It is true that followers want leaders to act in a way that is rational and expected. However, these expectations of a leader come from individuals that can be irrational sometimes. This situation makes it difficult for leaders to explain and defend their behaviors to their followers. It would be hard for me as a leader to explain my irrational behavior to people even if I truly believed in the behavior. There is simply no case to defend irrational behavior. However, I would defend that behavior by simply saying that the behavior is predictable by most people.
It is very surprising how the presentation of information can influence decision-making. Many marketing promotions have influenced me to purchase many products through the presentation of such promotions. One example of how I was influenced to purchase was when I received two sale coupons by the same store. One coupon stated that if I purchased $150 worth of stuff, I could get $25 back. The second coupon stated that If I purchased $250 worth of stuff, I would get $50 back. I used the second coupon because it had the larger dollar back amount even though I didn’t need to purchase that much stuff. In my mind, I wanted to take advantage of the larger savings. This was irrational behavior because I actually did not save as much as I thought because I purchased more stuff than I needed.
Marketing promotions are so good are luring consumers like us. I fall for that same two sale coupons trick all the time !
ReplyDelete