Quantifying heterogeneous individual perceptions in project management research

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Hackman

PurposeThis article introduces the best-worst scaling object case, a quantitative method of producing individual level models of heterogeneous perceptions, for use in behavioural decision making research in projects. Heterogeneous individual perceptions refer to observed or unobserved differences between individual perceptions that impact the outcome being studied. Individual level models of perceptions are important to account for the impact of heterogeneous perceptions on measurement tasks, so they do not become an unobserved source of variance that potentially biases research inferences.Design/methodology/approachAn overview of individual heterogeneity is provided highlighting the requirement for individual level models in quantitative perception measurements. A literature review is then conducted of the quantitative methods and tasks used to measure perceptions in behavioural decision making research in projects and their potential to produce individual level models.FindingsThe existing quantitative methods cannot produce the necessary individual level models primarily due to the inability to address individual level scale effects, responses styles and biases. Therefore, individual heterogeneity in perceptions can become an unobserved source of variance that potentially biases research inferences.Practical implicationsA method new to project management research, the best-worst scaling object case, is proposed to produce individual level models of heterogeneous perceptions. Guidance on how to implement this method at the individual level is provided along with a discussion of possible future behavioural decision making research in projects.Originality/valueThis article identifies a largely unacknowledged measurement limitation of quantitative behavioural decision making research in projects and provides a practical solution: implementing the best-worst scaling object case at the individual level.

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 58-78
Author(s):  
David J. Finch ◽  
John Nadeau ◽  
Bill Foster ◽  
Norm O’Reilly ◽  
Kim Bates ◽  
...  

Purpose The issues associated with the production and dissemination of management research have been widely debated amongst administrators, scholars and policymakers for decades. However, few studies to date have examined this issue at the level of the individual scholar. The purpose of this paper is to view a management scholar’s choice of knowledge dissemination (KD) outlets as a legitimacy judgment embedded in their social structure and community norms. Design/methodology/approach To explore this, the authors conduct a sequential mixed-methods study. The study uses qualitative methods, including one-on-one interviews (n=29) and five workshops (n=79) with administrators, management scholars, students and external community members (practitioners and policymakers). In addition, the authors analyzed the KD outcomes of 524 management scholars at seven Canadian universities drawn from a stratified sample of business schools. Findings The results of the research demonstrate the complex interaction between individual scholar-level factors, including socialization (degree type and practitioner experience) and tenure, and the institutional-level factors, such as strategic orientation and accreditation, and how these influence KD judgments. Specifically, the authors find that institutional factors (such as tenure and promotion) are a central predictor of scholarly KD; in contrast, the authors find that individual-level factors including degree, professional experience and career stage influence non-scholarly KD. Originality/value The results suggest that as management scholars face increasing pressure to demonstrate impact beyond academia, it may be more difficult than simply adapting the reward system. Specifically, the authors suggest that administrators and policymakers will have to consider individual factors, including their academic training (including interdisciplinary training), previous practitioner experience and career stage.


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuria Nadal-Burgues ◽  
Eduard Bonet

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present new aspects of the tension between creativity and productivity and improve the understanding on how research can be developed in very restricted environments, such as the context of an organization managed using the methods of Project Management. And more generally, it introduces the rhetoric of judgment as a fundamental aspect involved in the development and specification of projects. Design/methodology/approach – The theoretical approach is based on the phenomenological theory of human intentional action developed by Alfred Schutz, in which the notion of mental project is more flexible than that of project management. In it the concepts of subaction and repeated action are considered a combination of similar actions already performed. The Kantian notion of judgment is introduced to outline self-persuasion as a fundamental source of creativity. Findings – The introduction of an extended notion of project and routine involving judgment expands the rational, generic and technical notion of project management. And the rhetorical aspect of judgment, at the individual level, establishes the possibility to deliver unexpected outcomes that are considered creative. Originality/value – The proposed notions of project and routines mediated through the rhetoric of judgment present theoretical and practical progress in the subject of managing projects.


