research. As discussed previously, certain issue classifications (i.e., Threat/Opportunity, Importance, and Complexity) have been found to impact managerial behavior. However, the research which examined these factors focused on the independent influence of a single variable. This study is the first to empirically examine how these independent and powerful classification schema, including functional classification, can simultaneously influence decision-making behavior. Results provide confirmation that different combinations of functional classification -- Threat/Opportunity, Importance, and Complexity -- are differentially linked to patterns of rational and political behavior. The effects shown in this study confirm the importance of including multiple dimensions in future studies of sensemaking processes. Future decision-making researc h should be as inclusive as possible in specifying the issue(s) used to test theoretical propositions. By including multiple classification schema in their descriptions of the issue(s) under consideration, researchers will be better able to obtain a more complete and holistic view of managers' sensemaking and decision-making processes.
The covariate results generally support the findings of prior research. For example, Threat/Opportunity was found to be positively related to rational behavior which is consistent with theoretical propositions (Dutton and Jackson, 1987) and empirical studies (Jennings and Lumpkin, 1992). The results relative to Importance and Complexity are interesting in that they are equivocal, but in opposite directions. Complexity was found to impact both rational and political behavior while Importance had no significant effect on either dependent variable. Given the debate in the literature as to whether Importance evokes more rational or more political behavior, the lack of a significant impact was not expected. Since the overall Importance mean was very high (5.90), there may not have been enough variance between less and more important decisions to identify significant differences in rational and political behavior.
Managerial Implications
The results of this study also have important implications for practicing managers. As organizations are faced with greater uncertainty and change in their internal and external environments, the interpretations that managers give to new and different decision situations could have a significant impact on the way decisions are made relative to these important issues. For example, interpreting organizational restructuring efforts as strictly financial in nature could lead to significantly different decision behaviors and resultant choices than if such efforts were interpreted as primarily human resource issues. In the telecommunications industry, companies have recently implemented significant downsizing/rightsizing initiatives. Corporate reporting on these programs have typically framed them as rational decisions mandated by the need to remain financially viable in a rapidly changing competitive environment. Essentially, these decisions are positioned as a form of corporate triage necessary to ensure the hea lth of the surviving organization. Conversely, the popular media typically discusses the results of these decisions in more provocative human terms (e.g., focusing on the downsized employees' struggle to adjust to his/her changed circumstances). This perspective, often combined with reports of significant CEO salaries, frames the decision as more political in nature (i.e., the powerful actors "win" at the expense of less powerful stakeholders). Along these lines, one respondent offered the following related to a decision to reduce management headcount, "For this decision, it would have been helpful to clarify if the decision was to let people go (a financial-based decision) vs. the decision of who to let go (a human resource decision). You will receive very different responses based on this interpretation".
Limitations
Although the decision-making units that participated in this study represented a wide array of functional areas, the study's results are subject to boundary conditions imposed by the telecommunications industry. Additional studies should be conducted to test for possible industry effects. Specific attention should be paid to possible industry factors which might impact political behavior (e.g., resource constraints, traditional conflicts).
Another industry-related limitation relates to the use of specific functional classifications. While this study included the managerially relevant functional classifications of human resource, financial, and marketing, additional functional classifications should be tested in future research. Particular attention should be directed to production-related issues since the meaningfulness of this classification has been established in decision-making research conducted in manufacturing industries.
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