Highs and Lows of Organizational Decision Making and the Relationship to Collaboration and Technology Tools

This study examined responses of senior managers drawn from academic, business, military, and non-profit or government organizations during interview sessions. Interview questions covered decision making, organization structure, collaboration, technology tools, and how senior managers helped their employees or organization members solve problems. The recorded interviews were transcribed and analyzed using NVivo qualitative software. Responses were compared within and across the groups. Individual responses were also compared to the current literature lexicon. Decision making styles were identified and categorized. A unique finding was that all senior managers presented a viewpoint that governed their responses to the interview questions during the interview. The viewpoints were placed into 11 categories and rated by two external raters. The raters tended to place the viewpoints into the same categories as the researchers as well as with each other. In terms of technology tools, these senior managers most often identified databases, calendar and email systems, and video teleconferencing as tools that supported decision making and collaboration. This study showed that a better understanding by senior managers of decision making methods and collaboration may provide improved decisions and generate the impetus for developing and incorporating true collaborative technology tools. Keywords: Decision Making, Problem Solving, Collaboration, Technology Tools, Organizations