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Decision Making: A Psychological

Analysis of Conflict, Choice, and
Commitment

Article in The Academy of Management Review · January 1980

DOI: 10.5465/AMR.1980.4288953

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Ramon Aldag
University of Wisconsin–Madison
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gram content and pedagogical techniques, and
evaluation of the training effort. In addition, the roll
of the program administrator, pre-meeting prepara-
tion of participants and instructors, layout of physi-
cal facilities, time constraints, and scheduling con-
siderations are explored.
Throughout the book, numerous tables, charts,
and survey instruments are provided to illustrate
and to facilitate the requisite data gathering and
analysis to complete the training process. This ap-
proach should prove helpful even to experienced
practitioners responsible for some segment of their
corporate training programs. Undoubtedly these
materials would be useful to any individual who is
just beginning to undertake these types of activities
or who has never had to implement a complete
training program.
In the initial step of assessing managers' training
needs, the materials cited above are used in a
series of activities. These include identifying impor-
tant characteristics of an organization and industry
and the significance of these attributes to required
managerial abilities. There is also further elabora-
tion on using position descriptions, job analyses,
performance appraisals, interviews, and opinion
surveys in assessing needs and on the application
of these techniques. This section ends with concise
guidelines for formulating the training objectives
based on the results of the needs assessment.
Defining a plan as a "comprehensive statement
of the events that must occur to cause the attain-
ment of the desired end results," Watson quickly
moves from describing a six-step general planning
process to a corresponding approach to the prepar-
ation of management training and development
plans and strategies. An excellent feature in this
area Is the outline of the problems associated with
the necessary planning tasks of comparing present
managerial behaviors with the desired ones, listing
the knowledge, skills, and personal characteristics
to be attained, and identifying participants' respon-
sibilties, educational background, work experi-
ences, and receptiveness to training efforts.
In discussing the integration of the results of
these activities into the design of the program con-
tent and the selection of faculty members, peda-
gogical techniques, and instructional materials, the
author again provides many useful concepts and
practical tips for training personnel. Devoting an
141
entire chapter in this area to evaluating various
training methods, the author presents a balanced
view of lecturing, the conference method, critical
incidents, experiential exercises, and case studies,
even though he strongly favors the case study
method.
Probably the most significant section of the book
for management trainers and training directors Is
the section on the evaluation of training. Without
sidestepping the inherent measurement and ac-
countability problems, Watson stresses the neces-
sity for this phase. Again a variety of lists and instru-
ments is provided to assist in collecting, organizing,
and interpreting evaluation data. In addition, the
topics covered include who wants the evaluation,
what does it involve, and how can the learning be
measured and its organizational effect determined.
Although the book is geared primarily for training
practitioners, it is a book that should be read as well
by all academic personnel in management educa-
tion, not simply the ones involved in executive de-
velopment or management and supervisory train-
ing programs. The first five chapters should be the
ones of especial interest to academicians; they
would also be particularly beneficial to new Ph.D.
recipients who are just embarking on their teaching
careers, or in conjunction with a series of seminars
on teaching effectiveness for students in doctoral
programs.
REFERENCE
Kolb, David A. On management and the teaming process. In
David A. Kolb, Irwin M. Rubin, and James M. Mclntyre (Eds.),
Organizational psychology (2nd ed.). Englewood, Cliffs, N.J.:
Prentice-Hall, 1974.
Duane R. Wood
Central Michigan University
Irving L. Janis and Leon Mann. Decision
Makinq: A Psychological Analysis of Con-
flict, Choice, and Commitment New York:
Free Press, 1977,488 pp., $15.95.
Janis and Mann attempt to provide a compre-
hensive descriptive theory of how people cope with
vital decisions. In so doing, they provide sugges-
tions for needed additional research concerning the
psychological processes involved in conflict,
choice, and commitment and make some sugges-
tions for the improvement of decision quality. The
book is competently done, drawing heavily on clini-
cal, historical, survey, and other research, and is
filled with generally interesting anecdotal evidence.
It clearly presents many key findings from the field
of social psychology, including those of the authors.
In fact, nearly 40 of Janis's works are cited, placing
his familiar analysis of "groupthink" in a broader
perspective. However, despite its virtures, the book
presents an incomplete and somewhat pessimistic
view of decision making and seems over ambitious
in its claims for the generalizability of its arguments.
Janis and Mann see the human as "a reluctant
decision maker — beset by conflict, doubts, and
worry, struggling with incongruous longings, an-
tipathies, and loyalties, and seeking relief by pro-
crastinating, rationalizing, or denying responsibility
for his own choices" [p. 15]. To more adequately
understand this troubled being, and ultimately to
improve decision making, the authors present a
"conflict model" of decision making. The model is
meant to be applicable to all stressful, affect-laden
situations in which "hot" cognitions are at work.
Central to the model is a specification of coping
patterns. The authors describe one effective coping
pattern, vigilance, with such characteristics as thor-
ough information search and unbiased assimilation
of new information, and four "defective" patterns.
The defective patterns include unconflicted adher-
ence to the current course of action, unconflicted
change to a new course of action, defensive avoid-
ance (procrastinating, shifting responsibility, or
bolstering the preferred alternative), and hypervigi-
lance (in its extreme form, panic).
Janis and Mann argue that the decision maker's
choice from among these alternatives is the result
of consideration of a sequence of questions dealing
with perceived risks of the status quo and of
change, perceived ability to find a better solution,
and time constraints. They subsequently link their
model of coping strategy choice to one of stages of
decision making (appraising the challenge, survey-
ing alternatives, weighing of alternatives, deliberat-
ing about commitment, and adhering despite
negative feedback). This results in a combined
