GSB 740 Managerial Thinking and Decision Making
Decision making is one of the most predominant yet difficult tasks that managers carry out in their daily work life. This unit provides an in-depth exploration of the complexity of issues and perspectives surrounding managerial thinking and decision making. Special emphasis is placed on systems thinking and organisational learning as key aspects of the managerial decision making process. This unit aims to:
- increase your knowledge of the various perspectives and principles which underpin our understanding of managerial thinking and decision making processes in the organisational context;
- enhance your skills in applying various concepts and techniques to the diagnosis of judgemental errors and other problems which may arise in association with managerial thinking and decision making; and
- acquaint you with constructive procedures and practices that you can employ to improve the quality and consistency of your own thinking and decisions.
The unit provides a number of concrete tools, instruments, and frameworks that can be used in analysing decisions from various perspectives.
Special Advice: Be prepared to reflect upon and critically analyse your own decision making processes and outcomes, and those of others, in concrete circumstances within your workplace. Also be prepared to have more than a few myths about managerial decision making shattered! This unit does involve a great deal of reading and conceptual learning, which means it would best be studied on its own. The unit also requires a dedicated weekly approach to study to avoid falling behind. It is not a unit that requires mathematical computations, but there are some numerical concepts, such as probability and expected utility, that students will become familiar with.