Biases and Judgment in the Notes From

Biases and Judgment

In the notes from the Juicy Red Tomato Steering Committee, it becomes quite clear that there are several biases, held by the steering committee members, and that these are reflected by their attitudes and comments regarding the proposal. Reflective decision-making is not being utilized by these committee members, as also evidenced by their comments. Reflective decision-making requires reflective thinking, and this is based on an individual being open-minded and willingness to challenge their personal beliefs with new information ("Professional certificate," 1999). Clearly, the committee members are not willing to challenge these personal beliefs and are acting in a close-minded fashion, as demonstrated by the biases they exhibited.

The HR manager seems to be the least biased, although the sense that she may be a little upset by the fact that her suggestions were not previously, may indicate that she still is a bit biased to full implementation, since she no longer owns the ideas presented. The IT manager holds a similar bias, where he has been pushing for increased funding for some time and now that it's coming to fruition, he no longer holds ownership of the recommendation. The Agri director demonstrates an adjustment and anchoring bias where he is holding fast to the information that the company uses migrant workers, and refuses to consider other information.

The CFO uses a post hoc ergo propter hoc informal inductive fallacy as his bias. He assumes that the destruction of profit margins necessarily comes after the raising of the wages. Although this may happen, it certainly does not have to be. Other areas of cost savings, such as increased productivity may offset this additional cost. And, lastly, the President uses a hasty generalization, in stating that field personnel will not use 'high-tech' toys.