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Image Theory
Image theory is a cognitive/behavioral theory of decision making. It differs from traditional behavioral decision theory in that it is not based on the analogy between decision makers and gamblers making risky bets. This is because studies of professional decision makers (primarily managers but also firefighters, military officers, and so on) show that they seldom behave like gamblers and they seldom view their decisions as bets. Unlike gamblers, they seldom entertain multiple options. Instead, most of their decisions are about a single option— usually a course of action in pursuit of a specific set of desirable outcomes. Unlike gamblers, they seldom make a decision and passively wait to see what chance will deliver. Instead, they decide on a course of action and work hard to make sure that it yields the results they want. Unlike gamblers, they seldom seek to maximize winnings (profits) to the exclusion of everything else. Instead, they deliberately select goals and take purposeful actions that move them and their organizations toward a valued future. Building on this, image theory’s central management insight is that professional managers create an image of what they want their organization’s future to be and decisions and subsequent actions are directed toward ensuring that the image becomes reality. In this entry, we briefly review the fundamentals of the theory, examine some of the research deriving from the theory, and describe a version of the theory designed to account for decisions about voluntary employment turnover.
Fundamentals
Image theory defines a decision option, not as a win/lose gamble but as a plan of action for attaining a goal. Decision making consists of evaluating the compatibility of an option’s goal and plan with the decision maker’s or organization’s values, previously existing goals, and ongoing plans. Options that violate values, contravene existing goals, or interfere with ongoing plans are deemed incompatible with the decision maker’s and organization’s desired future and are rejected. Options that are compatible with the desired future are adopted and their plans implemented. Image theory’s domain is the actions of individual decision makers, even if they are working in groups. This is because, from a psychological point of view, it is incorrect to speak of groups or organizations as making decisions. Instead, a single agent or, more frequently, a group of agents is entrusted with making the collective’s decisions. This means that the individual agent must make a decision and, when other agents are involved, a final decision must be negotiated for the organization as a whole. As a result, in most cases the individual, even a powerful executive, must take into consideration the arguments and the constraints posed by the other parties to the decision.
The theory posits three kinds of cognitive structures, called images, and two kinds of decisions, called adoption and progress decisions, and proposes a model of the decision mechanism, called the compatibility test. The key concept is that most of the work of decision making is done by screening out unacceptable options. And because most decisions are about a single option—accept or reject—if the option survives screening, it is accepted. If not, it is rejected and, in many cases, another option is sought to replace it, whereupon the screening process occurs again. When there are multiple options under consideration and only one survives screening, it is accepted. If more than one survives, the least unacceptable is chosen from among them.
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