Providing a model of how government managers' fear of decision arises; Using the foundation data method

Purpose: The fear and hesitancy of managers in making decisions ends up in a phenomenon called decision phobia, which sometimes has dangerous and irreparable consequences for the individual, employees and organization. By identifying this phenomenon, organizations can reduce its consequences. The purpose of this research is to present a model of how the phenomenon of decision-phobia of government agency managers appears and also to identify various solutions to deal with this phenomenon in government organizations.
Research method: The current research is descriptive-exploratory in terms of its practical purpose and in terms of the method of data collection, and it is of a qualitative research type that has been used using the foundation data method. Since the current research is qualitative, the data collection method is in-depth interviews with the participants. Based on this, 20 public administrators and management professors were selected as sample members using the purposeful sampling method and based on the principle of theoretical adequacy. In this research, in order to review and analyze the data obtained from the interview, the method of qualitative content analysis with inductive approach has been used.
Findings: Based on the textual analysis of the interviews, the understanding and recognition of the phenomenon of decision phobia, causal variables, intervening variables, influencing variables and the consequences of dealing with this phenomenon have been extracted. The results showed that changing organizational culture, creating flexible organizational structures, training and individual development of managers and supporting managers and decision-makers can prevent the phenomenon of decision phobia.