IDENTITY-BASED DECISION MAKING

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IDENTITY-BASED DECISION MAKING

• WHY WHO WE ARE DETERMINES WHAT WE WILL DO

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Identity-based Decision Making

• Every person has multiple identities.
• Every group has multiple group identities.
• People belong to a group because their personal
  identities coincide with the groups identity.
• Successful decision-making and change requires
• Identifying key characteristics of group
  identity.
• Identifying essential characteristics of identity
  of influencers in the group.

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Large Cultural Contexts Matter

• Geert Hofstede, Cultures Consequences
  International Differences in Work-Related Values.
• Hofstede found that the nation of origin has a
  major impact on how people function in four
  different areas
• Power distance
• Uncertainty Avoidance
• Individualism
• Masculinity

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Power Distance

• Equality vs. Hierarchy is the issue.
• The distance between the superior or supervisor
  and the subordinate or working person.
• Educational level is another factor strongly
  influencing view of power distance.
• How might church and denominational practices and
  theology impact power distance views?

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Behavior Characteristics of High vs. Low Power
Distance
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Behavior Characteristics of High vs. Low Power
Distance
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Power Distance

• Educational level is another factor strongly
  influencing view of power distance.
• How might church and denominational practices and
  theology impact power distance views?
• What are the implications for you as the leader
  of a church group?

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Uncertainty Avoidance

• Uncertainty is caused by nature, by other people
  and groups, and by unknowable forces.
• Different cultures have different levels of
  comfort with uncertainty.
• Societies use technology, law and religion
  according to Hofstede to cope with uncertainty.
• Organizations use technology, rules and rituals.
• Bad rules arise when those who make the rules
  have different values than those who have to
  follow them (Hofstede, 115).

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Uncertainty Avoidance

• Organizations avoid uncertainty in two ways,
  according to March and Cyert (Behavioral Theory
  of the Firm, 1963)
• They avoid the requirement that they correctly
  anticipate events in the distant future by using
  decision rules emphasizing short-run reaction . .
  .
• Second, they avoid the requirement that they
  anticipate future reactions of other parts of
  their environment by arranging a negotiated
  environment an artificial environment with their
  own plans, rituals and traditions (Hofstede,
  113).

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Uncertainty Avoidance
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Uncertainty Avoidance
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MULTIPLE IDENTITIES MULTIPLE RULES

• We all have multiple identities.
• Who are you with your parents?
• With your friends?
• At church?
• On Friday night?

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MULTIPLE IDENTITIES MULTIPLE RULES

• We all have multiple rules.
• Rules in this context refer to a set of standards
  that you use to determine your conduct.
• What are your behavior and attitude rules with
  your parents? Your friends? At church? On
  Friday night?
• Which are the same? What are the major
  differences?

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PERSONAL IDENTITIES

• What are your behavior and attitude rules with
  your parents?
• What are your behavior and attitude rules with
  your friends? At church? On Friday night?
• Which are the same? What are the major
  differences?

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Multiple Identities, Multiple Rules

• Different environments invoke different
  identities and rules.

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Four Factors Invoking Identities and Rules in an
Environment

• 1. Experiential learning
• 2. Categorization
• 3. Recency
• 4. Context of others
• (James G. March, A Primer on Decision-making How
  Decisions Happen, 1994, 69-72 )

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Experiential learning

• Recalling the rewards and punishments of evoking
  an identity in a similar situation in the past.
  People invoke identities that lead to positive
  experiences in the past.

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Categorization

• Responses are usually organized around a few key
  conceptions of identity. For example, people who
  view the world in competitive terms will likely
  respond competitively in many situations.

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Recency

• Identities and rules that have been recently
  evoked are likely to be evoked again.
• An executive carries the no-nonsense role of
  executive home.
• A person in conflict at home takes
  conflict-oriented identities to work.

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Context of others

• The real or imagined presence and attention of
  others highlights social expectations and
  modifies identities and behaviors.

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The American Cultural Context

• Dominant Social Values
• Post-Material, not post-modern may provide the
  key insight.
• Consumer-based.
• Individual rights-oriented.

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Four Dominant Social Values

• Taking Care of Me
• Connecting
• Questing
• Individual Style

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Taking Care of Me

• Well-being, Beauty and Youthfulness, Making Time
  for Myself
• This emotional space is the most personal and
  immediate and, for many American consumers, the
  most important. It is about the good I buy to
  make me feel as good as I can, as immediately as
  possible. It is about physical rejuvenation,
  emotional uplift, stress reduction, pampering,
  comfort, rest and moments to myself. It includes
  such goods as personal-care products, ice cream,
  chocolates, coffee, home-theatre equipment,
  appliances, furniture and bedding (Trading Up,
  35).

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Connecting

• Attractiveness, Hooking Up, Affiliation, and
  Membership.
• New Luxury goods also provide a way for
  consumers to align themselves with people whose
  values and interests they share to make
  affiliations and join the club, whatever it
  might be (Trading Up, 44).

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Questing

• Adventure, Learning, and Play.
• Questing is the emotional space that has emerged
  the most strongly in the past several years. It
  is all about those goods and services I can buy
  that will enrich my existence, deliver a new
  experience, satisfy my curiosity, deliver
  physical and intellectual stimulation, provide
  adventure and excitement, and add novelty and
  exoticism to my life (Trading Up, 45).

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Individual Style

• Achievement, Sophistication, and Success.
• Although New Luxury consumers are not driven
  primarily by a desire for status or empty
  infatuation with a brand name, that does not mean
  they care nothing for the messages that goods and
  brands deliver about individual style. . .
  Consumers know they can say a lot about
  themselves through their choice of specific
  brands and types of goods (Trading Up, 48).

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Summary
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