Ob Ch 6

rational decision-making model

1. Define the problem. 2. Identify the decision criteria. 3. Allocate weights to the criteria. 4. Develop the alternatives. 5. Evaluate the alternatives. 6. Select the best alternative.

problem

A discrepancy between the current state of affairs and some desired state.

perception

A process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.

bounded rationality

A process of making decisions by constructing simplified models that extract the essential features from problems without capturing all their complexity.

self-fulfilling prophecy

A situation in which a person inaccurately perceives a second person, and the resulting expectations cause the second person to behave in ways consistent with the original perception.

utilitarianism

A system in which decisions are made to provide the greatest good for the greatest number.

justice

A third criterion is to impose and enforce rules fairly and impartially to ensure ______ or an equitable distribution of benefits and costs.

satisfice

Also many problems don't have an optimal solution because they are too complicated to fit the rational decision-making model. So people ______ ; they seek solutions that are satisfactory and sufficient.

attribution theory

An attempt to determine whether an individual's behavior is internally or externally caused.

escalation of commitment

An increased commitment to a previous decision in spite of negative information.

contrast effect

An old adage among entertainers is "Never follow an act that has kids or animals in it." Why? Audiences love children and animals so much that you'll look bad in comparison.

intuitive

An unconscious process created out of distilled experience.

bounded rationality

Because the human mind cannot formulate and solve complex problems with full rationality, we operate within the confines of ___________.

rational

Characterized by making consistent, value-maximizing choices within specified constraints.

decisions

Choices made from among two or more alternatives.

problem

Decision making occurs as a reaction to a _______.

contrast effect

Evaluation of a person's characteristics that is affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics.

availability bias

Events that evoke emotions, are particularly vivid, or are more recent tend to be more available in our memory, leading us to overestimate the chances of unlikely events such as an airplane crash.

self-serving bias

Finally, people with high self-esteem are strongly motivated to maintain it, so they use the _______ to preserve it.

consensus

If everyone who faces a similar situation responds in the same way, we can say the behavior shows

perception

Individuals base their behavior not on the way their external environment actually is but rather on what they see or believe it to be.

decisions

Individuals in organizations make _______, choices from among two or more alternatives.

whistle-blowers

Individuals who report unethical practices by their employer to outsiders

weakest

Individuals whose intellectual and interpersonal abilities are ______ are most likely to overestimate their performance and ability.

heuristics

It's less difficult to deal with an unmanageable number of stimuli if we use _______ or stereotypes

stereotyping

Judging someone on the basis of one's perception of the group to which that person belongs.

self-serving bias

People also tend to attribute ambiguous information as relatively flattering and accept positive feedback while rejecting negative feedback.

intuitive

Perhaps the least rational way of making decisions is _______ decision making, an unconscious process created from distilled experience.

conscientiousness

Specific facets of ______ —rather than the broad trait itself—may affect escalation of commitment

acceptable

That ends our search. So the solution represents a satisficing choice—the first ________ one we encounter—rather than an optimal one.

rational

The _____ decision-making model relies on a number of assumptions, including that the decision maker has complete information, is able to identify all the relevant options in an unbiased manner,

rational

The _______ model makes no acknowledgment of cultural differences, nor does the bulk of OB research literature on decision making.

rational

The __________ decision-making model describes how individuals should behave in order to maximize some outcome.

creativity

The ability to produce novel and useful ideas.

task motivation

The final component in the three-component model of creativity is intrinsic _______ .

three-component model of creativity

The proposition that individual creativity requires expertise, creative thinking skills, and intrinsic task motivation.

self-serving bias

The tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal factors and put the blame for failures on external factors.

randomness error

The tendency of individuals to believe that they can predict the outcome of random events.

hindsight bias

The tendency to believe falsely, after an outcome of an event is actually known, that one would have accurately predicted that outcome.

halo effect

The tendency to draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic.

risk aversion

The tendency to prefer a sure gain of a moderate amount over a riskier outcome, even if the riskier outcome might have a higher expected payoff.

confirmation bias

The tendency to seek out information that reaffirms past choices and to discount information that contradicts past judgments.

selective perception

The tendency to selectively interpret what one sees on the basis of one's interests, background, experience, and attitudes.

fundamental attribution error

The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others.

self-fulfilling prophecy

The terms ________ and Pygmalion effect describe how an individual's behavior is determined by others' expectations.

pygmalion effect

The terms self-fulfilling prophecy and _________ describe how an individual's behavior is determined by others' expectations.

creative-thinking

This encompasses personality characteristics associated with creativity, the ability to use analogies, and the talent to see the familiar in a different light.

mental ability

We know people with higher levels of _______ are able to process information more quickly, solve problems more accurately, and learn faster, so you might expect them also to be less susceptible to common decision errors.

rational

We often think the best decision maker is ______ and makes consistent, value-maximizing choices within specified constraints.

halo effect

When we draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic, such as intelligence, sociability, or appearance, a ______ is operating

stereotyping

When we judge someone on the basis of our perception of the group to which he or she belongs

overconfidence bias

When we're given factual questions and asked to judge the probability that our answers are correct, we tend to be far too optimistic.

internally

_______ caused behaviors are those we believe to be under the personal control of the individual.

satisficing

_______ is not always a bad idea—a simple process may frequently be more sensible than the traditional rational decision-making model.

intrinsic

________ task motivation turns creativity potential into actual creative ideas

externally

_________ caused behavior is what we imagine the situation forced the individual to do

anchoring bias

a tendency to fixate on initial information and fail to adequately adjust for subsequent information.

consistency

an observer looks for ______ in a person's actions

attribution error

fundamental ____________ can explain why a sales manager is prone to attribute the poor performance of her sales agents to laziness rather than to the innovative product line introduced by a competitor

availability bias

is our tendency to base judgments on information readily available.

satisfactory state of affairs

opposite of problem

utilitarianism

proposes making decisions solely on the basis of their outcomes, ideally to provide the greatest good for the greatest number.

rumination

refers to reflecting at length

escalation of commitment

refers to staying with a decision even when there is clear evidence it's wrong.

distinctiveness

refers to whether an individual displays different behaviors in different situations

confirmation bias

represents a specific case of selective perception: we seek out information that reaffirms our past choices, and we discount information that contradicts them.

expertise

the foundation for all creative work.