Deadline Difficulties


Credibility problems make deadlines difficult to impose. For example, imagine that your business just made an employment offer to Sue. Your company would like to hire someone quickly and would prefer that Sue accept or decline your job offer within one week. You know that Sue, however, has another job interview scheduled in two weeks. While Sue would prefer this other job, she has only a tiny chance of obtaining it. If you could force Sue to decide within one week, you’re confident she would accept your offer rather than take a chance on her long-shot dream job. Unfortunately, you messed up in the job interview and signaled to Sue that you really wanted to hire her. If you told her that she had to decide within a week, she would ignore your deadline, confident that you would grant an extension.

What if you told Sue that you promised another candidate the job if Sue didn’t accept within a week? Again, since you already revealed your true inclinations, Sue would have no reason to believe this promise, because it would be in your interests to break it. What if you tried gaining credibility by giving up control of the situation? Perhaps you could go on vacation for a few weeks and instruct your human resource manager to give Sue one week and then offer the job to another candidate. This vacation strategy is flawed because Sue would never believe that you would really implement it. It would always be in your interests to tell Sue she has only a week, but then tell your HR manager to give Sue an extension if she ignored your deadline.




Game Theory at Work(c) How to Use Game Theory to Outthink and Outmaneuver Your Competition
Game Theory at Work(c) How to Use Game Theory to Outthink and Outmaneuver Your Competition
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2005
Pages: 260

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