Business Skills

Decision Making & Problem solving

Negotiation• Planning • Evaluating Performance• Business strategy

• Motivating talent Developing &

communicating vision• Goal settingPersuasion

Persistence

Leadership Skills

How today’s competencies are taught

Reading/Lecture Experiential Exercise

Bazerman et al Group Project

Cognitive Factors Leading to Poor Decisions

Poor decisions

Noticing Information

Using Relevant Information

SharingInformation

Bounded Awareness

Poor Decisions

Bounded Awareness

Not Sharing information

Not SHARING Information limits awareness which leads to poor decisions

Consider Negotiation Exercise

• The best outcome could be that both parties got all the fruit that was available and saved $$ on the bid

Students Reflect on “information sharing” in Negotiation Exercise

• Describe what information you didn’t share AND explain how that led to a negative outcome

• OR

• Describe what information you shared AND explain how that led to a positive outcome

Bounded Awareness

Not sharing information

What members do in groups

•Discuss common information because it is agreed upon & rewarded with support•Do not discuss unique information they have •Do not seek out unique information that others may have

Poor Decision

Bounded Awareness

Not sharing information

Poor Decision

Information about all candidates given to all members

Information about excellent candidates given to some members, information about not so excellent candidate is given to all members

Quality of candidate chosen

Good Poor

• How will you ensure that information is shared in the group project?– common information– unique information

• What steps have you already taken to ensure that information is shared in the group project

Students plan on “information sharing” in Group Project

Poor Decision Quality

Bounded Awareness

Not using relevant information

Not using RELEVANT information limits awareness which affects the quality of decisions

Students Reflect on ‘using relevant information’ in Negotiation Exercise

• What relevant information did you not use/share in the negotiation discussion AND explain how that led to a negative outcome

• OR

• What relevant information did you use in the negotiation discussion AND explain how that led to a positive outcome

Bounded Awareness

Not using relevant information

Think of all the things that will make you happy

Control Group

How much of your happiness depends on team’s win?

A little A lot

Bounded Awareness

Not using relevant information

What percent of group’s performance was due to your ideas?

What percent of group’s performance was due to each member’s ideas?

Self serving bias More Less

• How will you ensure that RELEVANT information is used in the group project?

• What steps have you already taken to ensure that RELEVANT information is used in the group project?

Students plan on “using relevant information” in Group Project

Poor Decision Quality

Bounded Awareness

Not Noticing information

Not NOTICING information limits awareness which affects the quality of decisions

Amt of Information Noticed

Focus on certain types of information

Expectations about existing information

Gradualchanges inenvironment

What affects whether you notice information?

Limits Information Noticed

Expectations about information

Dangerous objects will appear 50% of time

Dangerous Objects will appear 1% of time

Error Rate 7% 30%

Limits Information Noticed

Focus on certain types of information

Those who were told to watch superimposed videos of teams playing at different times AND who were asked to count the number of passes between members wearing the same jerseys did not notice woman walking with open umbrella on court

Gradually increased estimates to exaggerated number

Suddenly increased estimates to exaggerated number

Likelihood of judging estimates as inflated

Less More

Gradual changes in environment

Limits Information Noticed

Students plan on how you will notice the information that is out of your

awareness during the Group Project

Give concrete examples of how you will ensure that you will notice information by enabling possibility of • change your focus• changing your expectations, • monitoring degree of changes in environment

• Need to locate information that is out of your awareness to improve decision quality

• Locate out of awareness information by – Perceiving it

• changing focus, changing expectations, environment type

– Using relevant bits – Sharing it with each other

Summary of Cognitive Factors that Can Inhibit your Decision Quality

Bias in judgments

Motivational biases to our judgments

Attachment

Bias in Judgment

Attachment

Plaintiffs (in an accident) predicted that they would receive larger awards from the judge than did defendants

How evidence supports the link

Bias in Judgment

Attachment Given a pay rate of $25 for 7 hrs, those who worked 10 hrs thought they should be paid $35 for 10 hrs of work (equal hourly pay) whereas those who worked 7 hrs thought the 10 hr workers should be paid $30 (equal total pay)

How evidence supports the link

Bias in Judgment

Attachment

Sellers’ auditors were more biased than buyers’ auditors despite an incentive for accuracy

How evidence supports the link

Theoretical Understanding via lecture on Bazerman et al Readings

• Cognitive & motivational factors

• Practical Application of knowledge gained by doing/planning for the Group Project

What’s next..

• How did your group fail/succeed in locating information out of awareness in terms of– Noticing it

• focus, expectations, environmental changes

– Using relevant bits– Sharing it

Potential Exam Questions onCOGNTIVE biases in Group Project

• How did attachment play a role in biasing group members’ judgments?OR

• How might you prevent the effects of attachment on judgments in your group project

Potential Exam Questions on MOTIVATIONAL biases in Group Project