us assume that a decision-maker has to write a report based on a certain information
source. A person who prefers to read an article that contains a high amount of
information clearly has a preference for high quantities of information. Another
measure of preference for amount of information used for decision-making is by
looking at how much information a person writes. Writing is, in fact, a form of
accessing information. For instance, when people write a report, they retrieve
information from both their long-term and their short-term memory. Thus, people
who prefer to write a detailed rather than a brief report have to retrieve more
information from their short-term and long-term memory and will therefore use a
higher amount of information. We think the more information people want to use,
the more likely they will be overloaded with information because they cannot
process the information. People who prefer a limited amount of information but
who are confronted with large amounts of information will not process the excess
information and thus will not suffer from information overload. Thus, we
hypothesize:
Proposition 4 The amount of information used has a positive impact on IO. The
greater the amount of information people are willing to process, the more IO they are
likely to experience negatively affecting organizational health.
The second aspect by which we can characterize people is their degree of focus in
the decision-making process. Decision-makers who focus on only one solution will
interpret the information leading to only one decision, whereas those who focus on
multiple solutions will interpret the information leading to multiple decisions.
Decision focus can be measured by looking at how people view the decision
problem. They can tackle the problem as a whole, or they can focus on details. If
decision-makers see the problem as a whole, they tend to focus on multiple solutions, whereas if they concentrate on details, they tend to focus on one solution.
Decision focus can also be measured by looking at the way decision-makers sum up
the information before making up their mind. This could include as many alternatives as possible, several alternatives with contradicting scenarios, several alternatives that reconfirm and add to one another and finally the single alternative that is
the most convincing in their perception. We think that when decision-makers prefer
to focus on multiple solutions/alternatives rather than one solution/alternative, they
are more likely to experience IO because they have to spend time evaluating many
solutions/alternatives. This results in the following hypothesis:
Proposition 5 Decision focus has a negative impact on IO. The more focused
people are on one solution, the less IO they are likely to experience positively
affecting organizational health.
The third personality characteristic is attitude towards ambiguity. Ambiguity is a
situation where there is doubt or uncertainty as regards to the interpretation of a piece
of data. Information can quickly become ambiguous if there are large quantities of
it. People can have a low or a high tolerance for ambiguity. Decision-makers with
low ambiguity tolerance who are confronted with large amounts of ambiguous
information will be less certain about their decisions and will thus want to process
9 Strategic and Managerial Decision-Making for Sustainable Management: Factors. . .
167
source. A person who prefers to read an article that contains a high amount of
information clearly has a preference for high quantities of information. Another
measure of preference for amount of information used for decision-making is by
looking at how much information a person writes. Writing is, in fact, a form of
accessing information. For instance, when people write a report, they retrieve
information from both their long-term and their short-term memory. Thus, people
who prefer to write a detailed rather than a brief report have to retrieve more
information from their short-term and long-term memory and will therefore use a
higher amount of information. We think the more information people want to use,
the more likely they will be overloaded with information because they cannot
process the information. People who prefer a limited amount of information but
who are confronted with large amounts of information will not process the excess
information and thus will not suffer from information overload. Thus, we
hypothesize:
Proposition 4 The amount of information used has a positive impact on IO. The
greater the amount of information people are willing to process, the more IO they are
likely to experience negatively affecting organizational health.
The second aspect by which we can characterize people is their degree of focus in
the decision-making process. Decision-makers who focus on only one solution will
interpret the information leading to only one decision, whereas those who focus on
multiple solutions will interpret the information leading to multiple decisions.
Decision focus can be measured by looking at how people view the decision
problem. They can tackle the problem as a whole, or they can focus on details. If
decision-makers see the problem as a whole, they tend to focus on multiple solutions, whereas if they concentrate on details, they tend to focus on one solution.
Decision focus can also be measured by looking at the way decision-makers sum up
the information before making up their mind. This could include as many alternatives as possible, several alternatives with contradicting scenarios, several alternatives that reconfirm and add to one another and finally the single alternative that is
the most convincing in their perception. We think that when decision-makers prefer
to focus on multiple solutions/alternatives rather than one solution/alternative, they
are more likely to experience IO because they have to spend time evaluating many
solutions/alternatives. This results in the following hypothesis:
Proposition 5 Decision focus has a negative impact on IO. The more focused
people are on one solution, the less IO they are likely to experience positively
affecting organizational health.
The third personality characteristic is attitude towards ambiguity. Ambiguity is a
situation where there is doubt or uncertainty as regards to the interpretation of a piece
of data. Information can quickly become ambiguous if there are large quantities of
it. People can have a low or a high tolerance for ambiguity. Decision-makers with
low ambiguity tolerance who are confronted with large amounts of ambiguous
information will be less certain about their decisions and will thus want to process
9 Strategic and Managerial Decision-Making for Sustainable Management: Factors. . .
167