Module 1 - Case
INTRODUCTION TO DECISION MAKING
Assignment Overview
Like many airlines around the world, leading Australian
airline Qantas is facing very difficult times in spite of having a 65% market
share in its home market of Australia. Due to rising fuel costs and a slow
world economy, Qantas has recently been losing money and their CEO Alan Joyce
has some tough choices to make.
One difficult decision for Joyce is whether or not to sell
Qantas’ frequent flyer program. It may seem odd for an airline to sell its
frequent flyer program, but Qantas’ program is much more than just an airline
reward program. Members of this program can gain points not only by flying on
Qantas but also through other means such as shopping at one of Qantas’
corporate partners or using one of their credit cards. Points can be redeemed
not only with free flights, but also with products from numerous retailers.
Over 10 million Australians belong to this rewards program, almost half of the
population.
The frequent flyer program is Qantas’ most valuable asset
and a sale of this program would help Qantas get out of its current financial
troubles. However, selling the program would also mean allowing another company
to have access to Qantas most loyal customers including their business class
and first class customers. In the long-run, there is potential the sale could
backfire and would not be wise.
Do some research on CEO Joyce’s current choice of whether or
not to sell their frequent flyer program, and also thoroughly review the background
materials on intuitive versus rational decision-making including Moshal (2009)
and Kourdi (2011). Your assignment will be to apply the background materials
concepts to Joyce’s current big decision.
Some specific articles on Qantas to get you started:
Ross, K. (2014, Aug 27). Qantas CEO faces tough choices.
Wall Street Journal [Proquest]
Ironside, R. (2014, Aug 15). Qantas warned to ground plans
to sell frequent flyer program. The Gold Coast Bulletin [Proquest]
Gilder, P. (2014, Mar 29). Loyalty future cloudy. The Gold
Coast Bulletin [Proquest]
Australia: Qantas frequent flyer hits 10 million member
mark. (2014). MENA Report [Proquest]
Case Assignment
Once you have finished reading about Qantas and reviewing
the background materials including Moshal (2009) and Kourdi (2003), write a 4-
to 5-page paper addressing the following questions:
Is the decision whether or not to sell Qantas’ frequent
flyer program a strategic or operational decision? Is it a programmed or
non-programmed decision? Explain your answer using references to Moshal (2009)
or Kourdi (2003).
Suppose Alan Joyce decides to take a rational approach to
the decision whether or not to sell the frequent flyer program. List a
step-by-step approach you would recommend, and include specifics regarding what
kind of information or choices should be considered at each step. Do not just
list the steps, give detail at each step and use material both from your
research on Qantas and from Moshal (2009) or Kourdi (2003) to come up with
these steps.
Joyce has been the CEO of Qantas for six years and is an
experienced airline executive. Given his experience, do you recommend Joyce use
a rational or intuitive approach to this decision? If there is a new CEO who
comes from another industry and does not have this airline experience, would
you recommend they use a rational or intuitive approach? Explain your
reasoning, and make references to Moshal (2009) or Kourdi (2003) as
appropriate.
Assignment Expectations
Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all
steps listed in the instructions
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions, don't go
off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background
materials
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials
page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of
information
Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the
Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13 and
14 on in-text citations.
Module 1 - SLP
INTRODUCTION TO DECISION MAKING
For the Session Long Project for this class, you will be
applying the concepts from the background materials to your own experiences in
the workplace. More specifically, you will be examining the decisions and
decision-making processes of the leadership of the organization you currently
work for or one that you have worked for in the past.
For this first SLP assignment, think about some major and
minor decisions made by your managers that you were involved with or impacted
by. Review the background material concepts, and think carefully about how you
have personally observed some of these concepts. Then write a 2- to 3-page
paper addressing the following issues:
Give some specific examples of strategic and operational
decisions that you have observed in your workplace. Give at least one example
of each type of decision, and explain why you think this decision falls into
this category with references to the background materials.
Give some specific examples of both programmed and non-programmed
decisions that you have observed. Give at least one example of each type of
decision, and explain why you think this decision falls into this category with
references to the background materials.
Discuss the specific decision-making style of a supervisor
you have worked closely with, and discuss whether this supervisor’s style is
rational or intuitive. Give specific examples to explain your reasoning as to
why you think this supervisor is rational or intuitive.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all
steps listed in the instructions.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go
off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background
materials.
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials
page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of
information.
Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the
Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13 and
14 on in-text citations.
