How your frames direct us: : A poker experiment

• Localización: Organization studies, ISSN 0170-8406, Vol. 34, Nº 9, 2013, págs. 1381-1405
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • We adapt Erving Goffman�s (1974) frame analysis to discover how frames shape individuals� decisions in a poker-based experiment. The frames that surfaced in our subjects� verbalizations suggest the ways in which they form very different impressions of �what is going on� in an identical situation. Our findings revealed that people�s frames drive the information they attend to in a situation, the interpretation they put on that information, and the way they synthesize the information to make a decision. The thematic frames that emerged differed dramatically across groups of individuals; they also were cohesive, multifaceted, and relatively few in number. As a result they were predictive: one could foretell a person�s behavior across multiple situations given the consistency in the frame adopted. In most cases, frames also revealed a significant mismatch with the requirements of the situation. Management scholars and practitioners would be wise to be more alert to frames which can do as much to derail effective decision-making as to facilitate it.