In-Basket Exercises as a Methodology for Studying Information Processing

In-basket exercises have the potential to be an important research tool for examing how managers allocate attention and respond to information in their environment. This article describes the in-basket methodology outlines various issues in organizational information processing and decision making to which this methodology might be applicable, and discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of using in-baskets to examine information processing in a simulated organizational context.

[1]  John O. Andes.  In-Basket Simulation , 1977 .

[2]  Timothy D. Wilson,et al.  Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes. , 1977 .

[3]  J. Dutton,et al.  Categorizing Strategic Issues: Links to Organizational Action , 1987 .

[4]  Irving M. Lane,et al.  A note on the role of laboratory methodologies in applied behavioural research: Don't throw out the baby with the bath water , 1988 .

[5]  Herbert H. Meyer,et al.  THE VALIDITY OF THE IN‐BASKET TEST AS A MEASURE OF MANAGERIAL PERFORMANCE , 1970 .

[6]  J. Slocum,et al.  Individual Characteristics as Sources of Perceived Uncertainty Variability , 1977 .

[7]  D. Nees.  Simulation: A complementary method for research on strategic decision-making processes , 1983 .

[8]  D. A. Cowan.  Developing a Process Model of Problem Recognition , 1986 .

[9]  L. Berkowitz,et al.  External validity is more than skin deep: Some answers to criticisms of laboratory experiments. , 1982 .

[10]  Kenneth R. MacCrimmon,et al.  The Risk In-Basket , 1984 .

[11]  Daniel J. Brass,et al.  Validating an in-basket test using an alternative set of leadership scoring dimensions. , 1976 .

[12]  S. Kiesler,et al.  Managerial Response to Changing Environments: Perspectives on Problem Sensing from Social Cognition. , 1982 .

[13]  R. Daft,et al.  Toward a Model of Organizations as Interpretation Systems , 1984 .

[14]  M. K. D. Vries,et al.  Top Executive Locus of Control and Its Relationship to Strategy-Making, Structure, and Environment , 1982 .

[15]  R. Gill,et al.  The in-tray (in-basket) exercise as a measure of management potential , 1979 .

[16]  Arie W. Kruglanski,et al.  The Human Subject in the Psychology Experiment: Fact and Artifact , 1975 .

[17]  R. Hogarth,et al.  BEHAVIORAL DECISION THEORY: PROCESSES OF JUDGMENT AND CHOICE , 1981 .

[18]  Felix M. Lopez,et al.  The Development and Validation of a Self-Report Scored In-Basket Test in an Assessment Center Setting , 1982 .

[19]  Henry Mintzberg,et al.  The Structure of "Unstructured" Decision Processes , 1976 .

[20]  David R. Saunders,et al.  The in-basket test. , 1957 .

[21]  William H. Clover,et al.  Can we learn anything about interviewing real people from “interviews” of paper people? Two studies of the external validity of a paradigm☆ , 1978 .