Chapter 6 Perception and Individual Decision Making Page
a.
2. Cultural differences
a. The rational model makes no acknowledgment of cultural differences, nor
does the bulk of OB research literature on decision making.
b. We need to recognize that the cultural background of a decision maker can
significantly influence the selection of problems, the depth of analysis, the
importance placed on logic and rationality, and whether organizational
decisions should be made autocratically by an individual manager or
collectively in groups.
c. Cultures differ in their time orientation, the importance of rationality, their
belief in the ability of people to solve problems, and their preference for
collective decision making.
i. Differences in time orientation help us understand why managers in
Egypt make decisions at a much slower and more deliberate pace than
their U.S. counterparts.
d. While rationality is valued in North America, that’s not true elsewhere in
the world.
i. A North American manager might make an important decision
intuitively but know it’s important to appear to proceed in a rational
fashion because rationality is highly valued in the West.
ii. In countries such as Iran, where rationality is not as paramount as
other factors, efforts to appear rational are not necessary.
e. Some cultures emphasize solving problems, while others focus on
accepting situations as they are.
i. The United States falls in the first category.
ii. Thailand and Indonesia are examples of the second.
f. Because problem-solving managers believe they can and should change
situations to their benefit, U.S. managers might identify a problem long
before their Thai or Indonesian counterparts would choose to recognize it.
g. Decision making by Japanese managers is much more group-oriented than
in the United States.
i. The Japanese value conformity and cooperation.
ii. Before Japanese CEOs make an important decision, they collect a
large amount of information, which they use in consensus-forming
group decisions.
B. Organizational Constraints
1. Introduction
from the rational model.
2. Performance Evaluation Systems
by which they are evaluated.
3. Reward Systems
payoff.
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4. Formal Regulations
a. Organizations create rules, policies, procedures, and other formalized
regulations to standardize the behavior of their members.
5. System-Imposed Time Constraints
a. Organizations impose deadlines on decisions.
b. Such conditions often make it difficult, if not impossible, for managers to
gather all the information before making a final choice.
6. Historical Precedents
choices. It is common knowledge that the largest determining factor of the
A. Introduction
1. Ethical considerations should be an important criterion in organizational
decision making.
B. Three Ethical Decision Criteria
1. Utilitarianism—an ethical perspective, in which decisions are made solely
based on their outcomes or consequences.
tends to dominate business decision making.
b. Promotes efficiency, productivity, and high profits.
2. Focus on rights—calls on individuals to make decisions consistent with
fundamental liberties and privileges as set forth in documents such as the Bill
of Rights.
speech, and due process.
b. Focus on justice—requires individuals to impose and enforce rules fairly
and impartially.
using their right to free speech.
3. A third criterion is to impose and enforce rules fairly and impartially to ensure
justice or an equitable distribution of benefits and costs.
norms, or moral principles).
b. For example, some employees might feel as if they should not steal from
their workplace because it is ethically “wrong” by moral norms,
moral norm or principle.
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4. Increasingly, researchers are turning to behavioral ethics—an area of study
dilemmas.
a. Their research tells us that while ethical standards exist collectively
and we sometimes violate our own standards.
5. How might we increase ethical decision making in organizations?
behavior in organizations.
b. Second, managers should encourage conversations about moral issues;
they are.
6. Behavioral ethics research stresses the importance of culture to ethical
decision making.
West illustrate.
b. What is ethical in one culture may be unethical in another.
7. Lying
a. Lying is one of the top unethical activities we may indulge in daily, and it
undermines all efforts toward sound decision making.
b. Lying is deadly to decision making, whether we sense the lies or not.
i. Managers—and organizations—simply cannot make good decisions
when facts are misrepresented and people give false motives for their
behaviors.
c. Lying is a big ethical problem as well.
III. Creativity, Creative Decision Making, and Innovation in Organizations
A. Introduction
1. Definition: Creativity is the ability to produce novel and useful ideas. These
are ideas that are different from what has been done before, but that are also
appropriate to the problem.
B. Creative Behavior
1. Creative behavior occurs in four steps, each of which leads to the next.
a. Problem formulation: any act of creativity begins with a problem that the
behavior is designed to solve.
i. Problem formulation: the stage of creative behavior in which we
identify a problem or opportunity that requires a solution as yet
unknown.
b. Information gathering: given a problem, the solution is rarely directly at
hand. We need time to learn more and to process that learning.
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i. Information gathering: the stage of creative behavior when possible
solutions to a problem incubate in an individual’s mind.
c. Idea generation: once we have collected the relevant information, it is
time to translate that knowledge into ideas.
i. Idea generation: the process of creative behavior in which we
develop possible solutions to a problem from relevant information and
knowledge.
d. Idea evaluation: finally, it’s time to choose from the ideas we have
generated.
i. Idea evaluation: the process of creative behavior in which we
evaluate potential solutions to identify the best one.
