ARE MALAYSIA MANAGERS MORE RATIONAL THAN UNITED STATES MANAGERS?

The purpose of this paper is to examine and compare the factors that influence intuition as a decision-making tool for managers in Malaysia and in the United States. The underlying study examined the relationships among gender, management level, country of operation, and the reported use of intuition in decision making. Agor’s Intuitive Measurement Survey (AIM) survey was adapted (with permission from copyright owner) from Weston Agor’s study to measure the relationship between a manager’s reported use of intuition in decision making and the manager’s management level, the manager’s gender, and the manager’s country of operation. The research shows significant relationship between research variables. Male managers in Malaysia’s reported use of intuition in decision making was significantly lower than US managers reported use. Limitations of the study include the following: Samples were a combination of criterion, maximum variation and convenience based selection of companies in Malaysia and the United States. United States samples were selected from the East and West coast of the United States. The limitations could impact study’s external validity. Study’s findings are quite significant to global business managers intending to shift more of their activities to Asia in the near future. Multinational corporations would have to provide more data for their Malaysian managers. This Study had fivesignificant findings. Business schools in the West may need to redesign their curriculum as more business managers feel more comfortable with intuitive decision making techniques.