Module 2 - Case
DECISION-MAKING BIASES AND PITFALLS
Case Assignment
Even the most intelligent manager is prone to personal
biases and pitfalls that can lead to bad decisions. We all carry biases based
on our personal experiences. And we can all fall into various traps that lead
to decisions that seem perfectly logical at the time but in retrospect, we see
that we should have known better.
In the background materials, including Bolland and Fletcher
(2012); Kourdi (2003); and Hammond, Keeney, and Raiffa (2008); several specific
decision-making biases and pitfalls are discussed. Collectively these are known
as cognitive biases. Some of the common pitfalls and biases discussed in these
readings include overconfidence bias, confirmation (self-confirming) bias,
sunk-cost bias, framing bias, and hindsight bias.
Carefully review all three of these readings and make sure
you understand the different types of biases. Then read through the scenarios
below and think about what kind of biases are demonstrated in each scenario.
For each scenario, carefully explain which specific bias or biases is
demonstrated by the decision and what can be done to avoid this bias in the
future. Make sure to pick at least one specific bias that you read about for
each scenario, and explain your reasoning. Use references to at least one of
the three required readings from the background materials in your discussion of
each scenario below. Your paper should be 4–5 pages in length:
The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a corporation is of the
strong belief that marketing is not a good use of the company’s money. Someone
shows her data from several years ago showing that during a period of high
spending on marketing, sales did not go up. She says, “See, I told you
marketing is not a good use of our budget!” and cuts the marketing budget to
almost zero. Following the cut in the marketing budget, sales also start to
drop dramatically. When asked by an employee if the drop in sales is due to the
cut in the marketing budget, she says, “No!” and insists there must be a
different explanation. What kind of decision-making bias do you think this
represents, and why? What steps would you recommend to this CEO to reduce this
kind of bias? Support your answer with references to at least one of the three
background readings.
A CEO decides that he wants to greatly expand the company’s
market by purchasing a major rival. This acquisition would double the company’s
market share. However, several of his top managers warn him that such a
purchase would require the company to take out a huge amount of debt to finance
this merger, and that many of these large mergers have failed. They also point
out that the organizational culture of the other company is very different and
that managing this merger would be very difficult. Nonetheless, the CEO insists
that he can overcome the odds and plans to go through with the merger. What
kind of decision-making bias do you think this represents, and why? What steps
should this leader take to avoid this bias? Support your answer with references
to at least one of the three background readings.
A CEO wants to purchase a new factory. He is currently
deciding between two factories. The owner of Factory A brags that 94% of
products produced at the factory are free of defects. The owner of Factory B
cautions that his factory has a 5% defect rate but management and staff are
working very hard to reduce the rate. The CEO decides to purchase Factory A
citing its strong 94% rate of success in producing defect-free products even
though Factory B actually has a 95% rate of success. What kind of
decision-making bias do you think this represents, and why? What steps should
this leader take to avoid this bias?
A CEO of an automobile company decides to introduce a new
hybrid vehicle using cutting-edge technology. A huge amount of money is spent
in research and development as well as advertising. But when the car is
completed sales are very slow and the price has to be cut so low that the
company is losing money on every hybrid vehicle sold. She is advised to simply
abandon the car to avoid further losses in profits, and focus her energy on
selling profitable vehicles. However, she insists it is unwise to abandon the
hybrid vehicle given that so much money has already been put into the project.
What kind of decision-making bias do you think this represents, and why? What
steps should this leader take to avoid this bias? Support your answer with
references to at least one of the three background readings.
Conclude the paper with a discussion about which one of the
decision-making biases you think is the most dangerous to a leader, and explain
your reasoning.
Assignment Expectations
Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all
steps listed in the instructions.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go
off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background
materials.
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials
page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of
information.
Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the
Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13 and
14 on in-text citations.
Module 2 - SLP
DECISION-MAKING BIASES AND PITFALLS
We’ve all had experiences where we have been frustrated by a
decision that our supervisor made. You have probably blamed this decision on
your boss being “closed-minded,” “stubborn,” or “pigheaded.” But after reading
the background materials you should be able to more precisely examine and
define the precise decision-making biases or pitfalls that your supervisor
made.
