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Even though numerous epidemiology studies have examined the patterns of mortality in refineryworkers and petroleum distribution workers and even on production and pipeline workers whose primary exposure was to crude oil (Divine and Hartman, 2000)

Purpose The purpose of this study is to fill the gap by investigating the relationship between age and other demographics on decision-making and leadership styles of executives in the non-profit sector. Design/methodology/approach This study is a quantitative research using correlation analysis and analysis of variance. The quantitative approach establishes facts, makes predictions and tests stated hypothesis and used the Pearson correlation coefficient, the ANOVA and the two-way analysis of variance. This study used surveys to collect data. Findings H1 states that there will be no significant difference in the decision-making models used among non-profit organizational leaders (rational, intuitive, dependent, spontaneous and avoidant) based on demographic variables: gender and age. H2 states that there will be no significant difference in the leadership style used among non-profit organizational executives (selling, telling, delegating and participating) and different dimensions of demographic variables: gender and age. Research limitations/implications This study explored the relationship between the demographics, age and gender and the decision-making models (rational, intuitive, dependent, spontaneous and avoidant) and leadership styles (selling, telling, delegating and participating) of executives in non-profit organizations. The age of the executives also showed to be important factors that influenced executive’s leadership styles and decision-making models as well. Practical implications Rational decision-making as reflected to in this study has been used by older, possibly more experienced non-profit executives. This model is favorable towards making decisions on complicated issues. The final choice rational decision-makers select will maximize the outcome; it is assumed that the decision-maker will choose the alternative that rates the highest and get the maximum benefits (Robbins and Decenzo, 2003, pp. 141-142). The researcher suggests that non-profit executives, especially the younger executives, should attend management and leadership conferences that focus on rational decision-making models as concerns business strategies and making the best choices based on possible alternatives. Social implications Rational decision-making as reflected to in this study has been used by older, possibly more experienced non-profit executives. This model is favorable towards making decisions on complicated issues. The final choice rational decision-makers select will maximize the outcome; it is assumed that the decision-maker will choose the alternative that rates the highest and get the maximum benefits (Robbins and Decenzo, 2003, pp. 141-142). The researcher suggests that non-profit executives, especially the younger executives, should attend management and leadership conferences that focus on rational decision-making models as concerns business strategies and making the best choices based on possible alternatives. Originality/value This is an original piece of research that contributes to the literature on leadership style.

This research seeks to study the relationship between leadership styles (selling, telling, delegating, and participating) of non-profit executives and their preferred decision-making models (rational, intuitive, dependent, spontaneous, and avoidant) used operationally in managing non-profit outfits striving to survive in turbulent economic situations. The General Decision-Making Style Scale instrument and the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire were the instruments used for this study, and 109 out 500 randomly selected executives and leaders responded to the surveys. Data analyses used for this study were the Pearson correlation coefficient and the two-way analysis of variance. Findings showed that there was a significant positive correlation between initiating structure leadership style and rational decision-making and between initiating structure leadership style and dependent decision. Other findings also show a significant relationship between leadership style and the rational decision-making model, gender and leadership styles and the intuitive decision-making model among others. Findings may be useful in further understanding the placement of individuals with particular leadership styles in identified decision-making roles. For instance, multiple comparisons results show that no matter what the demographic variables were, gender and age, corporate leaders who used the participating leadership style tend to use the dependent decision-making model.

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