Empirical Examination of TOP Management Characteristics and Strategic Decision Making

Abstract

This study examined top management characteristics and strategic decision making in organizations. The basic question the paper seeks to address is: Do managers’ background characteristics have significant influence on their decision making process? To achieve this, hypotheses were developed and primary data were obtained through structured questionnaire that was validated and pilot tested. The Cronbach alpha test for reliability gave an overall reliability coefficient of 0.9548 for the research instrument. From a population of 250 employees of government constituted boards and commissions in Delta State, Nigeria, a sample size of 158 respondents was obtained. The dependent variable was strategic decision making, while top management characteristics being the independent variable was measured by risk propensity, educational background, age disposition and cognitive complexity. Need for achievement was however introduced as a control variable and the analyses of the primary data were done by means of the inferential and descriptive statistics. Specifically, the ordinary least square regression (OLS) technique was employed to test the hypotheses of the study. Overall, the results from the test of hypotheses suggest that risk propensity, educational background, age disposition and cognitive complexity have significant relationship with strategic decision making. It was therefore concluded that top management characteristics exert significant influence on strategic decision making. In the light of this conclusion, it was recommended amongst others, that top managers must at all times give attention to these characteristics.