Thesis (M. Nurs.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 99 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 62-69).

Proefschrift Rijksuniversiteit Limburg, Maastricht. / Met lit. opg. - Met samenvatting in het Nederlands.

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The growth of international businesses within the context of economic globalisation has created different operating environments that have exposed managers at both national and international levels to different business challenges as well as moral dilemmas. The moral dilemmas and subsequent decisions facing managers in Britain and China today are important considerations both in terms of research knowledge and management practices. This thesis is based on a triangulated cross-cultural comparative study of managers working for British multi-national corporations (MNCs) in China and the United Kingdom (UK). The study includes a postal survey and semi-structured interviews with Chinese and British managers of British MNCs that represent various industries. Alternative to traditional approach, the study has investigated the reality experienced by the managers in their decision making when confronted by moral dilemmas. The managers‟ moral behaviour processes are compared. For China-based managers, the recent moral, economic, social and cultural changes in modern China have contributed to the creation of ethical challenges. The dilemma for them is whether to follow local practices or the corporate standards of their British companies. For managers who are based in Britain, the centre of the moral tension is caused by reconciling personal ethical standards when making decisions to prioritise business rationale. Similarities found between Chinese and British managers show that despite moral struggles and discomfort suffered by managers, the decisions they finally make are determined by a leaning towards their companies‟ continued benefit. The evidence in this study suggests that managers‟ moral behaviour and final decisions are not often determined by what they personally think is morally right or wrong, but determined by their managerial responsibility, business pressure, commonly accepted practices, business culture and social environment, as well as changing economic environments. The components which play essential parts in constructing moral behaviour include managers‟ moral sensitivity, judgement, motivation and decisions. Business rationale and economic values of a decision are consistently shown to be the main reasons which can explain managers‟ decisions. This is the reality of managerial ethical decision-making interpreted and understood by the managers in China and the UK in this study.

In decision making problems under uncertainty, Mean Variance Model (MVM) consistent with Expected Utility Theory (EUT) plays an important role in ranking preferences for various alternative options. Despite its wide use, this model is appropriate only when random variables representing the alternative options are normally distributed and the utility function to be maximized is quadratic; both are undesirable properties to be satisfied with actual applications. In this research, a novel methodology has been adopted in developing generalized models that can reduce the deficiency of the existing models to solve large-scale decision problems, along with applications to real-world disputes. More specifically, for eliciting preferences for pairs of alternative options, two approaches are developed: one is based on Mean Variance Model (MVM), which is consistent with Expected Utility Theory (EUT), and the second is based on Analytic Hierarchy Processes (AHP). The main innovation in the first approach is in reformulating MVM to be based on cumulative functions using simulation. Two models under this approach are introduced: the first deals with ranking preferences for pairs of lotteries/options with non-negative outcomes only while the second, which is for risk modelling, is a risk-preference model that concerns normalized lotteries representing risk factors each is obtained from a multiplication decomposition of a lottery into its mean multiplied by a risk factor. Both approximation models, which are preference-based using the determined values for expected utility, have the potential to accommodate various distribution functions with different utility functions and capable of handling decision problems especially those encountered in financial economics. The study then reformulates the second approach, AHP; a new algorithm, using simulation, introduces an approximation method that restricts the level of inherent uncertainty to a certain limit. The research further focuses on proposing an integrated preference-based AHP model introducing a novel approximation stepwise algorithm that combines the two modified approaches, namely MVM and AHP; it multiplies the determined value for expected utility, which results from implementing the modified MVM, by the one obtained from processing AHP to obtain an aggregated weight indicator. The new integrated weight scale represents an accurate and flexible tool that can be employed efficiently to solve decision making problems for possible scenarios that concern financial economics Finally, to illustrate how the integrated model can be used as a practical methodology to solve real life selection problems, this research explores the first empirical case study on Tender Selection Process (TSP) in Kurdistan Region (KR) of Iraq; it is considered as an inductive and a comprehensive investigation on TSP, which has received minimum consideration in the region, and regarded as a significant contribution to this research. The implementation of the proposed model to this case study shows that, for the evaluation of construction tenders, the integrated approach is an appropriate model, which can be easily modified to assume specific conditions of the proposed project. Using simulation, generated data allows creation of a feedback system that can be utilized for the evaluation of future projects in addition to its capability to make data handling easier and the evaluation process less complex and time consuming.

No abstract / Decision Sciences / M. Sc. (Operations Research)

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