The effects of decision‐making style on openness and satisfaction within Japanese organizations

Abstract

Although decision‐making style and openness have been well‐researched in North American organizations and popular folklore contends that Japanese managers use a more participative decision‐making style that leads to open communication, little research has been conducted by communication researchers in this area in Japanese organizations. This study examines the influence of decision‐making style on communication openness and satisfaction in Japanese organizations. Two hundred ninety‐seven employees of Japanese organizations were surveyed in Japanese to determine their preferred managerial decision‐making style and the actual decision‐making style of their supervisors. In addition, they were asked to rate their supervisors' message‐sending and message‐receiving openness and their satisfaction with various facets of their jobs and their organizations. Overall, Japanese employees preferred persuasive or consultative managerial decision‐making styles and were more satisfied when there was a congruence between their preferred decision‐making style and the decision‐making style of their manager.

Notes

Lea P. Stewart and Stella Ting‐Toomey are Assistant Professors of Communication, Rutgers University; William B. Gudykunst is Associate Professor of Communication, Arizona State University; and Tsukasa Nishida is Associate Professor of Communication and English, Nihon University, Mishima, Japan. The authors wish to thank Timothy Wright for his assistance in data collection in Tokyo, Jason Lustig for his assistance in data coding, and Hiroko Koike for her assistance in translating the questionnaire.