Inertia And Creeping Rationality In Strategic Decision Proc

A longitudinal extension of 2 earlier studies by Fredrickson (1984) and Fredrickson and Mitchell (1984) on the comprehensiveness of strategic decision processes is conducted. Questionnaires used in the previous studies were readministered in 1986 in 45 firms in 2 industries. The original studies indicate that comprehensiveness exhibited a positive relationship with organizational performance in a stable environment and a negative relationship with performance in an unstable environment. The new research indicates that comprehensiveness exhibited considerable inertia, with only modest changes occurring since the original studies. Nevertheless, changes in organizational size and executive-team tenure, as well as the level of team continuity, were linked with changes in comprehensiveness. Evolutionary increases in those variables were linked to a phenomenon that is termed creeping rationality. Also, the relationships that had been established between comprehensiveness and performance held for the years after the original studies. Exploratory analysis revealed significant across-industry differences in comprehensiveness.