ABSTRACT
Strategic decision making has long received the attention of the organizational sciences. This chapter presents a new research model in which an attempt is made to integrate several elements of the models of the pioneers and later researchers. The model is aimed at clarifying the main possibilities for actors to control and influence the decision-making process. The amount of centralization reflects the extent to which top management keeps decision making to itself, or involves other groups, parties or hierarchical levels. Aspects of this concept are the openness with which the top approaches the rest of the organization, the extent to which parts of the decision-making process are delegated, and the way in which organizational members participate. Decisions can be highly formalized in the sense that they are regulated by established procedure set down in advance, or they can proceed more flexibly, according to informal considerations of what is appropriate.
