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Cited by 490Decision-Making and Behavioral EconomicsManagement Theory and PracticeLeadership, Behavior, and Decision-Making Studies

Managerial myopia: Self-serving biases in organizational planning.

Larwood, Laurie, Whittaker, William·1977·Journal of Applied Psychology
DOI 10.1037/0021-9010.62.2.194
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Abstract

Recent work indicates that people hold a variety of self-serving biases, be-lieving themselves more capable than they are in fact. Such biases, if ex-tended to the organizational level, would lead to overly optimistic planning for the future. This prediction was tested with two groups of management students and with a sample of corporate presidents. The management students consistently overestimated their abilities; in a marketing exercise, they like-wise indicated that a hypothetical firm, of which they were sales managers, would quickly overtake established competition. The executive sample also predicted inordinate success; the latter group, however, moderated projections somewhat if prior planning experience had been unsatisfactory. The impor-tance of managerial myopia to considerations of marketing, resource manage-ment, and demarketing is discussed. During the past decade, a number of re-searchers have noted that individuals often view themselves more favorably than seems

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Crossref · 10.1037/0021-9010.62.2.194

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12 of 12 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • People tend to rate themselves above average on a variety of desirable skills and traits.

    “well over half of survey respondents typically rate themselves in the top 50 percent of drivers (Svenson, 1981), ethics (Baumhart, 1968), managerial prowess (Larwood and Whittaker, 1977), productivity (Cross, 1977), health (Weinstein, 1980) and a variety of desirable skills.”

    From Explaining Bargaining Impasse: The Role of Self-Serving Biases (1997) · cites this paper as Larwood and Whittaker, 1977

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Authors
Larwood, L., & Whittaker, W.
Venue
Journal of Applied Psychology
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
1977-04
Volume
62
Issue
2
Pages
194-198
ISSN
  • 0021-9010 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1854
DOI
10.1037/0021-9010.62.2.194
OpenAlex
W2028731944
Cited by
490
References
12
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 14
FWCI
0.37
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Journal of Applied Psychology (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Management Theory and Practice
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Leadership, Behavior, and Decision-Making Studies
Keywords
managerial myopia, self-serving bias, organizational planning, overconfidence, overestimation of ability, managerial optimism, sales forecasting, marketing planning, planning experience, business executives, demarketing, resource management

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