DECISION Making Styles: A Saudi Managerial Context

DECISION Making Styles:A Saudi Managerial Context Mustafa M. Ashwi King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals Saudi Arabia 8th Congress of The International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, Isle of Spetses, July 11-15, 2006, Greece.

studies sampled too few countries to discern which cultural values are associated with reliance on what sources. Background

(1) the individual’s own expertise, based on prior experience and training; (2) social sources - typically superiors, subordinates, specialists, and co-workers; Managing Org. Events

The executives & middle managers were asked to respond to eight events.

The events are: (1) When a vacancy arises that requires appointment of a new subordinate in your department; (2) When one of your subordinates does consistently good work; (3) When one of your subordinates does consistently poor work; (4) When some of the equipment or machinery in your department seems to need replacement;

The eight sources of guidance were listed, as follows: (1) ‘Formal rules and procedures’; (2) ‘Unwritten rules as to ‘how things are usually done around here’’; (3) ‘My subordinates’;

(4) ‘Specialists outside my department’; (5) ‘Other people at my level’; (6) ‘My superior’; (7) ‘Opinions based on my own experience and training’; and (8) ‘Beliefs which are widely accepted in my country as to what is right’.

Objective • To investigate the Saudi executives' & middle managers decision making styles on the basis of studying how they manage different events or situations.

Questions of the study • How managing different events is related to some variables such as age, seniority, education, company size, ownership, activity and other related variables? • What are the differences between Saudi top managers and middle managers' decision making styles?

The sample (N=328) was drawn accidentally from both public and private sectors companies in Saudi Arabia.

Results

Significant differences 1- non written rules 2- Relying on experts 3- Relying on superiors

4- Relying on Beliefs 5- Relying on family

Discussion • Are the significant differences attributed to: • Cross-cultural differences? OR • Sub-cultural differences? OR - Both?

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DECISION Making Styles: A Saudi Managerial Context