Rational Strategic Decision-Making During Crises : A Process Approach

As currently exemplified by the COVID-19 situation, there is a need to conduct strategic decision-making research through a process approach for crisis where threats, uncertainties, instabilities, pressures and virous negative environmental factors present or coming. The purpose of this research is to examine the presence of rational strategic decision-making processes and relevant factors involved in a crisis context from empirical managerial practice. This research is based on seven multi-case study interviews of both top and middle level managers from multiple industries. Empirical evidence indicates the predominance of a rational strategic decision-making process with intuitive elements incorporated in within a situation of crisis. A rational strategic decision-making process with intuitive elements embedded in is derived and structured from the data collected. This paper further presents many influential factors in the processes that are either already known (e.g., information, uncertainty, heterogeneity, dynamism) or newly discovered/named (e.g., regulatory requirement, sustainability and heteroturbulence)