Fallacies in Decision Making From an Asian Perspective

Abstract

Decision making is integral for organizational success, and for that, the basic tenet is rationality. Yet, no decisions in the workplace are purely rational. Irrational decision-making behaviours are the irrational beliefs of employees. Irrational employee behaviours can cause a billion dollar revenue loss. The purpose of this paper is to study the complex employee phenomenon of workplace irrational decision making and unearth its dimensions. Hence, this study is envisaged as a lived experience using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Participation was by 123 employees working in various capacities in Western India through theoretical sampling frame. The results indicate that it is a multidimensional phenomenon, and prominent are religious, pseudo-scientific, and sorcery-based behaviours. Thus, these findings can help the organizations to understand the irrational behaviours of employees and aid managers to recognize the decisions of their employees to mitigate the bias in irrational decisions.