Psychological Distance and Judgment in Decision Making

This article explores the concept of psychological distance and its impact on judgment and decision making. It discusses the Construal Level Theory (CLT) and its association with different forms of psychological distance. The article also suggests interventions to improve decision making by reducing psychological distance. The importance of communication, hierarchical power structure, and employee engagement in decision making is highlighted. Overall, the article provides insights into how psychological distance affects decision making and offers strategies to enhance the process.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
Module 3 – Psychological distance and judgment and decision making
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Task 1
Psychological distance refers to the cognitive parting between oneself and other
occurrences such as, events, persons, and/or times. In other words, psychological distances
encompasses the extent to which a person removes themselves from all forms of connexion
with others (Liberman & Trope, 2014). This concept was illustrated by the Construal Level
Theory (CLT) on social psychology that aimed at describing the association between the
extent of one’s thinking (regarding events and objects) and psychological distance
(Highhouse, Dalal Salas, 2018). Hence, it can be suggested that greater the distance of an
object from a person, the more abstract the thinking pattern becomes, in contrast to concrete
thinking that originates when the object is closer. The CLT helps people perceive certain
instances that differ based on varied kinds of psychological distance namely, (i) temporal
distance (time), (ii) social distance (interpersonal distance), (iii) spatial distance (space), and
(iv) hypothetical distance (likely or unlikely imagination of an event). There is mounting
evidence for the insightful effects that decision making by professionals, work environment
and succeeding implications for the usefulness and efficiency of the audit (Wilson, Crisp &
Mortensen, 2013).
Decision making is considered as one of the most crucial aspects of businesses.
However, the procedure of arriving at major judgments and decision should be precise, and
should take into account the fact that high level construal will occur under circumstances
when people think in an abstract manner (Pettigrew, 2014). It is a well-known concept that
individuals often judge different aspects of lives namely, people, society and events. In the
words of Maglio, Trope and Liberman (2013) occurrence of an event close in time will
increase the likelihood of thinking in relation to concrete low-level construal. The scenario
involves designing an intervention program where decision making process and judgment in

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the company needs to be improved in the organisation. Hence, the intervention would focus
on keeping comfort, in order to maintain psychological distance.
The intervention in the aforementioned case scenario would encompass analysing the
facilitators, participants, and great powers in the organisation. An analysis of the
aforementioned factors suggests that the organisation agents are namely, Personnel Manager
and the Board of Directors. On the other hand, while managers and sales force would be the
participants, the consultants would be facilitator (Highhouse, Dalal Salas, 2018). The
intervention that would be made at the request of the Great Power would encompass making
the process transparent, clarifying its implication, and recognising the power structure,
existing in the organisation (Berson et al., 2015). In the increasingly competitive and
connected business environment, there is a need for the employees to have the capability of
quickly accessing all pertinent information, regardless of its location. Hence, the primary aim
of the intervention would be to make information more accessible, avoid unnecessary risk
taking among the employees, and enable collaboration and sharing between them. Decision
making improvement by increasing transparency of the organisation would involve the
following:
 Forming an alignment of the senior leadership
 Closing perception gap between middle managers and leaders
 Gaining a sound understanding of the financial effect of decisions (Belal, Cooper &
Roberts, 2013)
 Addressing communicating vital problems to frontline employees
Using the theory to for implementing communication efforts will indorse action and
consciousness among the employees and will habitually border the issue of decision making
and judgment. By and large, the strategies will aim to understand the emotional barriers that

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are likely to challenge the implementation. According to Egea-Alvarez et al. (2015)
hierarchical power structure suggests that closer a person is to the top, the more power is
he/she likely to have. Power plays an important role in decision making and judgment owing
to the fact that it is always directed downwards through the said organisation (Schafer, 2013).
The intervention will aim to implement a functional structure that will comprise of a top-
down flowchart having the high ranked executives at the top, the middle managers as human
resources, accounting, and marketing heads reporting directly to the former (Highhouse,
Dalal Salas, 2018). An analysis of the circumstance suggests that application of the CLT
would facilitate establishment of the functional structure, the primary benefit of which is to
keep the business compartmentalised (Huczynski, Buchanan & Huczynski, 2013). Owing to
the fact that communication plays an important role in implementation of this organisational
structure, the theory would be put into action for empowering the leaders (Magee & Smith,
2013). Successful leaders have been found to thrive in organisations that are able to foster
creativity, unleash potential and avoid preventing progress. Some of the steps that the
intervention would consist of, with the aim of improving hierarchical structure are as follows:
 Sharing ownership among the employees
 Expanding borders
 Thinking lateral
 Finding a common ground (Highhouse, Dalal Salas, 2018)
 Building trust
 Time management
In the words of Ford et al. (2014) greater psychological distance has also been found to
create an impact on trusting beliefs, perception among employers and intentions of decision
making. Implementing the intervention to utilise organisational structure for improving
performance of an enterprise dates back to 19th century when the dependence of capitalism on

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bureaucracy was assessed. Following the aforementioned steps would make all specialised
units get managed by the decision makers, who will best understand the problems and needs
of the company. Expanding borders will allow performance consolidation at the managerial
level and will allow the executives to access information for directional purpose. Effective
time management would comprise of forecasting the commitments that would be most
pressing in near future (temporal distance). Empowerinf leaders would not only not only
involve incorporation of the goal of different people, but also would anticipate the way they
would change over time (temporal and social distance). Hence, implementation of the
program would make the employees feel involved with their situation, thus facilitating better
judgment and decision making.
Task 2
Greater psychological distance will also create a negative impact on organisational
decision making owing to the fact that under such circumstance will indicate poor levels of
employee engagement and less development of connection and involvement between the
employees and their job roles. Lack of engagement from the employees will result in poor
demonstration of organisational citizenship behaviour and impede the decision making and
judgment process (Highhouse, Dalal Salas, 2018). Hence, disengagement among employees,
anxiety, and them being stymied by excess business data would lead to a fault in decision
making. This in turn would result in lack of personalisation of the issues during major
decision making, thus creating consequences that are detrimental to the overall growth of the
organisation.

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