HR Paper on Traps in Decision Making
Decision making in a business environment points to the importance of the working of the mind and the choices made. Howard Raiffa, Ralpg Keeney, and John Hammond analyses some of the most common traps of decision making in business in addition to some of the most common psychological traps that have an impact on the process of decision-making. According to Hammond et al. (118), the eight traps include; the anchoring trap often leads to an overemphasis on first information received. Status quo trap leads to maintaining the current and existing situation, despite the existence of other options. Sunk-cost trap leads to the perpetuation of past mistakes while the confirmation evidence trap only emphasizes on supporting current tendency and avoiding any opposed idea. Framing trap takes place in a situation whereby the current problem is misstated, hence depression any form of decision-making.
According to the authors, the tendency to have a confident attitude towards a challenge only helps overestimate any existing forecast, while the prudence trap instills caution and indecision while making estimates. On the other hand, recall ability trap has the tendency to emphasize on extreme focus on the present event or dramatic occurrence. The authors argue that the prudent way to avoid any of the above traps is to have awareness and be forearmed or forewarned. Additionally, business leaders need to take necessary precaution to protect themselves from mental lapses that may hinder them from making appropriate decisions (Felix 24938).
Decision making in any given business context is paramount and forms a critical aspect of the success and growth of any business. The article is relevant to organizational culture and structure as it forms the core component of steering the business to its goals and objectives. On the other hand, since it constitutes the primary function of business executives, it is relevant in helping maintain organizations focus on achieving its key objectives while making sure that other central cultures such as teamwork are supported and upheld (Felix 24938). For example, in an expansion plan, the executive will have to contend with the option of working with past team members or reach out to outside personnel, a situation that may lead to redundancy. In many cases, such a case may prompt an executive to maintain the status quo, a provision that may perpetuate the status quo trap as put forth by Hammond et al (118).
Considering the author’s views, such a mindset would require the focus on the ultimate goals; focus on other alternatives, and the call to choose the best option. However, from the above example, the status quo trap may not point to indecision all the time. In a given past proven and successful scenario worked better and produced the desired results, the status quo trap presents more advantages in keeping with an organization’s practice and tradition (Hammond et al. 118). On the other hand, and on a broader scale, the above mentioned and discussed traps may not point to indecision or have a fixed mindset, it may offer a pointer to a bigger challenge within the organization that may not have any relation with the concepts presented by the authors. However, the most common fallacy and trap are the sunk cost trap as most organizations and executives tend to rely on their past achievements and successes while making decisions. The fear to try out a new concept and only rely on working and prior proven methods tend to deny executives the opportunity to move away from past decisions.
Works Cited
Felix, Ajayi Oluwasola. “Management Information System to help managers for providing Decision Making in an organization.” Management 1 (2009): 24938.
Hammond, John S., Ralph L. Keeney, and Howard Raiffa. “The Hidden Traps in Decision Making.” Harvard Business Review 84.1 (2006): 118.