The identification of solution ideas during organizational decision making

This research investigated the idea development stage of a strategic decision making process. The tactics that decision makers apply to identify ideas were uncovered from a systematic study of 168 decision cases. These tactics and contextural factors describing the decision situation were analyzed to determine how each influences success measured by decision merit, development time, initial adoption, and sustained adoption. A ‘synthesized template’ which integrated useful practices and procedures from several sources had the most success, but this tactic was seldom used. A ‘cyclical search’ in which repeated searches were carried out to learn about opportunities was quite successful when used under conditions of low importance, low urgency, and good staff support. The success of the design tactic, which calls for innovation, improved when urgency was present and multiple alternatives were sought. The idea tactic which imposed a fully developed solution was widely used and seldom successful.