Career impact: the missing link influencing strategic decision‐making processes?

This paper aims to extend the strategic decision‐making theory by considering the potential influence of perceived career impact on the process of making strategic decisions. To achieve its objectives the paper incorporates a number of career impact variables (rewards and/or punishment) and examines the extent to which they explain the characteristics of the process of making strategic decisions, over and above the explanatory power of: a) external; b) internal/organisational; c) managerial; d) decision‐specific variables. Overall, the results suggest that multiple contextual factors, from all five layers, shape the decision‐making process. In particular, both expected rewards and punishment seem to influence the choice of decision‐makers as to what process to follow. These results point toward the existence of unexplored factors shaping the decision‐making process. The paper concludes with implications for the decision‐making theory and recommendations for future research.