Title: IDENTIFICATION OF DETERMINANTS IMPLYING UNCERTAINTY OF BUSINESS DECISIONS OF ENTERPRISES IN TURBULENT ENVIRONMENT
Abstract: The article aims at presenting determinants that imply the uncertainty of business decisions in enterprises in a turbulent environment. The efficiency of business decisions made in the dynamically changing environment is conditioned by decision-makers’ knowledge and experience. A properly organised information system is required for the sake of obtaining all necessary information on time. The system should be integrated with a network of measures and indicators which plays a role of traffic lights for competent staff. In turn, the staff is stimulated by objectives and follows the development path determined by the strategy. The staff objectives should be SMART and predominantly coherent with the organisation strategy in each activity area and at each management level. The article includes survey research results that present the opinions of 50 managers representing various management levels in small, medium-sized and large enterprises in Poland. The opinions are a pilot sample extracted as part of broader research on business decision conditions. The respondents assess the plans and efficiency of undertaken activities. 16% of the surveyed managers mentioned that no plans were made in their enterprises. The long-term planning is implemented only in every fourth case (26%). 66% of the investigated enterprises make annual plans. The most frequently mentioned reasons for making no plans include no interest of higher-level managerial staff and no needed tools. Every other manager is not satisfied by an information system in their enterprise. The most frequently given reasons for missing reliable data are different and incoherent data sources, human errors and incurrent information. The essential conditions of an efficiently working system are considered to be as follows: employees’ competences, cooperation between particular management levels, the system of objectives in line with the enterprise strategy and correlated with particular management levels and organisational cells. Elastic structures combined with a useful information system are required by the enterprise efficient functioning in the more and more turbulent reality. It is indicated by the managers’ opinions as presented in the article that Polish enterprises are yet unable to meet the challenges of the turbulent environment. Everyday problems of the enterprises are also factors that influence the uncertainty of business decisions. The research results show how many changes should be made to Polish enterprises to make them competitive in the “new realityâ€. The attention to the determinants, which imply the uncertainty of business decisions, will make it possible for the enterprises to get better prepared for the turbulent environment challenges.