Effects of Departments' Interdependence on Organizational Decision Making
The goal interdependence of departments was expected to affect how their representatives discussed an organizational decision. 54 undergraduates in business administration were assigned to be representatives of two different departments and were led to believe that their departments were to cooperate for mutual benefit, compete to outdo each other, or to seek their own individualistic interests. Compared with the competitively linked representatives, the cooperative and individualistc representatves integrated both departments' views into their recommendation for the decision. Perhaps because they more openly confronted opposing views, individualistic subjects, although they reported that they understood the other's position less, tended to demonstrate more knowledge of the other's preferences than did those in the other two conditions. Department representatives were not necessarily unresponsive to each other's views. Individualistic and cooperative but not competitive goal interdependence seemed to contribute to organizational decision making.