Distinguished Scholar Invited Essay Behavioral Decision Making: Implications for Leadership and Organizations

The past few decades have witnessed greatly enhanced interest in behavioral decision theory. Unlike traditional decision theory, which is normative or prescriptive and seeks an optimal solution, behavioral decision theory (although it yields important practical implications) is inherently descriptive, seeking to understand how people actually make decisions. This article discusses rationality and its limits, approaches to examination of decision processes, and consequences of limits on rationality. Issues relating to the clinical-actuarial controversy and automatic decision making are then addressed. Two approaches to improving decision making–by use of statistical groups and prediction markets as well as by implementation of forms of paternalistic intervention–are examined. Implications for leadership and organizations are then offered.