Skip to main content
Search
Search
    Quick Search anywhere
    Quick search in Citations
Advanced Search
Skip main navigationClose Drawer MenuOpen Drawer Menu
Previous article
Next article
Research Article – Extended

Incremental Validity of Decision-Making Styles in Predicting Real-Life and Work-Related Outcomes

Published Online:June 01, 2023https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000404

Abstract

Abstract: Across three studies and three different samples, we investigated whether decision-making styles exhibit incremental validity in predicting various real-life outcomes over and above cognitive abilities and personality traits. In Study 1, we showed that decision-making styles (especially avoidant and spontaneous ones) but not cognitive abilities predict important real-life and academic outcomes in a sample of undergraduate students. In Study 2, on a sample of employed adults, we showed that although the effects of decision-making styles decreased once the effects of personality traits were taken into account, styles nevertheless remained important for several important work-related outcomes. Finally, in Study 3, on a sample of entrepreneurs, decision-making styles generally exhibited stronger correlations with indices of entrepreneurial success and employee work-related attitudes than the need for achievement, a motivational trait that was meta-analytically shown to be one of the essential traits for entrepreneurial success. In sum, we hope that our research program fills the gap in research on individual differences in decision-making, offering evidence that decision-making styles matter for various important real-life outcomes.

References

  • Agor, W. H. (1986). The logic of intuition: How top executives make important decisions. Organizational Dynamics, 14(3), 5–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(86)90028-8 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Ahmetoglu, G. (2015). The entrepreneurial personality: A new framework and construct for entrepreneurship research and practice [Doctoral dissertation, Goldsmiths, University of London]. https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/11249/ First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Alaybek, B., Wang, Y., Dalal, R. S., Dubrow, S., & Boemerman, L. S. (2021). The relations of reflective and intuitive thinking styles with task performance: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 75(2), 295–319. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12443 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Alaybek, B., Wang, Y., Dalal, R. S., Dubrow, S., & Boemerman, L. S. (2021). Meta-analytic relations between thinking styles and intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences, 168, Article 110322. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110322 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Baiocco, R., Laghi, F., & D’Alessio, M. (2009). Decision-making style among adolescents: Relationship with sensation seeking and locus of control. Journal of Adolescence, 32(4), 963–976. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2008.08.003 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Baron, J., Gürçay, B., & Metz, S. E. (2017). Reflection, intuition, and actively open-minded thinking. In M. ToplakJ. WellerEds., Individual differences in judgment and decision making: A developmental perspective (pp. 107–126). Psychology Press. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Bergh, D. V. D., Clyde, M. A., Gupta, A. R. K. N., de Jong, T., Gronau, Q. F., Marsman, M., Ly, A., & Wagenmakers, E. J. (2021). A tutorial on Bayesian multi-model linear regression with BAS and JASP. Behavior Research Methods, 53, 2351–2371. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01552-2 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Brayfield, A. H., & Rothe, H. F. (1951). An index of job satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 35(5), 307–311. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0055617 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Bruine de Bruin, W., Parker, A. M., & Fischhoff, B. (2007). Individual differences in adult decision-making competence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(5), 938–956. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.5.938 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Cokely, E. T., Galesic, M., Schulz, E., Ghazal, S., & Garcia Retamero, R. (2012). Measuring risk literacy: The Berlin Numeracy Test. Judgment and Decision Making, 7, 25–47. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1930297500001819 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Collins, C. J., Hanges, P. J., & Locke, E. A. (2004). The relationship of achievement motivation to entrepreneurial behavior: A meta-analysis. Human performance, 17(1), 95–117. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327043HUP1701_5 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Condon, D. M., & Revelle, W. (2014). The International Cognitive Ability Resource: Development and initial validation of a public-domain measure. Intelligence, 43, 52–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2014.01.004 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Crossley, C. D., & Highhouse, S. (2005). Relation of job search and choice process with subsequent satisfaction. Journal of Economic Psychology, 26(2), 255–268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2004.04.001 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Dewberry, C., Juanchich, M., & Narendran, S. (2013a). Decision-making competence in everyday life: The roles of general cognitive styles, decision-making styles and personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 55(7), 783–788. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013.06.012 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Dewberry, C., Juanchich, M., & Narendran, S. (2013b). xThe latent structure of decision styles. Personality and Individual Differences, 54(5), 566–571. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.11.002 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Donnellan, M. B., Oswald, F. L., Baird, B. M., & Lucas, R. E. (2006). The mini-IPIP Scales: Tiny-yet-effective measures of the Big Five factors of personality. Psychological Assessment, 18(2), 192–203. