CDR Seminar: John Maule - “The effects of time pressure on cognitive strategy, affect and hindrance/challenge appraisals underpinning managerial decision making".

The effects of time pressure on cognitive strategy, affect and hindrance/challenge appraisals underpinning managerial decision making

Working paper: The Effects of Time Pressure on Managerial Decision Making

Abstract

Experienced managers described a recent time pressured decision and then indicated: how they adapted their decision making strategy to meet the pressure; whether they appraised the situation as a challenge or as a hindrance; and how the pressure changed their emotional state. In addition, all managers completed the Maximiser/Satisficer and Need for Cognition scales. Results showed that managers use six different strategies for adapting to time pressure; that time pressure can induce higher levels of negative and positive affect and can be appraised as either a hindrance that reduces the quality of a decision or a challenge that is beneficial to the decision. There was some evidence that the Maximiser/Satisficer scale was associated with differences in strategy, appraisal and affect. The findings are discussed in the context of Variable State Activation Theory (Maule & Hockey, 1993) and the implications for helping managers to deal effectively with time pressured decision making are discussed.

About the speaker

John is Emeritus Professor of Human Decision making at Leeds University Business School. He has been involved in research on judgement and decision making for over 40 years focusing on: the effects of emotion and time pressure; framing; and risk communication in health, food and terrorism. John has a very strong commitment to applying academic theory and research on human decision making to professional and work contexts and has carried out consultancy and applied research with a broad range of private and public sector organisations. He is a past president of the European Association for Decision Making.