Page
Individual Decision Making
Completion requirements
View
Individuals think and reason before they act. It is because of this that an understanding of how people make decisions can be helpful for explaining and predicting their behaviour.
Under some decision situations, people follow the optimising model. But for most people and most non-routine decisions, this is probably more the exception than the rule. Few important decisions are simple or unambiguous enough for the optimising model’s assumptions to apply. So, we find individuals looking for solutions that satisfy rather than optimize, injecting biases and prejudices into the decision process and relying on intuition.
The alternative decision models we present can help us explain and predict behaviours that would appear irrational or arbitrary if viewed under optimising assumptions. Let’s look at a couple of examples.
Employment interviews are complex decision activities. The interviewer finds himself or herself inundated with information. Research indicates that interviewers respond by simplifying the process. Most interviewers’ decisions change very little after the first four or five minutes of the interview. In a half-hour interview, the decision-maker tends to decide about the suitability of the candidate in the first few minutes, and then uses the rest of the interview time to select information that supports the early decision. In so-doing, interviewers reduce the probability of identifying the highest-performing candidate. They base their decision towards individuals who make favourable first impressions.
Evaluating the employee’s performance is a complex activity.
Decision-makers simplify the process by focusing on visible and easy-to-measure criteria. This may explain why factors such as neatness, promptness, enthusiasm, and a positive attitude, are often related to good evaluations. It also explains why quantity measures typically override quality measures.
This former category is easier to appraise. This effort at satisfying encourages individuals to take on visible problems rather than important ones.