Asking One Too Many? Why Leaders Need to Be Decisive

Ishida, Junichiro; Shimizu, Takashi

Institute of Social and Economic Research Discussion Papers, 2012, 857

Number of Access:524（2025-11-04 06:12 Counts）

Identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/11094/23394

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Title
Asking One Too Many? Why Leaders Need to Be Decisive
Creator
NRID
1000040324222 1000040324222
ORCID
0000-0002-0674-0216 0000-0002-0674-0216
researchmap permalink
read0116302 read0116302
Scopus Author ID
36927932200 36927932200
CreatorName
Ishida, Junichiro
NRID
1000040119102 1000040119102
CreatorName
Shimizu, Takashi
Subject
Decisiveness
Cheap talk
Multiple senders
Commitment
Abstract
It is often touted that decisiveness is one of the most important qualities to be possessed by leaders, broadly defined. To see how and why decisiveness can be a valuable asset in organizations, we construct a model of strategic information transmission where: (i) a decision maker solicits opinions sequentially from experts; (ii) how many experts to solicit opinions from is the decision maker’s endogenous choice. We show that communication is less efficient when the decision maker is indecisive and cannot resist the temptation to ask for a second opinion. This result suggests that the optimal diversity of information sources depends critically on the strategic nature of communication: when communication is strategic, it is optimal to delegate information acquisition to a single party and rely exclusively on it; when it is not, it is optimal to diversify information sources and aggregate them via communication.
Publisher
The Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University
Source Title
Institute of Social and Economic Research Discussion Papers
Volume (Issue)
857
Date of Issued
2012-10
Language
English
Handle URL
https://hdl.handle.net/11094/23394
Relation.references
URI
https://www.iser.osaka-u.ac.jp/static/resources/docs/dp/2012/DP0857.pdf
Access Rights
metadata only access
Category
ディスカッション／ワーキング・ペーパー DP/WP
Institute of Social and Economic Research Discussion Papers