Managerial Decision Making
Only recently have studies of NDM begun to examine how managers make
decisions (e.g., Lipshitz & Shulimovitz, 2007). There are two ways in which our
study differs from previous NDM studies. First, we examine decision making in a
context in which the decision maker is not under significant time pressure. As
noted earlier, the bulk of the naturalistic decision-making literature has focused
on tasks in which the human has to make rapid decisions in high-risk environments.
For example, in naval air defense, the anti–air warfare officers need to make their
decisions within a matter of minutes.
It is not surprising that anti–air warfare officers rely on recognition, because
they do not have time to conduct a full information search and systematically
evaluate decision alternatives. However, managerial decisions are often made over
the course of several days or weeks. This is the case for promotion decisions in the
company that we studied. In this company, applicants for promotion are evaluated