Decision‐making style as a function of occupational group, decision content and perceived importance

Thirty‐five managers and 29 manual workers were asked to list 16 decisions which they had already made and to rate these for perceived degree of importance. The content of the decision, work related or personal, was noted. In subsequent interviews, details were obtained of the decision‐making behaviour used in 523 decisions, and these were assigned to a style category; ‘no thought’, ‘compliant’, ‘logical’, ‘emotional’, ‘intuitive’ or ‘hesitant’. Analysis of the four‐way contingency table showed that occupational group, content of the decision and perceived importance were each independently associated with decision‐making style. Occupational group was also related to the content of the decisions listed, and with use of the ‘no thought’ and ‘logical’ styles; content of the decision was related to use of the ‘logical’ and ‘emotional’ styles; and perceived importance was associated with use of the ‘emotional’, ‘intuitive’, ‘no thought’ and ‘logical’ styles.