Decision Making Under Stress: An Exploratory Study in Lebanon

Nowadays, balancing work and family is getting more demanding, finding time for oneself is difficult, and the demands of work are overwhelming; life is becoming more stressful. Stress has become one of the factors that decision-makers must contend with in most life-or-death situations. In business, stress can be detrimental to the success of managers when making key decisions. This paper presents an exploratory study on the effect of stress on decision makers. It focuses on the impact of stress throughout the decision-making process and not only at the time of decision. It also highlights the importance of mitigating stress in order to reach an effective decision. The impact of stress is studied from two perspectives, one of the decision makers themselves and another of their subordinates. The findings of the research give a holistic view on stress and its impact on decision makers, and an insight into business stress mitigation strategies. The research adopts a quantitative approach where data is gathered from different conveniently selected employees, through survey questionnaires that are used to gather insight into the employees' perception of managers' performance under stress. Detailed results of the survey questionnaires are stated and are analyzed using the software SPSS for quantitative data. This research suggests that a better understanding of the interplay between stress and an individual's judgment and decision-making activities may yield a better understanding of how people reach the choices they make under stress.