Influence of event characteristics on assessing credibility and advice-taking

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how the environment surrounding a decision-making event affects whether decision-makers consider the credibility of their advisors and take their advice. Design/methodology/approach In two experiments, the characteristics of the event and credibility of the advisor were manipulated, the extent to which participants considered the information from the advisor was measured, and whether participants took advice was determined. Findings Decision-makers are more likely to take advice from advisors when the decision-making event is of low urgency or high criticality because they are more likely to consider information provided by high-credibility advisors. Practical implications Within organizations, decision-makers may be making suboptimal decisions when faced with highly urgent decisions or decisions with low criticality. This study suggests that under these conditions, decision-makers are less likely to consider the information provided by high-credibility advisors. Organizations may consider encouraging decision-makers to override their tendency to disregard advice from credible advisors. Originality/value This study introduces a contextual factor relevant to managers, event characteristics, which has an effect on whether decision-makers take advice. A unique experimental design was utilized in which credibility was manipulated across two studies with an explicit (Study 1: resume) vs implicit (Study 2: video) method, and advice-taking was measured with a decision that was clearly right or wrong.

Metacognitive myopia and the overutilization of misleading advice

“…Gigone & Hastie, 1993;Hartmann & Rad, 2017;Reutlinger, 2016). Apart from correlational evidence for the dependence of advice taking on credibility (Johnson & Johnson, 2017;Tenney, Spellman, & MacCoun, 2008), hardly any prior research (with the notable exception of Schultze, Mojzisch, & Schulz-Hardt, 2017) has addressed the ability to evade invalid advice.…”

Designing employee performance evaluation model in Isfahan municipality: an interorganizational experience

“…The other theme that has been rejected in model testing is the evaluation approach, which refers to management tendency to use intra or extra advisors in performance evaluations. As Jhonson and Jhonson (2017, p. 99) maintained, “Under low-urgency or high-criticality conditions, decision-makers distinguish the credibility of their advisors in deciding whether to follow their advice. When conditions are highly urgent or not critical, decision-makers ignore cues of advisors” credibility and therefore their advice, even if it is from high credibility advisors.…”

Exploring the adoption of BIM amidst the COVID-19 crisis in China

“…For example, Tilcsik and Marquis (2013) reported that natural disaster events with severe damage reduce the willingness of corporate philanthropy, whereas lowstrength events can promote corporate philanthropy. Johnson and Johnson (2017) indicated that a smaller urgency and higher criticality of an organizational event corresponded to a higher likeliness of the decision-maker to implement advice-taking behaviour. Moreover, Moghavvemi et al, who examined the adoption of information technology (IT) innovation, highlighted that high-strength external events, such as financial crises and market changes, could prompt IT entrepreneurs to consider feasible alternatives to better survive in the market, thereby enhancing the probability of adopting innovative technologies (Moghavvemi et al 2015(Moghavvemi et al , 2016.…”