Strategic decision making and support systems: Comparing American, Japanese and Chinese management

Abstract

Internationalization creates a need to know how managers in different parts of the world make decisions, and how computer-based information systems (IS) can support decision making. Business leaders from the United States, Japan and China were each found to have a distinctive prevailing decision style that reflects differences in cultural values and the relative needs for achievement, affiliation, power and information. This paper examines the IS issues that arise from the discovery of the distinctively American, Japanese and Chinese styles of strategic decision making. The existence of international differences in analyzing and conceptualizing strategic decisions raises doubts about the global applicability of IS such as decision support systems and executive information systems. The success of knowledge management and information systems in different countries and cultures will depend critically on how well IT applications are adapted to the decision styles of their users.