Cross-Cultural Decision Making

Every aspect of management comes along with some form of decision making. When it comes to cross-cultural decision making, a lot of difficult obstacles must be addressed. A decision in one culture is often ineffective in another. Different situations call for different decision making styles. Two types of decision making processes for organizations either apply a programmed or nonprogrammed process.

The programmed decision making process is the most commonly used style. This entails making decisions based on precedent, custom, policies and procedures, and training and development. This style reduces risk and stress for decision makers because a basis for a decision can be pretested for efficiency. A disadvantage is that when an organization's environment changes, the programmed bases for decision making become obsolete.

With nonprogrammed decision making, this entails analyzing current data and information, obtained through a systematic investigation of the current environment, for the purpose of identifying and solving a problem.

In Western cultures, there are steps to the rational decision process. These steps include: (1)through investigation, define the problem, (2) identify a minimum criteria on which to base the decision, (3) identify multiple viable choices, (4) quantitatively evaluate each viable choice on the basis of each criterion, (5) select the optimum choice, (6) implement the choice.

The validity of the nonprogrammed decision making as a prescription for decision-making behavior (DMB). is effected by culture. Culture varies from country to country, thus a decision making model must fit that culture. People in different cultures will have different expectations in regards to state of affairs, for specific social processes, interpretation of environmental cues, and responses. The book goes into detail of how something in one country maybe rational, but irrational in another. Some examples of how contrasting views affect the decision making process are problem recognition, criteria, information gathering, and choice and implementation.

There are 2 basic types of DMB's, authoritative and participative. Authoritative decision making involves one person deciding as to what should be done and informing their subordinates. The decision makers may consult their subordinates, however, before finalizing them. Participative decision making involves asking the subordinates what should be done and how so. Both styles have pros and cons. The authoritative approach has the advantage that decisions can be made quickly but the subordinates may feel demoralized due to their lack of input. Participative approaches have the advantage that subordinates are much more likely to be satisfied and their performance will benefit. The disadvantage is that sometimes the participative approach is time consuming as the decision process is slowed. The approach that should be used relies heavily on the culture.

Decision makers that are not bound to one specific approach are presented with the problem's to which DMB is applicable to the given situation. There are two contingency DMB frameworks that facilitate the process for cross-cultural managers to decide which DMB will work. The first framework is called the country-related cultural factors framework and the second is the universal factors models. The country-related cultural factors framework uses the four dimensions of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and masculinity. The universal factors model posits that DMB is influenced not as much by broad cultural factors as by varying situational factors. Some of these situational factors include subordinates' work environment, individuals' motivation, individuals' maturity level, and managerial level and functions.

There are some problems, however, with this framework. One of the problems is reconciling the conflicting demands of a situation. Another problem is defining the level of all individuals' motivation. Some upper-level managers are not going to want to delegate authority to lower levels, and some lower level managers are not going to want that authority. Just like every system and model, this one has its issues. There are many different aspects that go into deciding which framework is correct.