C. Causes of Creative Behavior
1. Creative Potential
2. Is there such a thing as a creative personality?
a. Indeed. Most people have some of the characteristics shared by
exceptionally creative people. The more of these characteristics we have,
the higher our creative potential.
i. Intelligence and Creativity Intelligence is related to creativity. Smart
people are more creative because they are better at solving complex
problems.
ii. Personality and Creativity The Big Five personality trait of openness
to experience (see Chapter 5) correlates with creativity, probably
because open individuals are less conformist in action and more
divergent in thinking.
iii. Expertise and Creativity Expertise is the foundation for all creative
work and thus, is the single most important predictor of creative
potential.
iv. Ethics and Creativity Although creativity is linked to many desirable
individual characteristics, it is not correlated with ethicality.
3. Creative Environment
4. What environmental factors affect whether creative potential translates into
creative behaviors?
a. First, and perhaps most important, is motivation. If you aren’t motivated to
be creative, it is unlikely you will be.
b. It is also valuable to work in an environment that rewards and recognizes
creative work.
c. A recent nation-level study suggests that countries scoring high on
Hofstede’s culture dimension of individuality are more creative.
d. Good leadership matters to creativity too.
e. Studies show that diverse teams can be more creative, but only under
certain conditions.
5. Creative outcomes (Innovation)
6. We can define creative outcomes as ideas or solutions judged to be novel and
useful by relevant stakeholders.
a. Novelty itself does not generate a creative outcome if it isn’t useful. Thus,
“off-the-wall” solutions are creative only if they help solve the problem.
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b. Soft skills help translate ideas into results.
X. Summary and Implications for Managers
A. Individuals base their behavior not on the way their external environment actually
is, but rather on the way they see it or believe it to be.
B. An understanding of the way people make decisions can help us explain and
predict behavior, but few important decisions are simple or unambiguous enough
for the rational model’s assumptions to apply.
C. We find individuals looking for solutions that satisfice rather than optimize,
innovative decision making.
E. Specific implications for managers are below:
1. Behavior follows perception, so to influence behavior at work, assess how
people perceive their work. Often behaviors we find puzzling can be
explained by understanding the initiating perceptions.
decision-making model or to try to make your decisions appear rational.
Adjust your decision approach to ensure compatibility with the organizational
culture.
4. Combine rational analysis with intuition. These are not conflicting approaches
making effectiveness.
5. Try to enhance your creativity. Actively look for novel solutions to problems,
attempt to see problems in new ways, use analogies, and hire creative talent.
Try to remove work and organizational barriers that might impede your
creativity.
Career OBjectives
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objectives: Explain the factors that influence perception; Explain the link between perception
and decision making
Learning Outcomes: Apply the study of perception and attribution to the workplace
AASCB: Reflective thinking
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Dear Renée,
This issue seems to be very frustrating to you, and we’d like to help you eliminate that
your organization of your valuable work time.
According to Ann Tenbrunsel, Director of the Institute for Ethical Business Worldwide,
the way we look at our decisions changes our perception of our behaviors. You view your
tardiness as something that just happens, not part of a decision process. What if you
looked at your tardiness as a daily ethical decision? Your organization has a start time to
ethics are in play, research indicates punishment doesn’t work. Reframing the decisions
so we see the ethical implications does work. Try these steps to gain insight:
• Look at the motives for your decisions during your morning routine. Can you see
where you make choices?
decisions might be suspect.
• Look at the facts. How do the reasons for your past delays reflect attitudes you
have unconsciously acted on?
If you can see the ethical aspect of your daily lateness, you can work to meet the
expectation. Think briefly about the ethics of your morning choices when you first wake
Myth or Science?
“All Stereotypes Are Negative”
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objectives: Explain the factors that influence perception; Describe attribution theory; Explain
the link between perception and decision making
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AASCB: Reflective thinking
This statement is false. Positive stereotypes exist as much as negative ones. A study of
Princeton University students shows, for example, that even today we believe Germans
are better workers, Italians and African Americans are more loyal, Jews and Chinese are
more intelligent, and Japanese and English are more courteous. What is surprising is that
positive stereotypes are not always positive.
leave science, technology, engineering, and math majors. Finally, a study used basketball
to illustrate the complexity of stereotypes. Researchers provided evidence to one group of
undergraduates that whites were better free throw shooters than blacks. Another group
was provided evidence that blacks were better free throw shooters than whites. A third
best performance was turned in by those in the group without stereotypic information.
“Choking” is not the only negative thing about positive stereotypes. Research revealed
that when women or Asian Americans heard positive stereotypes about themselves
(“women are nurturing”; “Asians are good at math”), they felt depersonalized and reacted
negative.
Stereotypes are understandable. To function, we need shortcuts. This shortcut, however,
runs both ways. Because stereotypes are socially learned, we need to be vigilant about not
accepting or propagating them among our coworkers and peers.
Sources: A. C. Kay, M. V. Day, M. P. Zanna, and A. D. Nussbaum, “The Insidious (and Ironic) Effects of Positive Stereotypes,”
and Observer Pressure on Athletic Performance,” Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology 34 (2012), pp. 3–15.
Class Exercise
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negative stereotype.
3. Then, ask students to consider whether they have ever benefited from a positive
stereotype.
4. Finally, ask students to think about whether they have unfairly viewed others
based on a negative stereotype, or whether they have expected something because
of a positive stereotype of another individual.
stereotyping, both negative and positive.
