Australian individual decision styles, intuitive and rational decision making in business
During the last twenty years, decision styles' and thinking styles' impact on decision making processes and behaviour have been studied. Four decision styles other than rational (avoidant, intuitive, dependent, spontaneous) have been identified and validated [1] using the General Decision Making Style (GDMS) scale. The dual process Cognitive Experiential Self Theory (CEST) of decision making [2] is the basis of the Rational Experiential Inventory (REI) scale. This REI scale assesses the 'need for cognition' and 'faith in intuition' for general decision making processes by decision makers [3] The aim of this correlational study research is to analyse data within the Australian business context relating the five styles of decision making [1] with data from other instruments to determine the decision makers' propensity and ability to use the Rational or Intuitive style [2] the Preference for Intuition and Deliberation (PID) [4] and correlate the Big Five personality dimensions with decision making styles [5] This paper reports on pilot data from 124 Australian business decision makers (Female 30% Board Member 21% CEO 21% CFO/Director/General Manager 33% advances the knowledge of Australian business decision making by analysing data on decision making styles and preferences gathered by applying the three scales (REI, GDMS and PID) [6] to measure different aspects of intuition and individual differences. This pilot study confirms that experienced Australians in a senior managerial role have a higher preference for deliberation than intuition in decision making.