Information, uncertainty and managerial decision quality: an experimental investigation

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Abstract
When an information professional (e.g. accountant or sys tems analyst) provides a decision maker with information, this normally changes the decision maker's uncertainty. The major objective of this research was to study the effects of uncer tainty on managerial decision quality in an unstructured finan cial decision task. The research was carried out within the complexity theory paradigm originally proposed by Schroder et al. [1-6]. Decision quality was operationalized to profit and decision time. Two other independent variables studied were decision experience and task learning. Experimental results showed that higher uncertainty produced higher decision time, and higher variation in profit. The mean profit was not af fected. The decision time effects were hypothesized from the ory. Higher learning resulted in higher profit and lower deci sion time. Higher expenence resulted in higher profit. These effects were also hypothesized. The experiment produced some effects which were not hypothesized. These require investiga tion in future research. The practical implications of the find ings for information professionals were considered. Implica tions for future research were also outlined.