Decision-making process and organizational performance in private companies in northern Chile

The aim of this research is to describe the relationship between decision-making process and organizational performance of private companies in northern Chile. With this purpose a quantitative methodology was applied to a questionnaire addessed to a sample of 96 top management executives of private institutions of northern Chile, corresponding to a response rate of 22.2%. Intentional sampling technique was used. Three linear regression analysis were performed and their results show that organizational performance is explained by 59.9% for the quality of strategic decisions (p <0.01), the quality of strategic decisions is explained by 61.5% for the degree the degree of rationality of the process of strategic decision-making (p <0.01) and the cognitive conflict and cognitive flexibility explained 76.4% of the rationality of the decision-making process (p <0,01). Therefore, it is concluded that the decision-making process includes a number of elements that affect the quality of strategic decisions, the latter being the one related directly and positively to organizational performance of institutions.