Glossary Chapter 6 a-type conflict (affective conflict) disagreement that focuses on individual- or personally-oriented issues absolute comparisons a process in which each criterion is compared to a standard or is ranked on its own merits anchoring and adjustment bias unrecognized tendency of decision makers to use an initial value or experience as a basis of comparison throughout the decision process availability bias unrecognized tendency of decision makers to give preference to recent information, vivid images that evoke emotions, and specific acts and behaviours that they personally observed bounded rationality decision-making process restricted in the real world by limited resources, incomplete and imperfect information, and managers’ limited decision-making capabilities brainstorming a decision-making method in which group members build on each other’s ideas to generate as many alternative solutions as possible c-type conflict (cognitive conflict) disagreement that focuses on problem- and issue-related differences of opinion conditions of certainty conditions in which decision makers have complete information and knowledge of all possible outcomes conditions of risk conditions in which decision makers face a very real possibility of making the wrong decision conditions of uncertainty conditions in which decision makers don’t know the odds of winning or losing decision criteria the standards used to guide judgments and decisions decision rule set of criteria that alternative solutions must meet to be acceptable to the decision maker decision-making the process of choosing a solution from available alternatives Delphi technique a decision-making method in which a panel of experts responds to questions and to each other until reaching agreement on an issue devil’s advocacy a decision-making method in which an individual or a subgroup is assigned the role of a critic dialectical inquiry a decision-making method in which decision makers state the assumptions of a proposed solution (a thesis) and generate a solution that is the opposite (antithesis) of that solution dictionary rule decision rule that requires decision makers to rank criteria in order of importance and then test alternative solutions against those criteria in rank order, so that alternatives that meet the most important criterion must then meet the second most important criterion, and so on electronic brainstorming a decision-making method in which group members use computers to build on each other’s ideas and generate many alternative solutions escalation of commitment the tendency for a person who has already made a decision to more strongly support that original decision despite negative information that clearly indicates it was wrong evaluation apprehension fear of what others will think of your ideas groupthink a barrier to good decision-making caused by pressure within the group for members to agree with each other information overload situation in which decision makers have too much information to attend to maximizing choosing the best alternative minimum threshold rule decision rule that requires alternative solutions to meet all the established minimum decision criteria multivariable testing a systematic approach of experimentation used to analyze and evaluate potential solutions negative frame couching a problem in terms of a loss, thus influencing decision makers toward becoming risk-seeking nominal group technique a decision-making method that begins and ends by having group members quietly write down and evaluate ideas to be shared with the group positive frame couching a problem in terms of a gain, thus influencing decision makers toward becoming risk-averse problem a gap between a desired state and an existing state production blocking a disadvantage of face-to-face brainstorming in which a group member must wait to share an idea because another member is presenting an idea rational decision-making a systematic process of defining problems, evaluating alternatives, and choosing optimal solutions relative comparisons a process in which each decision criterion is compared directly to every other criterion representative bias unrecognized tendency of decision makers to judge the likelihood of an event’s occurrence based on its similarity to previous events risk propensity a person’s tendency to take or avoid risks satisficing choosing a “good enough” alternative stepladder technique when group members are added to a group discussion one at a time (i.e., like a stepladder), the existing group members first take the time to listen to each new member’s thoughts, ideas, and recommendations, and then the group, in turn, shares the ideas and suggestions that it had already considered, discusses the new and old ideas, and then makes a decision