Advice Seeking and Decision Comprehensiveness: Moderation of Organizational Empowerment Climate

The conceptualization of decision comprehensiveness in existing literature has largely overlooked the routines by which managers acquire new knowledge. In this paper, we discern external and internal advice seeking as contributing activities for decision comprehensiveness. We find that these activities positively interact in their contribution, but are also contingent on the empowerment climate in the organization. Empowerment climate can substitute the need for external advice seeking for decision comprehensiveness, but it can strengthen the relationship between internal advice seeking and decision comprehensiveness. By examining the advice seeking activity of senior executives within and outside the firm, we highlight the boundaries of relying on external or internal advice sources for comprehensive decision making.