Affective Reactions presents in Organizations’ Decision-Making: An approach based on the Prospective Theory

Abstract

This research aimed to identify possible influences of the reactions of affection in the context of the management decisions of organizations. The emotional reactions, whether positive or negative, were introduced and studied the behavior at risk both in the context of gain and loss from the approach of Prospect Theory. This study was based on the work of Moreno, Kida and Smith (2002). The focus is set on three scenarios of decisions under the spectrum management, especially in matters involving the capital budget. The sample of 151 respondents divided into three groups. In the first, called the control group, the decisions would be based on information, the scenarios presented only financial data and probability of occurrence. In the second and third groups, checking group and interest group, respectively, were added to the variables of emotion scenarios established the first group. Respondents in the second group should assign a degree of perception of affective reaction exposed the scene, the third of the respondents, making decisions within the environment and the data exposed. The results were treated in contingency tables. We used the statistical test chi-squared (c²) to check whether there was association between affective response and decision. It was concluded that the presence of emotional variable can influence the perception of risk in the alternative scenario. However, in only one scenario, we observed strong influence of reactions affect the results, in which the participants of the interest group had the appetite for risk, even inserted in a gain context.