BUMGT5980: Managerial Decision Making Essay on Decision Biases

This essay delves into the intricacies of managerial decision-making, focusing on the impact of biases on the decision-making process within organizations. It critically examines three key concepts: perceptual bias, judgmental bias, and impression management. Perceptual biases, rooted in systematic errors in perceiving others, are explored for their role in conflicts and decision-making distortions, encompassing cognitive biases like loss aversion and framing effects. Judgmental biases, stemming from cognitive shortcuts, are analyzed for their influence on decision-making, particularly in negotiation scenarios. Finally, impression management, the conscious or subconscious influence on perceptions, is discussed for its impact on organizational behavior. The essay concludes by emphasizing the significance of these biases and their implications for effective decision-making within organizations, highlighting the need for informed approaches to mitigate their effects.

Running head: MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING
MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
Decision making is considered to be a cognitive process in psychology that is mainly
based on the selection based on belief or the courses of action that are implemented among
the different available alternatives or possibilities. The decision making process can also
produce a final choice that is sometimes not able to prompt the effective actions. Decision
making can be further defined as the process that helps in proper identification and choosing
the alternatives that are related to the values, beliefs and preferences of the decision makers.
The method based on effective decision making can also be considered to be an activity that
is able to yield an effective solution that can be considered to be optima based on the
situation that has been developed within the organization. The performance of humans in the
decision making process can be identified effectively with respect to three different concepts
that include, psychological, cognitive and normative.
The essay will be mainly based on the bias that can occur in the process of decision
making that is implemented by the different organizations. The three concepts of bias that
have been taken into consideration for the analysis are, perceptual bias, judgemental bias and
impression management.
Three discrete concepts of bias in decisions
Perceptual biases are mainly considered to be systematic errors that can take place
and can be committed by the individuals in the process of perceiving others. The concept
based on perceptual bias can become quite damaging for the individuals who are a part of the
society. The perceptions can also be considered as the root cause of the conflicts that can take
place within the organizations. The situation of perception mainly occurs when an individual
in an organization is highly biased towards someone else. This also means that the levels of
bias can have a huge impact on the ways by which decisions are made by the individuals. The

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bias in decision making is thereby based on the effective usage of the different sensory inputs
in an effective manner that include, sight, touch, taste, smell and hearing. The four types of
cognitive biases that are a part of the perceptions that people have include, loss aversion,
anchoring, choice-supportive bias and framing effect. Perception bias can also be the
considered to be a tendency that is based on the ways by which an individual can be
subjective about certain events and people who help in the proper collection of information
that is based on the study. The proper interpretation of the results of the study is considered to
be an important part of the decision making process of the organization. The individuals are
able to take decisions in an impartial manner with the support that is provided by the proper
information that is collected. The perception biases are considered to be an important part of
the decision making process that is implemented by the organizations. The bias is considered
to be an important part of the selective perception process. The perceptual biases are mainly
based on the two different concepts that include, the selective perception and the halo effect.
The ways by which managerial decisions are made by the individuals are considered to be an
important part of the influence that is made the process of perceptual biases can be
implemented. The humans mainly tend to develop the shortcuts that are related to the
development of proper understanding within the organizations. The errors that can take place
in the process of perceptual bias can disrupt and also distort perceptual processes that can
further lead to the faulty judgements. The cognitive resources are able to play a major role in
the ways by which the decisions can be made in an effective manner by the individuals.
The negotiators in an organization have to be aware of the ambiguous and volatile
information in the process of conflict. The awareness levels of the influences based on
different factors are considered to be an important part of the individual reference points or
the frames that are able to guide behaviour of different types of people. The negotiators or
individuals who are a part of the organizations are able to fulfil different expectations of

3MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING
people. The individuals are able to interpret the situation that are able to provide the
negotiators with different types of options. The interpretation related to the experience and
memory of different parties based on the conflicts that can apply different cognitive shortcuts
or the judgemental biases that are able to provide support in the ways by which different
types of information can be processed. The limitation of the heuristics that are used by the
individuals are considered to be an important part of the judgemental operations. The parties
can rely on different reference points or the anchor the that can influence diversity and range
of the ideas and thoughts the based on different possible outcomes. The reference points are
able to play a major role in the ways by which the individuals are able to take different
decisions in the various situations that are faced by them. The levels of judgemental biases
are able to include different perceptions of the parties in different negotiations that are
considered to be distributive in nature.
Impression management is considered to be an important process that has an impact
on the conscious or the subconscious process that is based on the influences or attempts of the
individuals. The influences of the perceptions of different individuals have a major impact on
the other individuals who are a part of the organization. Impression management can be used
in a simultaneous manner with the process of self-presentation of the individuals. An
individual thereby has to influence perception of the image. The major notion that is a part of
the impression management concept that had been applied in order to develop the process of
face-to-face communication. The process of impression management had been further
expanded towards the process of computer mediated communication process. The impression
management process is thereby applicable to different academic fields in an effective manner
in order to form the corporate communication process. The process of impression
management is a major concept based on bias that exists in the decision making by the
individuals who are a part of different organizations. Many different factors are able to

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influence the impression management related activities that are performed by the
organizations. The different goals that have been set by the organizations have an impact on
the ways by which the individuals are able to develop the decision making process and also
implement the concept of impression management. The concept based on impression
management is able to play a major role in the ways by which biases in decision making
process are considered.
The three concepts that have been discussed with respect to the process of effective
decision making have a major impact on the ways by which the organizations are able to
maintain their operations. The individuals who are a part of the organizations need to take the
decisions in such a manner that can have immense levels of impact on the organizational
operations.
Conclusion
The essay can be concluded by stating that the decision making process of individuals
is affected in a huge manner by the ways by which different organizations are able to
maintain the operations in an effective manner. The individuals who are a part of different
organizations are affected in a huge manner by the ways by which levels of operations can be
maintained and he effective decisions can be taken. The effect of bias on the process of
decision making is quite high and can affect the entire process in a huge manner. The three
concepts that have been discussed in the essay can have an impact on the ways by which
decisions are made by the organizations.

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