Industrial-Organizational Psychology Learning Module

Judgment and Decision Making

Objectives:

Understand the kinds of decisions made within organizations Recognize common judgment biases Know how I/O psychologists help people avoid biases

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What kinds of decisions do people make in the workplace?

Handling complex problems individually

Pilot flight diversion decisions

Handling complex problems as a team

Surgical

Team

Focusing effort

9-1-1 Emergency Dispatcher

Judging people
Rating

employee performance on the job Using interviews to choose job applicants

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Biases in Decision Making

Halo errors
Negative information Stereotypes Heuristics-mental shortcuts

confirmation bias

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How do I/O psychologists help people avoid bias during interviews?

Develop clear criteria through:

job

analysis relevant structured and situational interview questions

Rater training
practice feedback

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Example interview question

Situational question for restaurant crew:
Suppose you saw a sandwich order in the window with wilted lettuce, in the middle of a huge rush. What would you do? Potential answers and their rating: (+) would discard the wilted sandwich (0) would send sandwich to kitchen to have the lettuce replaced (-) would serve the sandwich as is
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Exercise: Create structured and situational interview questions

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Choose a job that you are fairly knowledgeable about. Describe a common stereotype that someone might use when judging a person for this job. Develop one question that you could ask that would eliminate your need to make assumptions based on the stereotype. Also identify examples of good or poor responses.

Exercise: Create structured and situational interview questions

Now develop a scenario that someone in this position might experience. Describe it and ask what would you do in this situation? Again, provide examples of good and poor responses.
Find someone in the room to interview and evaluate their answers based on the examples you have generated.

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Conclusion

Decisions permeate the workplace

Humans often rely on shortcuts and biases, especially when information is incomplete, that can lead to mistakes or errors

I/O Psychologists have devised a variety of techniques to help humans accurately collect and utilize information

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Resources

Baron, Jonathan, (Ed); Brown, Rex V., (Ed); et al Teaching decision making to adolescents. p. 161-184. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, Hillsdale, NJ, USA. Peden, Blaine F.; Keniston, Allen H.; Burke, David T. Learning about individual and collective decisions: All for one and none for all. Teaching of Psychology. Vol 17(4), Dec 1990, 235-238. Larsen, Janet D. Prisoner's dilemma as a model for understanding decisions. Teaching of Psychology. Vol 14(4), Dec 1987, 230-231. Goethals, George R.; Demorest, Amy P. The risky shift is a sure bet. Teaching of Psychology. Vol 6(3), Oct 1979, 177-179.

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