Introductory description

This module aims to prepare participants for the complex decisions they will make as future leaders. Through various exercises and seminars, participants have the opportunity to explore the decision making process and apply knowledge to solve decision problems in business and management. To this end, you will be introduced to a number of quantitative and qualitative decision making methods and tools, the role of cognition and emotion in decision making, the concept of group decision making as well as various factors that can affect the quality of a decision. The Module aims to continue to relate this content back to the EFQM 2021 model, in particular the decision making processes to support business direction and execution choices against current and future business scenarios.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Understand the problem solving and decision making process and how it contributes to excellence
Understand and be able to identify factors that influence the quality of a decision and understand how to use these factors to make a better decision.
Have knowledge, & understanding of common decision making pitfalls and traps and the understand how to avoid or mitigate them
Understand the main phases of a number of quantitative decision-making process and their computerized support
Be able to apply different approaches to particular decision problems and identify the assumptions, advantages and disadvantages of each approach;

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Critically review the decision-making process required to lead a business towards organizational excellence.
• Challenge the concept of rationality and understand the impact of emotion and cognition on decision making.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the application of decision-making tools and approaches for various problems in business and management.
• Understand how personality factors and group dynamics influence the decision-making process and become able to recognise these in order to make more robust decisions.

Indicative reading list

Thinking fast and slow Daniel Kahneman 2007
Decision analysis for management Judgement Paul Goodwin 2014
Judgement in Managerial Decision making Max Bazerman 2017

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

For the subject specific skills of Robust Decision Making by the end of the module, students should be able to:

Understand the problem solving and decision making process and how it contributes to excellence
Understand and be able to identify factors that influence the quality of a decision and understand how to use these factors to make a better decision.
Have knowledge, & understanding of common decision making pitfalls and traps and the understand how to avoid or mitigate them
Understand the main phases of a number of quantitative decision-making process and their computerized support
Be able to apply different approaches to particular decision problems and identify the assumptions, advantages and disadvantages of each approach;

Transferable skills

The skills above should all be transferable into the students working careers