Executive Values and Decision Making: The Relationship of Culture and Information Flows

Abstract

The eect of culture on work values has been studied in a number of ways, largely from a western perspective. Studies have predominantly employed questionnaires as the principal agent of data collection. Yet the Confucian work ethic attributes greater emphasis to collectivist values which bear more centrally on personal relationships. This research used discourse analysis in order to try to identify the implicit features of cultural values as they aected the transmission of ®nancial information, a problem highlighted by the Asian currency crisis in 1997/98.The international hotel industry operates in a multicultural environment where very often foreign operators manage locally owned premises. In these circumstances, budgetary planning and control is an important mechanism. A sample of the interactions between 18 hotel general managers and their ®nancial controllers were studied in Hong Kong. Financial controllers are already subject to a number of role con¯icts and it was found that these may be exaggerated by culture.Chinese ®nancial controllers seem to distort the outputs of budgetary planning and control processes in recognition of important organizational relationships. It is suggested that recognizing the direction and eect of these relationships has implications for leadership and performance judgements generally.

Effects of Organisational Culture on Employees Performance:

“…There are many researches that have linked culture in the organization with many different organizational behaviors. This has been recognized that there is a correlation between culture of organization & employee job performance (Sheridan, 1992), decision making (Gamble & Gibson, 1999) and productivity (Kopelman, Brief and Guzzo, 1990). Luthans (1998) stated that organizational culture has often time presented within the organization, and it was not given importance needed in an organization.…”

Gender Equity for Athletes: Multiple Understandings of an Organizational Value

“…Researchers of organizational values (e.g., Gamble and Gibson 1999;Hinings et al 1996;Pant and Lachman 1998) typically focus on the values held by elite members and upper management because they guide and direct organizations and they influence the behaviours of others by encouraging adherence to espoused values. Additionally, it is assumed that the meanings top managers assign to values are consistent with and accurately reflect the rest of the organizational members, thus, there is little or no consultation with organizational members with lower status (Martin 2002).…”

Supporting societal decision making: a process perspective

“…Decision making is often viewed as a political process which is influenced by the personal values of decision makers (Gamble and Gibson, 1999). Complex societal problems involve environmental, social, economic, legal and technical issues (DeTombe, 2001).…”