Transcript Industrial-Organizational Psychology Learning Module

Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Learning Module
Judgment and
Decision Making
Objectives:
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Understand the kinds of decisions made
within organizations
Recognize common judgment biases
Know how I/O psychologists help people
avoid biases
What kinds of decisions do
people make in the workplace?
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Handling complex problems individually
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Pilot flight diversion decisions
Handling complex problems as a team
 Surgical
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Focusing effort
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Team
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
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Halo errors
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Negative information
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Stereotypes
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Heuristics-mental shortcuts
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confirmation bias
How do I/O psychologists help
people avoid bias during
interviews?
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Develop clear criteria through:
 job
analysis
 relevant structured and situational interview
questions
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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
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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.
Conclusion
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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
Resources
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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.