Source and Characteristic of Different Slack Resource: An Empirical Analysis Based on Decision-Making Perspective

This study considers how the mode of decision-making affects the formation of different slack resources by a programmed decision-making and a non-programmed decision-making to increases or decrease slack resources. Based on the "bounded rationality" view of the slack resource, this paper divided slack into three types, physical slack, human slack and relations slack, and established a model for the relationship between types of decision-making and formation of organizational slack. Six hypotheses are tested using the 283 manufacturing enterprises in Henan province in China. The results show that the programmed decision-making is negatively associated with physical and human slack, and non-programmed decision-making is positively associated with physical and human slack, negatively associated with relation slack. These findings substantiate that physical and human slack resources of manufacturing enterprises in China mainly attribute to non-programmed decision activities. It implicates that manager to choose different type of decision-making need to consider balance of different slack resources due to different type of decision-making is beneficial to decrease certain slack, but simultaneity increases other slack. These results also provide more support for the "bounded rationality" view of slack resource.