The Influence of Irrationality on the Innovativeness of Variants and the Quality of Decision Making

The article focuses on the issue of irrationality in human conduct and its influence on managerial decision making and mostly the innovativeness of the variants. The first part specifies the starting points of this irrationality, which include particularly the fact that everything is relative. This is connected with so-called mental accounting and the prospect theory, the role of emotions and the subconscious. What is important is the deep-rooted loss aversion. The second part of the article already describes the specific traps which appear within the decision-making process. Each of the traps is described including a suitable practical example. The traps mentioned include information overload, framing of the problem, anchoring and value attribution, status quo, estimates and forecasts, procrastination, sunk costs and paralysis of choice. The aim of the article is to provide an overview of the various pitfalls that complicate and influence in a significant way the resulting quality of decision making and particularly the innovativeness of the solution. Their impact is illustrated using real examples.