The generalist bias

Long Wang; J. Keith Murnighan

doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2012.09.001

The generalist bias

Long Wang, J. Keith Murnighan^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Management and Organizations

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

This research introduces the generalist bias - a tendency to reward and select people with general skills when complementary, specialized skills are needed. Five studies investigated its effects. Study 1 confirmed the existence of the bias in a context-free experiment. Study 2 showed that the compensation of players in NBA teams was related to their two- rather than their three-point scoring. Study 3 showed that basketball fans favored all-around players even when three-point shooters would better complement a team's needs. Study 4 showed that the generalist bias occurred in HR recruiting, and Study 5 showed that companies often recruited specialists to handle multiple, unrelated jobs. In addition, studies 3 and 4 also showed that joint evaluations (comparing specialists and generalists side-by-side) strengthened the generalist bias, whereas separate evaluations weakened it.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	47-61
Number of pages	15
Journal	Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
Volume	120
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2012.09.001
State	Published - Jan 2013

Keywords

Decision bias
Generalists
Selection
Social comparisons
Specialists

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Applied Psychology
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

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10.1016/j.obhdp.2012.09.001

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The generalist bias

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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