A Descriptive Study of the Korean Managers' Small Group Decision-Making Process: An Interaction Process Analysis

한국 중간관리자를 대상으로 한 행태적 집단 의사결정 과정에 관한 연구

This paper presents an analysis of Korean middle managers' decision-making processes. The sample included the observations of decisions made by 17 groups with 5 to 7 members each. The 5 hour-long, in average, decision processes were analysed by a modified system of Fisher's(1970) Interaction Process Analysis. The results showed that Korean managers followed alternative-focused decision processes, as opposite to value-focused ones. That is, the decision-making groups showed a strong trend to elaborate on alternative generation and evaluation right after the situation analysis. They tended to discuss the objectives of decision and relevant criteria only to resolve conflicts arisen during the evaluation process of alternatives. The analysis also showed that a decision proposition was more frequently followed by negative responses than positive ones and by interpretative evaluations than substantiative ones. The lessons from this study suggest a direction for the development of group decision support systems tailored for Korean cultural characteristics. This study is also meaningful as the first observation and empirical analysis of Korean middle managers' decision-making processes.