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.18.2.192 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Eisenberger, R., Huntington, R., Hutchison, S., & Sowa, D. (1986). Perceived organizational support. Journal of Applied psychology, 71(3), 500–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.71.3.500 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Erceg, N., & Galić, Z. (2023). Supplemental materials to “Incremental validity of decision-making styles in predicting real-life and work-related outcomes”. https://osf.io/s8wge/ First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Lang, A.-G., & Buchner, A. (2007). G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 175–191. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193146 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Field, A. P., & Wilcox, R. R. (2017). Robust statistical methods: A primer for clinical psychology and experimental psychopathology researchers. Behavior Research and Therapy, 98, 19–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2017.05.013 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Frederick, S. (2005). Cognitive reflection and decision making. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19(4), 25–42. https://doi.org/10.1257/089533005775196732 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Frese, M., & Gielnik, M. M. (2014). The psychology of entrepreneurship. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1(1), 413–438. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091326 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Gambetti, E., & Giusberti, F. (2019). Personality, decision-making styles and investments. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 80, 14–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2019.03.002 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Germeijs, V., & Verschueren, K. (2011). Indecisiveness and Big Five personality factors: Relationship and specificity. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(7), 1023–1028. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.01.017 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Greenhaus, J. H., Parasuraman, S., & Wormley, W. M. (1990). Effects of race on organizational experiences, job performance evaluations, and career outcomes. Academy of Management Journal, 33, 64–86. https://doi.org/10.2307/256352 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Hamilton, K., Shih, S. I., & Mohammed, S. (2016). The development and validation of the rational and intuitive decision styles scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 98(5), 523–535. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2015.1132426 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Hinne, M., Gronau, Q. F., van den Bergh, D., & Wagenmakers, E. J. (2020). A conceptual introduction to Bayesian model averaging. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 3(2), 200–215. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515245919898657 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • IBM Corp. (2012). IBM SPSS statistics for windows (Version 21.0) [Computer software] https://www.ibm.com/spss First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • JASP Team. (2023). JASP (Version 0.17.1) [Computer software]. https://jasp-stats.org/ First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Judge, T. A., & Piccolo, R. F. (2004). Transformational and transactional leadership: A meta-analytic test of their relative validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(5), 755–768. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.5.755 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Juanchich, M., Dewberry, C., Sirota, M., & Narendran, S. (2016). Cognitive reflection predicts real-life decision outcomes, but not over and above personality and decision-making styles. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 29(1), 52–59. https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.1875 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Leykin, Y., & DeRubeis, R. J. (2010). Decision-making styles and depressive symptomatology: Development of the Decision Styles Questionnaire. Judgment and Decision Making, 5(7), 506–515. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1930297500001674 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Macmillan. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Kerr, S. P., Kerr, W. R., & Xu, T. (2018). Personality traits of entrepreneurs: A review of recent literature. Foundations and Trends in Entrepreneurship, 14(3), 279–356. https://doi.org/10.1561/0300000080 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Kline, R. B. (2015). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. Guilford Publications. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Konovsky, M. A., & Cropanzano, R. (1991). Perceived fairness of employee drug testing as a predictor of employee attitudes and job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76(5), 698–707. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.76.5.698 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Kozhevnikov, M. (2007). Cognitive styles in the context of modern psychology: Toward an integrated framework of cognitive style. Psychological Bulletin, 133(3), 464–481. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.3.464 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Loo, R. (2000). A psychometric evaluation of the general decision-making style inventory. Personality and Individual Differences, 29(5), 895–905. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00241-X First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Mintzberg, H. (2009). Managing. Pearson Education. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Phillips, W. J., Fletcher, J. M., Marks, A. D., & Hine, D. W. (2016). Thinking styles and decision making: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 142(3), 260–290. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000027 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Rauch, A., & Frese, M. (2007). Let’s put the person back into entrepreneurship research: A meta-analysis on the relationship between business owners’ personality traits, business creation, and success. