But in a set of four experiments, researchers at University of Alberta identified a threat to profitability for the retailer who delegates highly important decisions: After granting the authority, responsibility, and accountability, you become more likely for a while to make your own other decisions in less healthy ways.
In one experiment, consumers were asked to assume they’d suffered a wrist injury. Some of the consumers were asked to go on to assume they delegated all the treatment decisions to a physician. The others were asked to make the treatment decisions themselves individually. Assignment to one or the other of the two groups was done randomly.
Next, each consumer was offered the choice between two rewards for participation in the study—either a fruit salad or a piece of chocolate cake.
Lots of previous research had shown that when a consumer is called on to exercise a great deal of mental effort, the consumer becomes more likely to select a tasty, less healthy treat over a healthy, less tasty treat. In the Alberta study, the question is who was exerting more mental effort—those who delegated the treatment decision to the physician or those who made the treatment decisions themselves. Which group was more likely to pick the chocolate cake?
What’s your guess?
You might think it would be the consumers who kept the responsibility. That seems harder than giving it up to somebody else. However, it was actually the delegators who chose the chocolate cake more often.
Wrist injuries are not the same as retail business decisions, and choosing chocolate cake is not identical to a retailer making a choice unhealthy for the business. Still, the Alberta researchers’ analyses indicate the underlying psychological dynamics are the same. Delegating important decisions causes managers to question their competency—even if briefly—and struggling against this self-doubt consumes substantial mental energy. In another experiment, delegating important decision making resulted in an increased tendency to purchase merchandise without adequately analyzing the consequences.
The solution, the research suggests, is for the retailers to remind themselves of important decisions they made well in the past and to maintain authority, responsibility, and accountability for the consequences of delegated and non-delegated decisions.
It also wouldn’t hurt to hide the chocolate cake for a while.
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