Decision Making in Three Modes

This paper presents an integrative framework for analyzing decisions. Three generic modes of decision making are identified: consequential choice (comparing alternatives in terms of expected consequences), matching (evaluating single options in terms of a certain criterion) and reassessment (re-evaluating an action to which one is already committed). The three generic modes are compared on a common set of attributes, and the conditions for their proper use are outlined. Two case analyses illustrate how the framework can be used to analyze specific decisions from multiple perspectives.

[1]  B. M. Staw.  The Escalation of Commitment To a Course of Action , 1981 .

[2]  Jens Rasmussen,et al.  Skills, rules, and knowledge; signals, signs, and symbols, and other distinctions in human performance models , 1983, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.

[3]  John W. Payne,et al.  Task complexity and contingent processing in decision making: An information search and protocol analysis☆ , 1976 .

[4]  R. Butler.  Decision-making Research: Its Uses and Misuses. A Comment on Mintzberg and Waters: 'Does Decision Get in the Way?' , 1990 .

[5]  L. Beach,et al.  A Contingency Model for the Selection of Decision Strategies , 1978 .

[6]  Henry Mintzberg,et al.  Studying Deciding: An Exchange of Views Between Mintzberg and Waters, Pettigrew, and Butler , 1990 .

[7]  Zeev Maoz,et al.  Self-binding Commitments, the Inducement of Trust, Social Choice, and the Theory of International Cooperation , 1987 .

[8]  Robert G. Lord,et al.  Scripts as Determinants of Purposeful Behavior in Organizations , 1987 .

[9]  John R. Anderson.  Acquisition of cognitive skill. , 1982 .

[10]  C. Lindblom.  THE SCIENCE OF MUDDLING THROUGH , 1959 .

[11]  Daniel J. Power,et al.  Soelberg's Job Search and Choice Model: A Clarification, Review, and Critique , 1985 .

[12]  H. J. Einhorn,et al.  Linear regression and process-tracing models of judgment. , 1979 .

[13]  T. Pearson,et al.  Direct comparison of the efficacy of intuitive and analytical cognition in expert judgment , 1987, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.

[14]  Charles R. Schwenk.  DEVIL'S ADVOCACY IN MANAGERIAL DECISION-MAKING , 1984 .

[15]  Dennis A. Gioia,et al.  Scripts in Organizational Behavior , 1984 .

[16]  Ernest R. Alexander,et al.  The Design of Alternatives in Organizational Contexts: A Pilot Study , 1979 .

[17]  P. Schoemaker.  The Expected Utility Model: Its Variants, Purposes, Evidence and Limitations , 1982 .

[18]  A. Tversky,et al.  Prospect theory: analysis of decision under risk , 1979 .

[19]  W. Thorngate.  Efficient decision heuristics. , 1980 .

[20]  Charles Vlek,et al.  WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD DECISION , 1984 .

[21]  J. March.  Bounded rationality, ambiguity, and the engineering of choice , 1978 .

[22]  Jon Elster,et al.  Ulysses and the Sirens: A theory of imperfect rationality , 1977 .

[23]  Paul A. Anderson,et al.  Decision Making by Objection and the Cuban Missile Crisis , 1983 .

[24]  A. Tversky,et al.  Prospect Theory : An Analysis of Decision under Risk Author ( s ) : , 2007 .

[25]  R. Zajonc.  Feeling and thinking : Preferences need no inferences , 1980 .

[26]  Andrew Pettigrew,et al.  Studying Strategic Choice and Strategic Change. A Comment on Mintzberg and Waters: 'Does Decision Get in the Way?' , 1990 .

[27]  M. Machina.  Dynamic Consistency and Non-expected Utility Models of Choice under Uncertainty , 1989 .

[28]  Joel Brockner,et al.  Factors affecting entrapment in escalating conflicts: The importance of timing☆ , 1982 .

[29]  B. Fischhoff,et al.  Behavioral Decision Theory , 1977 .

[30]  A. Grandori.  A Prescriptive Contingency View of Organizational Decision Making. , 1984 .