2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (7) ◽  
pp. 1378-1399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaisa Sandell

PurposeThis study aims to examine the relationship between consumer characteristics and the effectiveness of olfactory cues on purchase behavior.Design/methodology/approachThe theories of the effects of consumer decision-making, olfaction and sensory marketing on purchase behavior are applied using loyalty card data collected through an experiment. These data are analyzed using quantitative methods.FindingsThe presence of an olfactory cue has a positive impact on purchase behavior, as measured by product-category sales. Results indicate that in sales promotion, olfactory cues are most efficient in men who have hedonistic or quality-oriented decision-making styles.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper is the first to study the effectiveness of olfactory cues on purchase behavior when the interactions between the individual characteristics of consumers are considered. The study broadens extant frameworks of sensory marketing by placing the consumer in the central position as the processor of sensory cues. The work pioneers the integration of consumer’s decision-making style (CDMS) as one of the moderating factors in the process.Practical implicationsThe results encourage retailers and practitioners to consider CDMS – and not only gender or age – when using olfactory cues in sales promotions. Hopefully, this paper will inspire retailers to think of the more psychological aspects of consumer behavior and decision-making when planning their loyalty card systems.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to study the effectiveness of olfactory cues on purchase behavior when the interactions between the individual characteristics of consumers are considered. Addressing the decision-making style in addition to demographics is a novel approach, contrasting with earlier studies that merely focused on olfactory acuity.


2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (8/9) ◽  
pp. 763-775 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priyanka Vallabh ◽  
Manish Singhal

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how practical wisdom rooted in Buddhism can help modern managers make decisions in contemporary business organizations. Design/methodology/approach – The paper suggests a model explaining how individual level Buddhist beliefs in Dependent Origination are reflected in behavior of individual through mindfulness, compassion and expansion of self. The model also explores the consequences of above mentioned behavior in terms of individual, group and organizational level decision making, respectively. Findings – The paper develops propositions which demonstrate the possibility of applying the practical wisdom of Buddhism into the individual, group and organizational decision-making processes. The paper proposes an integrative model and suggests initiatives that can be taken in business organizations and business schools for applying the practical wisdom gleaned from the Buddhist traditions. Research limitations/implications – The paper brought the core concepts of Buddhism as the main point of application in the decision-making process in management. However, this approach is perhaps difficult to grasp for the readers who may not be as conversant with that tradition. Originality/value – Rich eastern traditions have remained underexplored in contemporary business literature. This paper examines the potential contributions from the Buddhist heritage in the crucial decision-making domain in management.


2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 754-771 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuhong Wang ◽  
Steven D Caldwell ◽  
Xiang Yi

Purpose – As Chinese companies move to the world stage of business, they must leverage a more knowledgeable and collaborative workforce to meet new challenges. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how two prominent individual attributes, education, and allocentrism, create work tension for human capital practices in Chinese companies. Design/methodology/approach – Surveying nearly 500 workers in four Chinese companies and using multi-level methodology. Findings – The authors found that higher levels of education work to the detriment of employees’ affective organizational commitment (AOC) and positively influence seeking-to-leave behavior. In addition, this study suggests a positive relation between allocentrism and AOC. Personalized leadership, a common leadership style in high-power distance cultures such as China, further exacerbates the problems with higher levels of education and diminishes the commitment benefits of allocentrism. Conversely, regardless of leadership style, if supervisors involve workers in decision-making activities, those workers who are more educated will become more committed to the organization and less likely to leave. Research limitations/implications – The data were collected using self-reported questionnaires, which may cause common method variance. The reliability for personalized leadership was slightly below 0.70. This may be due to the multiple dimensions that are reflected in leadership styles. Another limitation of this study is its focus on allocentrism without considering other personal expression of cultural values. This approach could be too narrow (Gelfand et al., 2007). Practical implications – This study suggests that members who endorse allocentrism might be more likely to have high-affective commitment. If managers can select individuals high on the allocentrism scale, there is a higher likelihood these individuals will attach emotionally to the organization. Managers should not simply conclude that idiocentrics are “worse” employees than allocentrics. Instead, managers may utilize effective management tactics to cultivate more socialized leadership visions among their supervisors. Finally, the authors find that independent of whether leadership is more or less personalized, managers can retain valued educated workers by including them in decision-making activities. Social implications – The authors have found that education may serve as a double edged sword for employers. As hypothesized, the findings suggested that employees’ level of education negatively relates to their affective commitment for their organizations. This study also contributes to the knowledge on the role of culture at the individual level (i.e. allocentrism) and how it affects employees’ attitudes and behavior. The authors found that workers who more highly value the group that they function within (allocentrics) tend to be more affectively committed to their organization. Originality/value – It is one of the first studies to examine educational level and cultural orientation as antecedents to affective commitment, especially in Chinese businesses where workers’ education level is a growing phenomenon and allocentrism is a traditional characteristic of Chinese workers. Also, understanding the dynamics of group-individual linkages is generally most helpful to understanding organizational phenomenon (House et al., 1995). This meso framework is a hallmark feature of the study, given the hierarchical nature of the research inquiry and data set.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Schlindwein ◽  
Mike Geppert

