Essay on Managerial Decision Making

Running head: MANAGING ORGANIZATION
Managing Organization
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

2MANAGING ORGANIZATION
Introduction
Perceptual error, attribution, and biases influence the managerial decision making in an
organization. However, in an organization, different people have different types of viewpoints
and attributions. This leads the managers to take a decision based on their perceptions
(Summerfield and De Lange 2014). However, often the managers give opportunity to the
individuals based on their performance. Often perceptual error and the biases lead the manager to
take a wrong decision regarding the employees. Negative attribution and perceptual error often
leave a negative effect on the managerial decision-making process. As for example, it is often
seen that perceptual error of the managers often leads them to take a wrong decision during the
appraisal of the individuals. Therefore, a bias is another factor that leads the managers to create
favoritism during the promotion of the employees (Lepora and Pezzulo 2015). This study deals
with the impact of perceptual error, biases, and attribution on the managerial decision in the
context of Wesfarmers. The thesis statement of this current essay is to identify the role of
biases, perceptual error, and attribution in influencing the managerial decision in an organization.
The scope of this study is to analyze the effect of perceptual error and biases on the decision-
making process of the organization. This study highlights various theories related to the
perceptions and managerial attributes. On the other hand, the application of the theories on
managerial decision-making will be discussed in this section. Therefore, the recommendations
will be discussed to improve the managerial decision-making process.
Discussion
According to Goetsch and Davis (2014), perception is an interpretation of the sensory
information in order to express and understand the presented information in an organization.

3MANAGING ORGANIZATION
However, it can be said that perception is the viewpoints or way of understanding the
information. Perceptual error refers to the wrong opinion of an individual about others. However,
what people think, believe or see is not always right. This occurs due to the perceptual error. On
the other hand, biases refer to the discrimination or favoritism process in an organization.
However, often the managers in an organization show favoritism while giving an opportunity to
the employees. Therefore, attribution is an action, which is taken by an individual based on the
situation. In the context of Wesfarmers perceptual error is a big factor that influences the
decision-making process of the managers in this organization. It has been received that the HR
managers of Wesfarmers are not able to give proper appraisal to the employees due to their
perceptual error (Wesfarmers.com). On the other hand, the managers show favoritism in this
organization during their decision-making process.
As commented by Bridge and Dodds (2018), generalized perception may leave both
positive and negative impact on the decision-making process of the mangers. However,
individuals have a tendency to judge the people after observing their one or two characteristics.
As argued by Lepora and Pezzulo (2015), this type of judgment can leave both positive and
negative impact on the individuals. As for example, if the manager is able to generate a good
impression from the behavior of the individuals then it will be favorable for the individuals. On
the other hand, if any attitude of the individuals is not preferred by the managers then it can leave
a negative impression. As a result, a perceptual error occurs and the managers take a wrong
decision regarding the individuals. On the other hand, the managers often give preference to
their closed one or the preferred candidates. This creates biases as a result, inequality occurs
during the decision-making process. As stated by Koch et al. (2015), attribution is a process that