Biases and Judgments - Research Paper Example

? Biases and judgments affiliation Biases and judgments Biases and judgments have the same implication in an organizationwhich is decision making but, they have different explanations in the process of decision making. Bias refers to the unfair influencing of choices, attitude or even decision making. Judgment, on the other hand, refers to the carefully thinking and considerations of matters at hand before making a decision. As much as bias is termed as unfair to certain individuals, sometimes it may be good for an organization. Influencing choices for the sake of the organization is seen as a management tool. Judgment is the best management tool since many ideas are put into perspective thus having a high probability of making a decisive decision. The purpose of this study is mainly to determine the effects of application of both judgment and biases to an organization. Studying the purposes gives the opinion on the best management tool. According to Grise and Gallupe (2000), the effectiveness of management is determined by way of decision making. It is an obvious assumption that judgment is a better way of decision making than biases. Biases are ill painted because it may be used to cover an individual interest at the expense of the organization. In this paper, the hypothesis applied is that biases lead to inequality in organizations. Managers who choose bias over judgment are likely to make mistakes. There are several types of judgment and biases; information, cognitive, risk and uncertainty biases. From the four examples above, all form part of the dependent variables apart from the information biases. Information biases are the primary cluster filters and influences that influence decisions. This is for the reason that, when selecting amongst decisions, judgment makers at most instances instinctively misrepresent information. This is recognized as interest bias, optimism, conclusion bias, significance bias and self interest thinking. Information bias can also alter how the search of information usually is undertaken. Paucity of appropriate information, the staff in an organization may fail to do the right but without their knowledge. This consequently provides room for certain individuals or groups to fulfill their self interest. During decision making certain information may be ignored or added to achieve a specific outcome. This can be done by a trait known as illusion control. The illusion control is where judgment makers overrate the degree to which the outcome of a verdict is on their hands, and their capability to correct or repair harms should they come up as a consequence of a verdict. Additionally, there is an overrating of the personal abilities of the judgment maker to make the verdict. This type of bias tends to benefit persons who have achieved success in decision making. Decision makers influenced by this bias have a tendency to center their attention on the sections of the decision they can manage and ignore the factors that display uncertainty (Irani and Love, 2001). They also overrate their own responsibilities in order to assure themselves in case any form doubt comes up. Risk biases include the third set of choices and influences that take action on the decision procedure. These biases mostly take action on decision options which are aimed at reducing risk all through the decision making process. The awareness of risk shape decision results because a high percentage of the information and cognitive biases used by judgment makers are as well used to lessen the risk. Predictable choice making theory proposes that, choice is a mixture of risk and likely gains. Judgment makers, who are risk reluctant, go with options that have less possible gains, slighter options of results with less risk. Decision creators who seek risks go with options that potentially offer higher interests, although with better variation in results the higher the risks. Mangers tend to take risk more frequently when they come up with the decision individually than group thinking is applied. Risk taking among managers has a positive impact on their position if the outcomes are fruitful. In the case of group thinking, the risk taking responsibility may be taken by several individuals thus mangers not having as enough influence as they want would like. This in turn, makes managers turn down risk taking proposals originating from group thinking. Uncertainty biases may increase or decrease the level of uncertainty provided to the decision maker. Uncertainty is referred to as the gap between information a decision maker has, and the knowledge a decision maker requires. It is the difference between the knowledge a decision maker has and information the decision maker does not have. This is inversely proportion to the decision makers understanding of the arithmetic. As a result of this, decision makers use judgment more than biases. When this occurs decision makers opt to take the option of doing more research. This option is seen more effective when there is little information or no material to research. When there is a lump sum of information to research on, the uncertainty levels may increase; this is according to the research of Doherty and King (2001). When this happens, decision makers completely fail to have the real picture on the probability of consequences if a certain decision is implemented. The investigation was made from two organizations, A and B. Organization A is a private sector, while B is a government organization. Both organizations had related difficulty and related organizational risk linked with unsuccessful variety and realization process. However, the organizations did not match in many other relative ways which gave an insight into diverse culture, organizational background, decision making approach and politics. Interviewees were chosen based on their participation with the selection and execution processes. Senior managers, the staff of result making bodies and individuals who educated the decision procedure were interviewed from many levels and practical areas. This assortment of interviewees provided a wide range of views and a good quality of information to the data collection. Additional information obtained from the organizations’ documentation and media reports. The findings on the evidence obtained showed that there are both positive and negative impacts of biases in decision making. The impacts are felt after the outcome of decisions made. With the comparison of judgment and biases in outcomes of decision making, it clearly shows that negative impacts are usually seen when biases are used, (Buchanan and Kock, 2000).The scientific research is mainly by interviewing of employees and managers. The study setting is recommended to be in organizations which have multiple departments in which consultations are made during decision making. Several effects of biases were outlined in both organizations. One negative consequence resulted from the single reasonableness bias on the choice of financials structure. This decision is assumed to have originated from a void search exclusive of considerations of other viable options. This may provide an explanation for the gentle level of displeasure with the verdict and decision creation displayed by the manager. From the confirmation of tough pre-decisional bias, in a blend with additional cognitive biases and results of risk and uncertainty, there seem to have not at all been a query of which merchandise would have been chosen. Several individuals in the organization view the decision making as unfortunate, and the probable efficiencies are so far to be achieved. It is obvious that bias in the decision making procedure limited the options and formed negative data filters. Judgment and biases form the basis of the process of decision making. Judgment being termed as the best, effective, appropriate and the required mode of decision making is widely embraced by managers, (Immanuel, 2010). On the other hand, there are biases which are termed as an option taken by bodies and individuals in control. Bias may also be used positively, for instance, in the case of risk taking. Risk taking should be done with the prediction of the outcome thus influencing such a decision is important in management (Bainbridge, 2002). On another point of argument, biases may provide an opportunity to selfish people to achieve personal interests. This proves that judgment provides the best procedure to follow when it comes to decision making in an organization. References Bainbridge, S. M. (2002). Why a board? Group decision making in corporate governance. Vanderbilt Law Review, 55(1), 1-54. Buchanan, J., & Kock, N. (2000). Information overload: A decision making perspective. Paper presented at the Multiple Criteria Decision Making 2000, Ankara Doherty, N., & King, M. (2001). The treatment of organizational issues in systems development projects:The implications for the evaluation of information technology investments. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation, 4(1) Grise, M.-L., & Gallupe, R. B. (2000). Information overload: Addressing the productivity paradox in face-to-face electronic meetings. Journal of Management Information Systems, 16(3), 157-186. Irani, Z., & Love, P. E. D. (2001). The propagation of technology management taxonomies for evaluating investments in information systems. Journal of Management Information Systems, 17(3), 161-177. Immanuel, K. (2010). Critique of Judgment, New York: Digireads.com Publishing. Read More