conflict model useful in highlighting points at which
interventions might improve the quality of decision
142
making and in providing insights into a number of
important issues. For example, chapters are de-
voted to illustrating how the conflict model can be
used to predict when selective avoidance of infor-
mation will occur, how individuals will respond to
threats to freedom of choice, and when commit-
ment entrapment may take place. Such applica-
tions are informative and generate a number of
suggestions for changes in research strategies,
though repeated comparisons of the relative predic-
tive merits of conflict theory and of such competitors
as dissonance and reactance theories often seem
inconclusive.
The authors then suggest cognitive and emo-
tional confrontation techniques to counteract
defensive avoidance tendencies and present five
general types of interventions (all of them involving
counseling) to improve the quality of decision mak-
ing. They include: (1) decision counseling to foster
vigilant problem solving, (2) a balance-sheet pro-
cedure for weighing the pros and cons of each
alternative course of action, (3) outcome psycho-
drama to enhance vigilance and induce awareness
of preconscious anticipations, (4) emotional inocu-
lation procedures (such as the realistic job preview)
to increase tolerance for the stresses of postdeci-
sional setbacks, and (5) standard operating proce-
dures to prevent a collusive pattern of defensive
avoidance among the members of a decision-
making group.
Two things are troubling about these prescrip-
tions. The first is that the authors do little to justify
confidence in their value, repeatedly noting the
paucity of research supporting their validity. Per-
haps more disturbing is the fact that, while many
techniques are now available for unassisted en-
hancement of decision making quality, there is
almost nothing in this book to suggest that individ-
uals or groups may be able to improve their decision
making without the aid of a counselor.
Their failure to refer to such techniques may re-
flect the authors' apparent distrust of "supposedly
rational" decision-making procedures and of a
"world dominated by Dr. Strangelove and like-
minded cost accountants" [p. 45]. For instance, at
several points they discuss cases in which attempts
to apply techniques to aid in rational decision mak-
ing have failed. In each case, the failure was not due
to the technique itself but to its incorrect use. There
are many situations in which"hot" cognitions are at
work, such as suicide prevention and conflict reso-
lution, where tools to assist rational decision mak-
ing have proven to be useful. The authors do
mention in passing that statistical decision theory
and the use of multi-attribute utility models may be
helpful for evaluating alternatives but make no
reference to techniques for successfully generating
alternatives, preventing incrementalizing and con-
servatism, implementing decisions, reducing diffi-
culties in group problem solving, and so on. Also,
the authors give the misleading impression that
techniques to improve rational decision making are
capable of consideration only of utilitarian factors.
Furthermore, although Janis and Mann argue
that their model is applicable to all consequential
decisions, including many in organizations, and
although they repeatedly provide hypothetical
examples concerning executives' decisions, their
extrapolation to organizational decision making is
less than convincing. Almost all of the cases for
which solid evidence supporting the model is pre-
sented — such as anticipation of major surgery,
resistance to the draft, evacuation in the face of a
flood, fleeing from a fire, and attempting to quit
smoking after exposure to strong fear appeals —
are characterized by levels of stress substantially
greater than those typically faced by organizational
decision makers. The authors' attempts to genera-
lize to the organizational setting may have been
more successful had they not so conspicuously
ignored the relevant organizational literature. Of
almost 600 references, none are drawn from either
the Academy of f^anagement Journal or Decision
Sciences. Fewer than a dozen, with an average
age of over 10 years, are from Administrative Sci-
ence Quarterly, the Joumal of Applied Psychology,
Management Science, and Organizational Beha-
vior and Human Performance. A wealth of literature
relevant to the model, such as that on decision
confirmation, the effect of time constraints and of
negative information, the determinants of uncer-
tainty, group decision-making techniques, factors
influencing the use of alternative decision-making
styles, and decision-process tracing techniques,
could profitably have been taken from such
sources.
Such concerns notwithstanding, this is an ambi-
tious, insightful work, offering a relatively thorough
143
social-psychological description of decision making
in stressful situations and providing concrete sug-
gestions for future research directions. Further-
more, although this book would be of relatively little
value in courses focusing on normative organiza-
tional decision making and could not be used as the
sole text in those dealing with descriptive decision
making, its careful integration of a considerable
volume of literature should make it a useful supple-
ment in courses of the latter kind as well as a
valuable reference for interested scholars.
Ramon J. Aldag
University of Wisconsin
Thomas L. Moffat. Selection Interviewing
for Managers. New York: Harper & Row,
1978, 196 pp., $10.95.
It is obvious that the characteristics of any single
interview will vary both with the individuals involved
and with the purpose and character of the interview.
Moffatt's book totally agrees with this viewpoint,
and provides a candid look at interviewing that is
expressed in both written and schematic form. It is
keyed toward the beginner (one with little or no
formal training in nondirective interviewing), and
offers little for either the professional interviewer or
the academician. This, of course, in no way detracts
from the readability of the book or the authors' inti-
mate involvement with the topic.
The first three chapters establish the framework
and rationale for examining the interview process.
Here, Moffatt examines the question of validity and
other stumbling blocks to effective interviewing.
The discussion centering on interviewer maturity is
particularly well written and offers several examples
of such behavior. In this section the author comes
very close to the Kahn and Connell definition of an
interview: "a specialized pattern of verbal interac-
tion initiated for a specific purpose, with consequent
elimination of extraneous material." The only both-
ersome aspect is the reference to the term "key or
flags" without an appropriate explanation for the
reader.
Each of the next five chapters concentrates on
one of the several stages of interviewing: (1) prep-
aration, (2) establishing a permissive climate, (3)
the Cone System (data gathering), (4) applicant
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