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BUSI41615: Management Decision Making

It is possible that changes to modules or programmes might need to be made during the academic year, in response to the impact of Covid-19 and/or any further changes in public health advice.

Type Open
Level 4
Credits 15
Availability Not available in 2023/24
Module Cap
Location Durham
Department Management and Marketing

Prerequisites

  • None.

Corequisites

  • None.

Excluded Combinations 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 enable students to evaluate critically both the quality of management judgement and the assumptions underlying decision aiding techniques.

Content

  • How people choose between alternatives;
  • Improving choice using multi-attribute value analysis techniques;
  • Psychological pitfalls in choice such as overconfidence, escalation of commitment, and shift-to-risk in decision making;
  • Decision analysis - methods and techniques for making decisions that involve uncertainties;
  • Scenario planning the process of analysing possible future events by considering alternative possible outcomes;
  • Scenario planning versus decision analysis creativity and the framing of decisions;
  • Decision making in management teams - pitfalls and remedies;
  • Decision architecture and other emerging techniques.

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

  • By the end of this module, student should have:
  • a specialist knowledge of how individuals and management teams make decisions and the potential pitfalls they face;
  • a critical appreciation of the assumptions, implications, and limitations of decision analysis and other systems designed to support and aid judgement and decision making.

Subject-specific Skills:

Key Skills:

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

  • Through a combination of lectures, seminars and guided reading addressing key topics in management decision making, students will acquire the advanced skills and knowledge to enable them to develop a thorough understanding of this specialist field of study.
  • The summative assignment will test students' ability to apply the techniques they have learned to the analysis of a particular problem.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

ActivityNumberFrequencyDurationTotalMonitored
Lectures9Weekly2 hours18 
Seminars4fortnightly1 hour4Yes
Preparation & Reading128 
Total150 

Summative Assessment

Component: AssignmentComponent Weighting: 100%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Written Assignment2,500 words (maximum)100 

Formative Assessment

Pre-assigned questions for seminars; group presentations; case studies discussed in seminars.

More information

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