Teaching Notes
This exercise is applicable to face-to-face classes or synchronous online classes such as
BlackBoard 9.1, Breeze, WIMBA, and Second Life Virtual Classrooms. See
(http://www.wimba.com/solutions/higher-education/wimba_classroom_for_higher_education),
(http://go.secondlife.com/landing/education/) and
(http://docplayer.net/19442732-Effective-use-of-collaboration-tools-for-online-learning-jennifer-pontano-k
e-anna-skipwith-drexel-university-e-learning-2-0-conference-march-2011.html) for more information.
An Ethical Choice
Choosing to Lie
This exercise contributes to:
that if we lied less, organizations and society would be better off. So how might that be
done? Research conducted by behavioral scientists suggests some steps to recovery.
1. Stop lying to ourselves. We lie to ourselves about how much we lie. Specifically, many
studies reveal that we deem ourselves much less likely to lie than we judge others to
than we are.
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2. Trust, but verify. A recent study showed that lying is learned at a very young age.
lying is costly and find ways to shine a light on it when it occurs.
3. Reward honesty. “The most difficult thing is to recognize that sometimes we too are
blinded by our own incentives,” writes Dan Ariely, “because we don’t see how our
conflicts of interest work on us.” So if we want more honesty, we have to provide
Deception Experience and Deception Skill,” Group Decision and Negotiation 22 (2013), pp. 153–172.
Class Exercise
1. Divide the class into three groups.
2. Ask each group to list situations in which they feel lying is acceptable.
evaluate why they differ.
5. Finally, ask students to think about what could prevent them from lying in
each of the situations. Would the same solution apply in all cases?
Teaching Notes
This exercise is applicable to face-to-face classes or synchronous online classes such as
(http://docplayer.net/19442732-Effective-use-of-collaboration-tools-for-online-learning-jennifer-pontano-k
e-anna-skipwith-drexel-university-e-learning-2-0-conference-march-2011.html) for more information.
MyLab Management
Personal Inventory Assessments
Creativity Scale
mildly creative.
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MyLab Management
Try It!
Perceptions and Individual Decision Making
to complete the video exercise.
MyLab Management
Watch It!
Orpheus Group Casting: Social Perceptions and
Attribution
to complete the video exercise.
Point/Counterpoint
Implicit Assessment
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objectives: Explain the factors that influence perception; Describe attribution theory; Contrast
AACSB: Reflective thinking
Point
As mentioned earlier in this chapter, some decisions are made intuitively—they are made
nonconsciously, quickly, and emotionally in the moment. So isn’t it likely that we may be
acting prejudicially toward others without even realizing it?
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decision speeds (in milliseconds) for these two associations provides an estimate of one’s
prejudice or bias.
The IAT has been very helpful in furthering research on nonconscious decision making
and prejudice, suggesting that “milliseconds matter” in understanding nonconscious,
makeups.
The IAT has helped us understand that people prefer women over men and mothers over
fathers implicitly, but as soon as women are judged within a “male” domain, the
preferences shift: We tend to prefer male authority figures and leaders over female ones.
A 2009 meta-analysis of nearly 15,000 people found that the IAT was moderately related
Counterpoint
Although intuition certainly plays a role in decision-making, can a test actually tell us
whether we are prejudiced? Is the number of milli-seconds it takes to select an
association between two concepts enough to tell someone that he/she is biased? This link
between the IAT and biased behavior has long been questioned by scholars, notably Hart
Blanton.
impossible to separate true variability in the IAT vs. that which is due to faking (when
people are instructed to fake the IAT).
Furthermore, in an updated meta-analysis published in 2015, Blanton and colleagues
found that the IAT does very little to predict behavior, perceptions, policy preferences,
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the findings were smaller than anticipated and our changed substantially because of
outliers and other factors (although this was debated by the original authors).
Uhlmann, and M. R. Banaji, “Understanding and Using the Implicit Association Test: III. Meta-Analysis of Predictive Validity”,
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 97, no. 1 (2009): 17–41; J. Kluger, “There’s a Test That may Reveal Racial Bias in
Police—and in all of us”, Time, July 8, 2016, http://time.com/4398505/implicit-association-racism-test/; C. Mooney, “Across
America, Whites are Biased and They Don’t Even Know it”, The Washington Post, December 8, 2014,
http://www.popsci.com/dont-think-youre-sexist-sorry-we-all-are.
Class Exercise
1. Divide the class into pairs of groups of three each.
2. Assign one group out of each pair to take the Point position and the other
Teaching Notes
This exercise is applicable to face-to-face classes or synchronous online classes such as
BlackBoard 9.1, Breeze, WIMBA, and Second Life Virtual Classrooms. See
(http://www.wimba.com/solutions/higher-education/wimba_classroom_for_higher_education),
(http://go.secondlife.com/landing/education/) and
(http://docplayer.net/19442732-Effective-use-of-collaboration-tools-for-online-learning-jennifer-pontano-k
e-anna-skipwith-drexel-university-e-learning-2-0-conference-march-2011.html) for more information.
185