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 16(4), 353–385. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320701595438 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Russ, F. A., McNeilly, K. M., & Comer, J. M. (1996). Leadership, decision making and performance of sales managers: A multi-level approach. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 16(3), 1–15. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Sadler-Smith, E. (2004). Cognitive style and the management of small and medium-sized enterprises. Organization Studies, 25(2), 155–181. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840604036914 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Schmitt, N. (2014). Personality and cognitive ability as predictors of effective performance at work. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1(1), 45–65. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091255 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Schönbrodt, F. D., & Gerstenberg, F. X. (2012). An IRT analysis of motive questionnaires: The unified motive scales. Journal of Research in Personality, 46(6), 725–742. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2012.08.010 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Schönbrodt, F. D., & Perugini, M. (2013). At what sample size do correlations stabilize? Journal of Research in Personality, 47(5), 609–612. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2013.05.009 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Scott, S. G., & Bruce, R. A. (1995). Decision-making style: The development and assessment of a new measure. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 55(5), 818–831. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164495055005017 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Singh, R., & Greenhaus, J. H. (2004). The relation between career decision-making strategies and person–job fit: A study of job changers. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 64(1), 198–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0001-8791(03)00034-4 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Slabbinck, H., Van Witteloostuijn, A., Hermans, J., Vanderstraeten, J., Dejardin, M., Brassey, J., & Ramdani, D. (2018). The added value of implicit motives for management research Development and first validation of a Brief Implicit Association Test (BIAT) for the measurement of implicit motives. PLoS One, 13(6), Article e0198094. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198094 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Spector, P. E., Bauer, J. A., & Fox, S. (2010). Measurement artifacts in the assessment of counterproductive work behavior and organizational citizenship behavior: Do we know what we think we know? Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(4), 781–790. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019477 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Spicer, D. P., & Sadler-Smith, E. (2005). An examination of the general decision making style questionnaire in two UK samples. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 20(2005), 137–149. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940510579777 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Stewart, W. H., & Roth, P. L. (2007). A meta-analysis of achievement motivation differences between entrepreneurs and managers. Journal of Small Business Management, 45(4), 401–421. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-627X.2007.00220.x First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2013). Using multivariate statistics: Pearson new international edition. Pearson Higher Education. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Thunholm, P. (2004). Decision-making style: Habit, style or both? Personality and Individual Differences, 36(4), 931–944. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(03)00162-4 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Ülgen, B., Sağlam, M., & Tuğsal, T. (2016). Managers’ personality traits over management styles and decision-making styles. International Journal of Commerce and Finance, 2(1), 125–136. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Ward, M. K. (2016). The relationships between decision-making styles of entrepreneurs and organizational performance. [Doctoral dissertation, North Carolina State University]. https://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/bitstream/handle/1840.16/11141/etd.pdf First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Westfall, J., & Yarkoni, T. (2016). Statistically controlling for confounding constructs is harder than you think. PLoS One, 11(3), Article e0152719. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152719 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Wetzels, R., van Ravenzwaaij, D., & Wagenmakers, E. J. (2015). Bayesian analysis. In R. CautinS. LilienfeldEds., The encyclopedia of clinical psychology (pp. 274–283). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118625392.wbecp453 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Williams, L. J., & Anderson, S. E. (1991). Job satisfaction and organizational commitment as predictors of organizational citizenship and in-role behaviors. Journal of Management, 17(3), 601–617. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700305 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Wood, N. L. (2012). Individual differences in decision-making styles as predictors of good decision making [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/rws_olink/r/1501/10 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Wood, N. L., & Highhouse, S. (2014). Do self-reported decision styles relate with others’ impressions of decision quality? Personality and Individual Differences, 70, 224–228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.06.036 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in organizations (8th ed.). Prentice Hall. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Zhao, H., & Seibert, S. E. (2006). The big five personality dimensions and entrepreneurial status: A metaanalytical review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 259–271. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.2.259 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar