A Cognitive-Expectancy Analysis of Compliance Decisions

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between organizational directives and managerial decision making. Specifically, a variety of issues surrounding compliance/noncompliance with organizational directives are examined. Directives are seen as formal reflections of the intentions and past learning of the firm. An expectancy-based model is developed to explain conditions of compliance with directives vs. the decision-maker's search for an initiative solution. A number of implications of this analysis are presented and discussed for both theory and practice in organizational decision making.

A systematic review of safety violations in industry

“…Woods and Patterson (2001) escalation principle suggests that more difficult situations reduce slack in a system; the reduction of slack increases demands and may lead to safety violations. On the other hand, difficult or risky situations may increase compliance with the safety goal, at the expense of a competing goal such as productivity, if the worker perceives that the risk of the situation outweighs the possible benefits of increased productivity or speed (Battman and Klumb, 1993;Hope and Pate, 1988).…”

“…While violations are generally viewed negatively (Lawton and Parker, 1999;Parker and Lawton, 2000), if a rule is bad, then a violation may be the correct action . Since rules do not always prescribe behaviors that will lead to optimal results (Dekker, 2003;Hope and Pate, 1988;, in some cases violating a safety protocol could improve results. To violate safely, however, may require that a worker, "(a) has an accurate knowledge about the task at hand (b) has enough information available (c) and processes this information accurately" (Besnard and Greathead, 2003, p. 277).…”

“…Thus, the use of decision-making theories to understand why individuals choose to violate may shed light on what variables are salient when choosing whether or not to violate (e.g. Battman and Klumb, 1993;Hope and Pate, 1988). These theories recognize that deciding to violate has both benefits and costs; benefits could include reduced time pressure or increased productivity while costs could include acceptance of a greater level of risk.…”

“…Considering only this, the framework is similar to other models that have been proposed that also address the compliance/violation decision, the applicability of the rule, and the individual's preference (Hope and Pate, 1988;.…”

A Novel Approach in Facilitating Aviation Emergency Procedure Learning and Recall through an Intuitive Pictorial System

“…According to the expectancy theory (Lines, quoting Vroom, 2004), "people consciously choose courses of action, based upon perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs, as a consequence of their desires to enhance pleasure and avoid pain " (p. 198). Expectancy theory predicts that resistance will occur if 1) the individual has expectancies that the relationship between a change in behavior and performance is uncertain, 2) the link between performance and outcome is uncertain, and 3) the outcomes have negative value to the individual (Hope and Pate, 1988).…”