Understanding Student Syndrome, Planning Fallacy, and Cultural Contrasts

Wardan Hawa

Student Syndrome (Ariely, 2008): the tendency for students to give in to temptation and invent excuses when the deadline comes.

Planning Fallacy - Optimism trumps past experience (Buehler et al., 1997): students who believe they will finish their work on time tend to fall behind. Taxpayers who were expected to mail their taxes on time were also a week late (Buehler, Griffin & Ross, 2002).

Kahneman and Tversky (1979) proposed the Cognitive Model of Planning Fallacy:

• Inside Planning: focuses on the task rather than the mission, ignores outside factors, and leads to optimism bias
• Outside Planning: considers outside factors and learns from the past
• Optimism Bias: being overly optimistic about time leads to the least success in completing tasks on time
• Procrastination: an emotional problem stemming from motivation failure, resulting in poor results due to a lack of checking and cutting key stages

Key Contrasting Factors: Monochronic Vs Polychronic culture

• Monochronic culture: focuses on one thing at a time, considers when to do things, job first, time is inflexible (E. T. Hall and M. R. Hall, 1997)
• Polychronic culture: focuses on many things at once, considers what to do, relationships first, time is fluid (E. T. Hall and M. R. Hall, 1997)

(E. Meyer, 2015) Monochronic cultures: Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Sweden. Polychronic cultures: India, Nigeria, Kenya, China.

(Zilicus Solutions, 2012) Key elements of Project Planning:

• Scope
• Schedule
• Requirement
• Cost Estimation
• Quality
• Risk

Project Scope is like a map that shows the extent of the project deliverables. It shows the expected achievements, budget of time and costs, and helps organize work to deliver an effective project.

Power Structures (Handy, 1993):

• Power Culture: characterized by an entrepreneurial/political web, with minimized bureaucracies
• Role Culture: characterized by a Greek temple, logic/rationality, security/predictability, specified authorities, and hierarchical bureaucracies. Power is derived from position, not expertise. Change is slow.
• Task Culture: characterized by a net, teamwork, and power from expertise when required
• Person Culture: characterized by individuals superior to the organization, managed by mutual approval, power base is expertise, and difficult to manage

Trompenaars’ (1993) cultural dimensions:

• Incubator (person): Sweden, Canada, Switzerland. Deals with self-expression, ideation is key in performance, individualistic, highly creative (Redmond, 2014)
• Guided Missile (Task): USA, Ireland. Objective first, great sense of ownership, but can foster separate agendas
• Hierarchical (family): India, Spain, Japan. Built on reputation, influenced by family, loyalty
• Eiffel Tower (Task): Germany, France, Netherlands. Bureaucratic, must respect power (Volvo and Renault case)

Deal and Kennedy’s cultures (1982):

• Tough-Guy Macho (Fast feedback and reward, high risk): Stress results from the high risk and the high potential decrease or increase of the reward. Focus on individualism over teamwork. Typical examples: advertising, brokerage, sports.
• Work-Hard, Play-Hard (Fast feedback and reward, low risk): Stress results from the quantity of work rather than uncertainty. Focus on high-speed action and high levels of energy. Typical examples: sales, restaurants, software companies.
• Process Culture (Slow feedback and reward, low risk): Stress is generally low, but may come from internal politics and the stupidity of the system. Focus on details and process excellence. Typical examples: bureaucracies, banks, insurance companies, public services.
• Bet-Your-Company Culture (Slow feedback and reward, high risk): Stress results from high risk and delay before knowing if actions have paid off. Focus on long-term, preparation, and planning. Typical examples: pharmaceutical companies, aircraft manufacturers, oil prospecting companies.