Abstract

This article presents a research on business operating decision-making. In the research, fourteen middle-management executives of a large manufacturing firm were observed making the necessary operating decision to solve a problem. The findings from these observations were then compared with current theories. There are also decision models which employ quantitative techniques to obtain an optimum solution to a problem. Such analysis relates important variables of the problem situation by means of mathematical abstraction. Although this method is a powerful tool of evaluation for management man, it seldom casts light upon the subjective processes by which the final decision is made. The methods for the study of business decisions can be represented as a continuum. At one end is the laboratory experiment with its high degree of control and concomitant abstraction; at the other end is the business decision within the environment of the firm. In the second situation, the investigator merely observes actuality.