Propensity for participative decision making as an enabler of strategic agility

Abstract

Strategic agility necessitates rapid adaptation to change, which is best achieved through flexible organisational structures that promote, collaboration, decentralized decision making, and employee empowerment. The practical implications of strategic decisions and choices must be understood by managers as the decisions managers make can have significant consequences for the organisations ability to respond to environmental change and disruption. Participative decision making, with its emphasis on collective intelligence, decentralised power and rapid response to changing circumstances, is a key component of a flexible model. This paper explores strategic agility and whether strategic agility is improved when there is a greater propensity for participative decision making. The paper then delves deeper into decision making with focus on Participative Decision Making and the factors that influence participative decision making. A quantitative survey approach was used from respondents, employed within South Africa. The Participative Decision Making scale included four constructs: Organisational effectiveness; Power; Organisational Culture and Management Commitment. The interplay between these constructs and the interplay between Participative Decision Making and Strategic Agility was assessed to draw any relationship between Participative Decision Making and Strategic Agility. Other variables such as gender, age, experience and seniority in the organisation were also assessed to establish whether respondents views varied depending on these variables.