This course focuses on the nature of decision making within organisations, and the importance of understanding how uncertainty within that process can generate risks within organisations. It explores concepts of decision making, the role of managers and others within that process, and considers how expertise and evidence are used within the process.

The course is typically delivered over 6 days' full teaching.

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1. Written assignment, including essay; Group; 4000 words; 100%; ILOs 1-8.

It is the default expectation that all courses will offer opportunities for reassessment or deferred assessment. Where it is not possible to offer this in some assessment components, the grade achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade, and any exceptions for this course are described below.

[No exceptions]

This course aims to introduce students to the role of uncertainty in decision making within organisations. In support of this, the course has several objectives:

■ To highlight the processes by which decisions are made in organisations.

■ To differentiate between the rational and bounded rationality perspectives on decision making.

■ To examine the role of knowledge, expertise and uncertainty within the decision-making processes.

■ To differentiate between what is known and what is unknown and to assess its implications for the predictive validity associated with decisions (both operational and strategic).

■ To introduce students to the principles of managing risk and the implications that risk may have for precautionary approaches to decision making within policy.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

1. Explain the nature of risk, uncertainty, and indeterminacy and show how these elements impact on the decision-making process within organisations.

2. Outline the processes by which decisions are made within organisations by adopting a systems based and holistic approach to decision making.

3. Identify the components of a typical decision-making process and highlight its strengths and weaknesses

4. Evaluate when, and how, domain specific knowledge is important in determining the nature and validity of expertise.

5. Critically examine the rational model of decision making and show how it is limited in practice by the bounded nature of our rationality.

6. Show how multiple rationalities can exist within the same decision space and illustrate the implications that this has for decision quality and especially in terms of their impact upon latent and active errors.

7. Explain the latent and active elements of decision making and show how they can impact on organisational performance

8. Be able to critically evaluate the processes by which teams make decisions and how both team based, and individual decision-making processes can be shaped by dysfunctional behaviours.