INTEGRATING ORGANIZATIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL INFORMATION-PROCESSING PERSPECTIVES ON CHOICE

Existing information processing theories of strategic choice focus on either the organizational or individual level of analysis. This single level focus makes these theories incomplete representations of how st rategic decisions are actually made in organizations. We believe an in tegration of these two levels is necessary for a comprehensive view of choice. This paper thus proposes a parallel process model of strategi c decision making that integrates organizational and individual level information processing perspectives. The integrated, comprehensive vie w afforded by the proposed model enhances understanding of strategic d ecision making by identifying (1) multiple ways in which bias can ente r into choices and (2) dual level influences on decision activities su ch as information gathering and alternative generation. The proposed m odel portrays strategic decision making as complex, multilevel informa tion processing and choices as emergent outcomes of that processing. T he model is developed as follows. First, the individual level of the m odel is generated by recognizing that people process information in st ages. The notion of stages is used because it depicts the basic struct ure of information processing and is widely supported by empirical res earch. Second, the organizational level of the model is articulated by acknowledging organizations (1) process information in stages and (2) exhibit information processing activities analogous to those at the i ndividual level. Third, a series of linking mechanisms connecting indi vidual information processing stages to analogous organizational level ones is proposed. These linking mechanisms thus conceptually operatio nalize the integration of the two levels. Fourth, three contingency va riables are presented to flesh out the model and formulate proposition s. Contingency variables specifically acknowledge differences in infor mation processing across organizations. A final section of the paper e xplains how key variables in the proposed model can be operationalized and outlines a test for the presence of multiple levels of informatio n processing in a strategic choice context.