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to advance micro-level theorising of sociocultural post-merger integration (PMI) by merging insights from international business and management research on the cognitive and affective dimensions of PMI. Design/methodology/approach The paper follows a narrative approach to review the previously separate literatures on cognition and emotion in PMI situations. It draws on insights from management research beyond the PMI context to integrate these literatures and as a result, develops a process model of emotional sensemaking in PMI. Findings An emotional sensemaking approach to PMI helps to explain when and why events might or might not motivate individuals to revisit their interpretation of a PMI and illustrates how and why similar PMI events can lead to opposite individual reactions and, thus, obtain heterogeneous integration outcomes. Research limitations/implications The paper discusses how an emotional sensemaking approach can be applied to sociocultural PMI and points to new directions for future studies based on this application. As the model concentrates on the individual level, theoretical implications for sociocultural PMI at the meso- and macro-levels remain limited. Originality/value This paper brings forward the dynamics that underlie the processes and outcomes of individuals’ behaviour and reactions to PMI events. The proposed process model of emotional sensemaking in PMI responds to recent calls by sociocultural PMI scholars to promote a processual rather than event-based view of PMI, with a focus on individual actors and an emphasis on the multifaceted dynamics and outcomes of PMI.


foresight ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 309-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evgeniya Lukinova ◽  
Mikhail Myagkov ◽  
Pavel Shishkin

Purpose – This paper aims to study the value of sociality. Recent experimental evidence has brought to light that the assumptions of the Prospect Theory by Kahneman and Tversky do not hold in the proposed substantive domain of “sociality”. In particular, the desire to be a part of the social environment, i.e. the environment where individuals make decisions among their peers, is not contingent on the framing. Evolutionary psychologists suggest that humans are “social animals” for adaptive reasons. However, entering a social relationship is inherently risky. Therefore, it is extremely important to know how much people value “sociality”, when the social outcomes are valued more than material outcomes and what kinds of adaptations people use. Design/methodology/approach – We develop a new theory and propose the general utility function that features “sociality” component. We test the theory in the laboratory experiments carried out in several countries. Findings – Our results suggest that when stakes are low the theory of “sociality” is successful in predicting individual decisions: on average, people do value “sociality” and it surpasses the monetary loss. Originality/value – The main contribution of this paper is the breakdown of the risk attitudes under low stakes and individual level of decision-making. Another advancement is the ability to formalize the social utility or the theory of “sociality” in an economic model; we use general utility function that we define both on the outcomes and on the process of the decision-making itself and test in laboratory studies.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Emmanuel Tetteh ◽  
Christopher Boachie

PurposeThis paper attempts to investigate the influence of psychological biases on saving decision-making of bank customers in Ghana.Design/methodology/approachIt employs weighted least squares regression to test the effect of psychological biases on savings decisions of bank customers.FindingsThe findings show that all the nine psychological biases, namely mental accounting, availability, loss aversion, representativeness, anchoring, overconfidence, status quo, framing effect and disposition effect employed for the study have a significant influence on saving decision of bank customers. The results depict that psychological biases are entrenched in the saving pattern of bank customers in Ghana.Practical implicationsFor policy purposes, the study recommends that bank customers need to enhance their knowledge of psychological biases in order to improve their gains from savings, and not to fall prey to these prejudices. The satisfied customer is a dependable source of bank viability and survival.Originality/valueTo the best of the knowledge of the author, this study provides the first empirical evidence of the influence of psychological biases on saving decisions of bank customers in Ghana. The findings of this study will enhance knowledge on the influence of psychological biases on individual decision-making and will accentuate the fact that the individual is not an entirely rational being.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haithem Zourrig ◽  
Mengxia Zhang ◽  
Kamel El Hedhli ◽  
Imene Becheur

Purpose This study aims to apply McCornack’s (1992) information manipulation theory to the context of fraud and investigates the effects of culture on perceived deceptiveness. Design/methodology/approach In total, 400 Chinese consumers and an equal-size sample of Canadian consumers were recruited to fill an online survey. The survey integrates four scenarios of insurance fraud and measures of perceived deceptiveness, cultural tightness and horizontal-vertical idiocentrism allocentrism, in addition to some control variables. Findings Results show that at the societal level of culture, perceived deceptiveness is higher in individualistic than in collectivistic cultures. When accounting for the level of situational constraint, cultural tightness was found to magnify the perceived deceptiveness. At the individual level of culture, vertical-allocentrism and vertical-idiocentrism were found to weigh against the perception of deceptiveness. Originality/value Understanding cultural differences in perceived deceptiveness is helpful to spot sources of consumers’ vulnerability to fraud tolerance among a culturally diverse public.


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