Problem:
"To thine own self be true" The familiar words offered to Laertes by his father Polonious in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" also apply within our organizations. Perhaps one of the reasons for the poor performance of most mergers is the tendency of organizational actors to hide from the truth. Bazerman sites two phenomena, positive illusions and self-serving reasoning, as mechanisms of organizational self-deception. How have you observed these elements of decision making bias within your organizations? For example, have you observed the influence of positive illusions or self-serving reasoning in project proposals or resource deployment (investments)?