For this assignment, think of three bad decisions that your
current or past supervisors made. For each decision, explain what bias
discussed in the background materials likely led to this bad decision. You must
use biases specifically discussed in Bolland and Fletcher (2012); Kourdi
(2003); or Hammond, Keeney, and Raiffa (2008). For each of the three decisions,
include:
A) A brief description of the decision and why you think it
was a bad one
B) What kind of bias you think lead to this decision, and
why
C) A reference to one of the background readings from this
module
Finally, conclude your paper with a discussion about which
of the three readings from the background materials would be most useful for
your supervisor to read in order to help make better decisions and avoid
biases. Explain why you think this reading would be more useful than the other
two readings.
The paper should be 2–3 pages in length.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all
steps listed in the instructions.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go
off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background
materials.
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials
page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of
information.
Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the
Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13 and
14 on in-text citations.
Module 3 - Case
GROUP DECISION MAKING
Case Assignment
Making decisions as a group can be very challenging. It can
lead to conflict and take up huge amounts of time, and often it is difficult to
come to an agreement. Fortunately, several different techniques have been
developed to overcome some of these difficulties. No one technique is
considered the best for all situations, as all of the techniques have
advantages and disadvantages.
For this assignment, first thoroughly review the background
readings and pay close attention to three group decision-making processes—the
Delphi technique, brainstorming, and the Nominal Group Technique. Pay close
attention to the discussion of these methods in the assigned readings,
particularly Braintools (Brainstorming), CDC (Nominal Group Technique) and
Haughey (Delphi).
Below are three different scenarios. For each scenario,
explain which group decision-making technique you would choose out of
brainstorming, nominal group, or Delphi. Justify your answer with references
from the required background materials. Your paper should be 4–5 pages in
length:
The company you work for is in crisis. Several new
competitors have been rapidly growing and taking away your customers. Your
company’s sales are steadily dropping. You and the rest of the top management
team know that creative new strategies are needed in order to keep up with the
new competitors. Nobody is sure what needs to be done, but it is clear
something drastic and original needs to happen in order to keep the company
afloat. The top management team members are all extroverts who are not afraid
to speak up at meetings, but they are often prone to conventional thinking.
Which group decision-making technique do you recommend? Explain your reasoning,
using the background readings to support your answer.
Your company is facing cost overruns and needs solutions on
how best to cut costs. The top management team includes both introverts and
extroverts, with the extroverts usually dominating the conversation at
meetings. Furthermore, meetings with this group often go off the agenda and
drift into tangential subjects. A quick decision needs be made with input from
all members of the team. Which group decision-making technique do you
recommend? Explain your reasoning, using the background readings to support
your answer.
Your company needs to purchase a new software system as the
old one is out of date. Your team consists of IT managers from all of the
company’s overseas divisions. These managers are highly skilled and very
knowledgeable about the different software options, but it is difficult to
arrange a meeting with them due to the time differences and their very busy
schedules. The decision is not urgent, but you need to make a decision within
the next three months. Which group decision-making technique do you recommend?
Explain your reasoning, using the background readings to support your answer.
Conclude your paper with a discussion about which of the
three group decision-making processes (nominal group, brainstorming, or Delphi)
is the most useful to you, considering the types of decision situations in
which you are typically involved. Explain your reasoning, and use references
from the background materials to support your answer.
Assignment Expectations
Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all
steps listed in the instructions.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go
off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background
materials.
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials
page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of
information.
Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the
Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13 and
14 on in-text citations.
Module 3 - SLP
GROUP DECISION MAKING
One of the biggest complaints among managers is the huge
amount of time they have to spend in meetings. Ideally the purpose of meetings
is to put everyone’s heads together to solve a problem or make a decision. But
far too often they can lead to unproductive, time-wasting conversations and
even conflict.
For this assignment, think about some recent meetings you’ve
attended where a significant decision had to be made. Think carefully about how
some of the problems regarding group decision making that were discussed in the
background readings apply to what you’ve experienced. Then write a 2- to 3-page
paper addressing the following issues:
Are all voices equally heard, or are some people afraid to
speak up? Are participants in the meeting afraid to contradict senior
management?
Is time spent at the meetings productive, or is a lot of
time wasted?
Are the decisions that are made solid ones? Or do they
suffer from problems mentioned in the background materials such as groupthink?
Are ideas expressed at meetings creative and original, or
are original ideas discouraged?
Based on what you’ve described in Questions 1–4 above, what
kind of group decision-making process would you recommend be used in meetings
you attend? Base your answer on readings from the background materials such as
Rao (2009), Bolland and Fletcher (2012), and Sims (2002).
