Module BUSI45R15: IMPROVING MANAGEMENT DECISION MAKING (Block Taught)

Department: Business School (Business)

BUSI45R15: IMPROVING MANAGEMENT DECISION MAKING (Block Taught)

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To give students an in-depth understanding at an advanced level of the complexities of decision-making, and how decisions can be improved by specialist techniques such as decision analysis and scenario thinking.
• To provide students with a sufficiently detailed knowledge of methods for solving quantitative problems to permit them to appreciate material covered elsewhere in the MBA programme.
• Emphasis is placed on critically evaluating both the quality of management judgement and the assumptions underlying decision-aiding techniques, especially quantitative techniques.

Content

• How people choose between alternatives.
• Improving choice using multi-attributable value analysis techniques.
• Psychological pitfalls in choice: overconfidence, escalation of commitment, shift-to-risk in decision making.
• Decision analysis – methods and techniques for making decisions that involve uncertainties.
• Data description.
• Applications of models to management problems, e.g. risk and monitoring.
• Scenario planning versus decision analysis – creativity and the framing of decisions.
• Decision making in management teams – pitfalls and remedies.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the module students should have:
• a specialist knowledge of the pitfalls in how individuals and management teams make decisions;
• a critical appreciation of the assumptions, implications, and limitations of decision analysis;
• advanced knowledge and critical understanding of the uses of quantitative and qualitative information for evaluating options in an uncertain business environment.

• By the end of the module students should have:
• advanced skills in, and a critical understanding of, the techniques of multi-attribute decision analysis;
• the ability to use modelling applications within Excel and apply them to complex management problems.

• Written communication;
• Planning, organising and time management;
• Problem solving and analysis;
• Using initiative;
• Computer literacy.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Learning outcomes will be met through a combination of lectures, groupwork, case studies and discussion, supported by guided reading.
• The summative assessment, by written assignment, will test students' understanding of, and ability to apply, relevant statistical and modelling techniques together with their acquisition and articulation of knowledge.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Classroom-based exercises involving individual and group analyses and presentations on specific business situations/problems relevant to the learning outcomes of the module. Oral and written feedback will be given on a group and individual basis as appropriate.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University