The impact of schema and available information on managerial decision making : the case of locally rational decision making /
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| Other Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
1994.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Link to OAKTrust copy Link to ProQuest copy |
| Abstract: | Locally rational decision making occurs when the presence of relevant information in the environment leads to inferior decision making. When the information provided relates to a part of the problem that bears little weight on overall performance, the decision maker's attention is drawn away from the more important aspects of the problem. Performance on the relevant subdecision increases, but overall decision task performance declines. The purpose of this research was to gain a better understanding of the causes of locally rational decision making as a first step in dealing with this problem. More specifically, this study investigated whether an individual's schema (domain memory structure) development affects his or her propensity to make locally rational decisions. A laboratory quasi-experiment using a advertising media buying task was used to test for the presence of locally rational decision making at the individual level. The control condition consisted of a provision of reports relating to all subdecisions of the decision task. The treatment condition consisted of the provision of the same reports used in the control condition plus additional information relating to a part of the decision task which had a lower marginal impact on performance. Measurement of subjects' schematic development was based on Johnson hierarchical clustering. Subjects' classroom training and work experience in the domain were examined as to their relationship to locally rational decision making. Subjects were individuals with varying levels of training and related work experience, including undergraduate students as well as advertising media professionals. Conditions conducive to cognitive biases such as information overload, primacy and recency effects and biases due to the mode of information presentation, were controlled. Results revealed that subjects in the treatment condition did exhibit locally rational decision making under experimental conditions. Both subjects with and without well developed schemas for the task domain made locally rational decisions, although subjects with less developed schemas performed better overall than did subjects with well developed schemas for the task domain. |
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| Item Description: | Vita. "Major subject: Business Analysis." |
| Physical Description: | x, 83 leaves : illustrations ; 28 cm + 1 computer disc (31/2 in.) |
| Format: | System requirements for computer disk: Apple Macintosh; Word Perfect 3.0; Word 5.1; Excel 4.0. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references. |