Date of Award

1991

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Business

First Advisor

Daniel W. Kemper

Second Advisor

Joseph Ancona

Third Advisor

Mike Wood

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the magnitude of political viability in managerial decision making in large corporate organizations . Political viability ls defined as perpetuating shrewdness to flourish one's career within an organization.

Recent economic conditions and global competitiveness have forced corporations to examine their traditional managerial roles. As a result, many corporations have totally revamped goals and objectives in an attempt to present a clear and unobstructed vision of their mission.

Over the last decade research done by organizational psychologists, consultants, independent ·think· tanks, and decision experts have bombasted corporations with many management philosophies . Decision making is an integral part of all these management philosophies and political viability is an integral part of decision-making.

The purpose of this study ls to Investigate the possibility, that, within a large corporate organization, managers may bias decision making to ensure harmonious superior-subordinate relationships.

Specifically, it ls hypothesized that management decision making ls primarily driven by internal political viability rather than the business objectives in large corporations.

Ninety-six (96) managers participated in the evaluation. The subjects were administered a self-assessment survey for the purposes of distinguishing the political viability relationship as related to the subjects' decision making processes. In all, 54 subjects responded for a 56% return ratio.

Each respondents' selections were coded and tabulated. A frequency polygon (distribution) for raw scores showed 42.6% of the sample population were conducive to the HO, the null hypothesis, 9.2% were neutral, and 48.2% were presumed conducive to H1, the research hypothesis.

The inferential test was a t distribution with 53 degrees of freedom . Based on the critical t value, the obtained t value did not fall into the 5% probability area. Therefore, the null hypothesis could NOT be rejected and It cannot be statistically inferred that political viability exists within management decision- making in large corporations.

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