| This study examines the factors which influence decisionmaking for capital resource allocation. The decisionmaking process is studied from an organizational decisionmaking perspective (Simon and March, 1958; March and Cyert, 1963). This study identifies the key actors in the budgetary process, how and when they participate in the process, and to what extent the degree of decisionmaking authority is shared. To accomplish this, the budgeting process in six hospitals was studied using ethnoscientific research methods.;To identify the constraints operating within the decisionmaking process, it is necessary to sequence events, record results and identify participant involvement. This information is gathered via an interviewing technique. Transcriptions of interviews are designed so that information can be drawn from respondents' perceptions of the events involved in the budgetmaking process. From this information, generalizations are made on how discretionary power, influence and constraints operate in the budgetary process.;The results of this study support Vroom and Yetton's (1973) contingency model of decisionmaking. Their model suggests that power is retained by the administrator who assesses the decision situation in order to choose a decision strategy. Pfeffer's (1977) political model is also supported. He found that organizational decisionmaking is not consistent with organizational rationality but rather with personal rationality. The administrators have power and influence and maintain control of the decision process. Specifically, the results of the study indicate that the degree to which decisionmaking is shared is a function of the administrator's needs and choices, irrespective of the power and desires of those who are affected by the decision.;The decisionmaking process is influenced by multiple factors including; decision attributes, organizational attributes, and environmental attributes. These factors can explain the variation of shared decisionmaking which include: autocratic, consultative, committee, coalitional or bargained. Ethnoscience methods can define these variations of decisionmaking in greater detail by tracing and linking the factors that influence the decision process. |
