Judgment and Decision Making in Organisations

Introduction

Even though decision-making is an integral part of most managers' professional lives, most managers have never had any systematic training in making decisions. Judgment and decision-making research show that decision-makers repeatedly make the same types of mistakes and errors. We focus on how individuals, groups, and organizations actually make decisions by discussing decision failures, successes, and the corresponding decision processes. A key topic in judgment and decision-making is demonstrating how heuristics systematically bias decisions. This course examines the cognitive and emotional mechanisms that drive the use of heuristics. The goal is to provide the students with practical tools built on scientific knowledge to help nudge and redesign decision situations and processes. The objective is to improve the students’ capacity to observe and learn from decision-making processes and increase their ability to organize decision-making processes.

Course content

• The psychological foundations of judgment and decision-making
• Problem formulation and psychological context
• Normative and descriptive models of individual judgment and decision making
• Cognitive heuristics and biases
• Individual differences in judgment and decision-making
• Group dynamics and group decision-making
• Strategic and organisational decisions
• Decision making tools