پژوهشهای مدیریت عمومی (May 2023)
Cognitive Dimensions of Decision-Making in Managers; Do Managers Have Different Cognitive Processes in Decision-Making?
Abstract
AbstractDecision-making is assumed to be one of the most important functions of managers. So much so that the success or failure of the company can be considered to a large extent due to the quality of the decisions made by its managers. The development of methodologies in the field of organizational cognitive neuroscience (OCN) has created hopes for strategic management researchers to understand this managerial function and its dimensions and identify opportunities for interventions to improve it. Nevertheless, there is very little empirical evidence regarding the cognitive dimensions of decision-making in managers, and this has challenged the efforts to achieve the necessary theoretical basis for the development of tools and methods to improve decision-making. In this article and in an attempt to answer some part of this gap in the theoretical body, important processes affecting decision-making dysfunctions in two dimensions of time and uncertainty have been investigated. For this purpose, 62 subjects (33 female) in two groups of managers and people without a managerial background, randomly performed the Delayed Discounting Task (DDT) and Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). The results showed that there is no significant difference between managers and non-managers from the delayed discounting standpoint. Nevertheless, managers had a higher level of risk-taking than non-managers. The results of this study will help researchers in the field of OCN to better understand decision-making in managers and try to provide objective solutions to improve this cognitive function.IntroductionWhile decision-making is among the most important functions of managers, most of the recommendations given by management scholars and professional consultants are either subjective or too instrumental. Cognitive neuroscience methodologies recently have brought some hope to first reach a more profound understanding of this function and then look for opportunities for intervention and improvident. However, very few studies have experimentally examined cognitive aspects of decision-making in professional managers. Here we examined two main aspects of managerial decision-making dysfunctions (time and uncertainty) in a group of managers and non-managers to see if there is any difference between them.Case studyIn this study, the group of managers includes procurement and investment portfolio managers who have lived experience of decision-making under uncertainty.Materials and MethodsTwo behavioral tasks were implemented to assess the time (Delay Discounting Task (DDT)) and uncertainty (Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART)). 62 adults (33 females) were recruited into two groups: 1) managers with at least 4 years of professional experience at the middle management level (N = 29) and 2) participants with no effective managerial experience.Discussion and ResultsStatistical analysis has shown no significant difference between managers and non-managers in the delay discounting task. However, this could be assumed to the small sample size as the median and variance were different in the two groups. In line with former studies, female participants have shown higher discount rates compared to males.In the risk-taking aspect, managers and non-managers have shown significantly different scores as managers were more risk-takers compared to non-managers in BART. However, no significant difference was seen between male and female participants.ConclusionAs one of the first attempts to investigate cognitive aspects of managerial decision-making in managers and non-managers, in this study, two aspects of decision-making dysfunction have been addressed. Results showed that while having no significant difference between managers and non-manager in delay discounting, managers were shown to be more risk-taker compared to the non-manager group. This study will help management scholars to better understand the cognitive aspects of decision-making in managers and look for opportunities to design and implement interventional strategies to improve this function.
Keywords
