Rationale

The course offers an insight into the theoretical knowledge and practice of decision making that is useful in both personal and professional contexts. It gives students an understanding of the thinking processes and decision-making that underlie their own and others' judgements, as well as, the errors and biases that can arise in thinking and ways of improvement. By evaluating strategic decision making, exploring the internal – organisational environment as well as its external effects, the students will refine their own strategic decision-making process and explore the consequences of its ineffective use at a professional level. Additionally, the students will also be introduced to some of the most common tools of decision making, follow a series of steps common to the process, learn how to recognise barriers to reach resolutions, appropriately adopt the decision-making styles in their lives and within the practical application of business strategies, also integrate their values into their decisions, and generally, have increased confidence in their decision-making.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course students will be expected to:
(i)    Examine the theoretical research and literature explaining how individuals, groups and organisations make decisions.
(ii)   Outline the common errors and biases in decision making, their causes, and alternative solutions to overcome them, including decision making procedures and methods.
(iii)  Define the different approaches to particular decision-making problems and identify the assumptions, advantages and disadvantages of each approach.
(iv)  Identify the most usual implications of the most common errors in decision making in management and specifically in Human Resource Management.
(v)   Recognise the differences between individual and group decision processes.
(vi)  Identify opportunities to improve decision quality within organisational systems.
(vii) Apply tools, techniques and frameworks to solve a range of decision situations that managers commonly confront.
(viii) Apply personal decision style to maximise effectiveness of individual decision making.