ABSTRACT
Research on normative decision process theory certainly confirms that situational factors can make a big difference. Correlational analyses indicates that participativeness as determined from the normative decision process theory measures is positively related to other indexes of an employee-centered orientation; it is negatively correlated with authoritarianism. The Frank Heller theory utilizes a decision-sharing continuum very similar to Victor Vroom, but the contingency variables are only partially overlapping. Much of the early research conducted by Vroom and his colleagues utilized managers participating in management development programs. A number of decision rules have been developed to guide the use of the leadership behaviors. The frequent similarities between findings related to Vroom's normative decision process theory and the research on Heller's influence power continuum theory gives considerable credence to the Vroom formulations. Thus, the evaluations for decision process theory reported at the beginning of this chapter are consistently favorable. The chapter discusses the validity of component rules and decision tree.
