Decision-Making Styles. When making decisions, individuals often display a personal style that reflects how they perceive what

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Decision-Making Styles. When making decisions, individuals often display a personal style that reflects how they perceive what is happening around them and how they process information. These decision-making styles are determined by two dimensions: value orientation and tolerance for ambiguity orientation. Value orientation focuses on the individual’s concern for task and technical matters as opposed to people and social concerns. Tolerance for ambiguity orientation measures how much the person needs structure and control (a desire for low ambiguity) as opposed to being able to thrive in uncertain situations (a desire for high ambiguity). These two orientations, with their low and high dimensions, result in four styles of decision making—directive, analytical, conceptual, and behavioral:

1. Directive style Individuals with a directive style have a low tolerance for ambiguity and are oriented toward task and technical concerns in their decision making. These people tend to be efficient, logical, pragmatic, and systematic in their approach to problem solving. They also like to focus on facts and to get things done quickly. In short, they are action oriented. In addition, they tend to have a very short-run focus, like to exer- cise power, want to be in control, and display an autocratic type of leadership style.

2. Analytical style Analytical decision makers have a high tolerance for ambiguity and a strong task and technical orientation. These people like to analyze situations; in fact, they often tend to overanalyze things. They evaluate more information and alternatives than do directive decision makers. They also take a long time to make decisions, but they respond well to new or uncertain situations. They tend to be autocratic.

3. Conceptual style Decision makers with a conceptual style have a high tolerance for ambiguity and for strong people and social concerns. They take a broad perspective in solving problems, and they like to consider many options and future possibilities. These decision makers discuss things with many people in order to gather a great deal of information, and they also rely on intuition. Additionally, they are willing to take risks, and they tend to be good at discovering creative solutions to problems. At the same time, however, they can foster an idealistic and indecisive approach to decision making.

4. Behavioral style The behavioral-style decision maker is characterized by a low toler- ance for ambiguity and for strong people and social concerns. These decision makers tend to work well with others and like situations in which opinions are openly exchanged. They tend to be receptive to suggestions, supportive, and warm and prefer verbal to written information. They also tend to avoid conflict and be overly concerned with keeping everyone happy. As a result, these decision makers often have a difficult time saying no to people, and they do not like making tough decisions, especially when it will result in someone being upset with the outcome.