SLP Assignment Expectations
Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all
steps listed in the instructions.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go
off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background
materials.
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials
page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of
information.
Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the
Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13 and
14 on in-text citations.
Module 4 - Case
LEADERSHIP AND DECISION-MAKING STYLES
Case Assignment
Since 2013 there has been on-and-off talk of Sprint
purchasing T-Mobile. (They are the third- and fourth-largest mobile phone
carriers in the United States.) This move is led by Masayoshi Son, the chair of
Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, which owns Sprint. Mr. Son is a bold
entrepreneur who is known for his penchant for risk taking and desire to be a
global leader in the telecommunications industry. If the merger ever goes
through it would result in a merger of the third and fourth largest mobile
phone carriers in the United States.
Most recently, it appears that the merger will not go
through. But the fact that talk of this merger has been rumored for quite a
long time suggests it must have been a very difficult decision for Masayoshi
Son. Such a large-scale merger brings great benefits in allowing a combined
Sprint/T-Mobile to compete with industry leaders AT&T and Verizon. But
mergers are always very risky and require a huge amount of debt to finance, not
to mention overcoming numerous regulatory hurdles.
For this assignment, thoroughly review the background
materials on the Vroom-Yetton decision-making style model. This involves
answering seven questions relating to a decision and using the results from the
model to determine your decision-making style. Make sure you understand the
model, including the seven questions and the path diagram that you follow in
order to find the preferred leadership style. The Vroom-Yetton model allows you
to choose between different levels of autocratic, consulting, or group
decision-making styles.
After you have reviewed the required background materials
including Stanford(2007), Vroom (1976), and Rigolosi (2005), do some research
on Sprint’s decision whether or not to purchase T-Mobile and think about what
kind of answers you would give to the seven questions involved in the
Vroom-Yetton model. Here are some articles on the rumored Sprint/T-Mobile
merger to get you started:
Gelles, D., & De La Merced, M. J. (2014, Jun 05).
T-Mobile and Sprint zeroing in on merger. New York Times [ProQuest]
Yao, D. (2014). Moody's: Sprint/T-Mobile merger faces
negative free cash flow until at least 2018. SNL Kagan Media &
Communications Report [ProQuest]
De La Merced, M. (2014, Aug 07). Sprint ends its attempt to
purchase T-Mobile. International New York Times [ProQuest]
Once you have finished your research on the Vroom-Yetton
model and on the merger, write a 4- to 5-page paper addressing the following
issues:
Imagine you are Masayoshi Son and have to decide on which
decision-making style to use. Go through the seven questions from the
Vroom-Yetton model and give your answers based on what you think the main
issues are in the decision of whether or not to purchase T-Mobile. Explain your
reasoning behind each answer
Go through the diagram in the Vroom-Yetton model and, based
on your answers to the seven questions from Question 1, see what kind of
decision-making style is recommended for Masayoshi Son. Use the diagram (Figure
6.2) on page 118 of Rigolosi (2005). Are you surprised by this answer? Is it
the kind of decision-making style you would personally recommend based on your
own research?
Conclude your paper with a discussion of your own opinion as
to the usefulness of the Vroom-Yetton model for choosing your decision-making
style. Would you recommend that corporate executives receive training in this
model? Is there any ways in which you think the model could be improved?
Explain your reasoning.
Assignment Expectations
Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all
steps listed in the instructions.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go
off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background
materials.
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials
page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of
information.
Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the
Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13 and
14 on in-text citations.
Module 4 - SLP
LEADERSHIP AND DECISION-MAKING STYLES
For this assignment think about a specific decision that was
made by your supervisor in the organization you currently work for or have
worked for in the past. Review the background materials carefully on the
Vroom-Yetton model and think about how this model applies to this decision that
you experienced. Then write a 2- to 3-page paper applying the Vroom-Yetton
model to this decision:
Describe the decision that management had to make, and also
whether their decision-making style was autocratic, consultative, or
group-based. Explain your reasoning.
Go through Vroom-Yetton’s seven questions and apply these
questions to their diagram to see what decision-making style their model suggests.
Briefly explain the reasoning behind your answers to the seven questions.
Conclude your paper with a discussion of whether or not you
would recommend this model to your supervisor and whether or not you were
surprised by the recommendation given by this model regarding decision-making
style.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all
steps listed in the instructions.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go
off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background
materials.
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials
page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of
information.
Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the
Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13 and
14 on in-text citations.
