Alternative Title

Choosing among nonfinancial job benefits: Constructed preferences, decoy effect, and anticipated regret

Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

submittedVersion

Publication Date

3-2018

Abstract

Attracting talent is one of the key challenges for organizations, and offering attractive work-family benefits plays an increasingly important role in succeeding at this challenge. However, behavioural decision theory suggests that when choosing among job offers with different work-family benefits, individuals may fall prey to a decoy effect and this effect may be mediated through anticipated regret. This effect occurs when preferences are influenced by a normatively irrelevant decoy option that is clearly inferior to one of the other options in the choice set, but not the other (i.e., ‘asymmetrically dominated’). Across two studies, we investigated preferences for two important types of work–family benefits: flexible work arrangements (FWA) and dependent care support (DCS). We predicted and found a decoy effect: Preferences for jobs with these benefits were influenced by the presence of a normatively irrelevant decoy option. That is, preferences shifted towards either the FWA option or the DCS option depending on which option the decoy targeted (i.e., the option that asymmetrically dominated the decoy). The effects held over and above variables related to individuals’ work and family situations and values, including role centrality. Moreover, we found that anticipated regret mediated the effect of the decoy option on benefit preferences.

Keywords

anticipated regret, decoy effect, role centrality, work-family benefits, work-family decisions

Discipline

Human Resources Management | Organizational Behavior and Theory

Research Areas

Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources

Publication

Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology

Volume

91

Issue

3

First Page

441

Last Page

464

ISSN

0963-1798

Identifier

10.1111/joop.12207

Publisher

Wiley: 12 months

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12207

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