THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE APPROACH TO DECISION-MAKING PROCESS AT THE STRATEGIC LEVEL OF MANAGEMENT AND THE ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE, SHOWN ON THE EXAMPLE OF CROATIAN COMPANIES

In today's global and highly competitive market, the companies are created, operated and shut down due to the effects of choices made by their members - the decision makers. Their choices are the result of the decision making process and they differ in the meaning and importance depending on the position in the organizational hierarchy. Greatest significance belongs to the decision making process at the strategic management level as strategic decisions determine the trajectory of activities which are essential to the realization of company's conceptual goals. Although there are many empirical studies dealing with the issue of decision-making at the strategic level of management, knowledge about the way in which strategic decisions are made is still incomplete, especially in the context of organizational performance. This paper analyses two main decision making approaches that decision makers follow at the strategic management level, as well as their relationship with organizational performance. The results show that decision makers in the strategic decision making are almost equally oriented towards rational - analytical and empirical - intuitive decision making, while rational-analytic approach yields better results when analysing their relationship with organizational performance.