A influência do contexto de mobilidade no processo de tomada de decisão

Abstract

This research aims to identify and analyze how the enterprise mobility context and the use of mobile technologies can influence individual decision-making on the go, in which three elements can be highlighted. First, the focus is in the process rather than outcomes, and the analysis is on the individual who acts as a middle manager. Second, the phenomenon to be studied is the decision-making, which is one of the main responsibilities of middle managers and has its effects reflected in the success or failure of organizational initiatives. Decision-making is a multifaceted phenomenon that can be understood by different theoretical perspectives. This research has used the perspective based on two cognitive systems that shape the individual decision process: intuition and reason. The third element to be highlighted is the specific context in which this phenomenon is studied, called enterprise mobility, which highlights the decision-making on the go and can be observed as affordances and paradoxes of mobile technology. In this context, middle managers can make decisions away from their traditional and fixed workplaces, in which the dimensions of time and space take on different perspectives and linearity can be replaced by a paradoxical action. Two empirical stages with different participants in each one were used, a qualitative, by holding a focus group and twenty in-depth interviews, and an experimental, in which beyond the perceptions of the individuals was possible to observe the action of the individual in a decision situation by a quasi-experiment applied to a control group and an experimental group. The results show that the decision-making process on the go has specific characteristics that are evidenced by the influence of the enterprise mobility context and the use of mobile technology, where restrictions and contributions to decision-making process have been identified. On the one hand, there is a reduction in the perception of information quality, more superficial and less focus on the action in the foreground, less time for reflection, a difficulty in production and consumption of information and greater exposure to error. On the other hand, it was observed that the mobility helps to increase the agility of the organizational and decision flows, especially in cases in which decisions are loaded with a lower level of complexity. However, the decision making on the go has not evidenced difference in the level of intuition or reason that was used. From the academic perspective, research fills a gap in the theoretical comprehension of the phenomenon investigated and contributes methodologically by the validation and use of an experimental protocol. From the managerial perspective, this research offers contributions to middle managers, organizations in general and technology developers. Finally, this research offered a couple of future research recommendations.