The effect of top management team trust on the relationship among top management team heterogeneity, collaborative decision-making processes, and strategic decision-making outcomes

This study investigated how top management team trust affects the strategic decision-making process, and the strategic decision-making outcomes of decision quality, decision speed, and commitment to decisions. Data was collected from the top management teams of 86 hospitals operating in the Southeastern United States.

Theory from the small group literature was integrated with the upper echelons perspective of organizations to develop a model and identify variables of interest. Data analysis produced a fairly strong and interesting set of findings. Top management team trust, and the interaction between top management team trust and top management team heterogeneity were found to be strong predictors of the extent to which top management team members expressed a difference of opinion during the strategic decision-making process. Top management team trust was also found to predict collaborative decision-making processes, which in turn were found to moderate the relationship between top management team dissent and the strategic decision-making outcomes of decision quality, and top management team commitment to decisions. Collaborative decision-making processes were found to independently predict decision speed. The results demonstrate the importance of including top management team dynamics and decision-making processes when studying organizations from an upper echelons perspective.