Lea Ruesch

This course is available on the CEMS Exchange, MBA Exchange, MSc in Behavioural Science, MSc in Human Resources and Organisations (Organisational Behaviour), MSc in Organisational and Social Psychology, MSc in Psychology of Economic Life, MSc in Social and Cultural Psychology, MSc in Social and Public Communication and MSc in Strategic Communications. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course teaches theory and engages with research from the field of organisational and social decision-making. It is primarily focused on high-risk organisational settings, and explores contexts where there is uncertainty, high-consequences for failure, and complex social systems. The course provides a historical introduction to decision-making, and introduces the core concepts used by social psychologists to understand (and improve) decision-making processes in organisations. It draws upon the social, cognitive and organisational psychology literatures, and considers the core concepts and tools used to understand, research, and support decision-making in organisations. These theories and tools are contextualized through empirical and case study examples taken from domains such as finance, healthcare, the energy industry, government, and the military.

Students will be encouraged to take a critical perspective, and to consider how the principles taught on the course can be applied to (and used to improve) a variety of social or organisational scenarios. The course will cover psychology (or 'Human Factors') concepts such as: intuitive and analytical forms of decision-making; individual traits and cognitive factors that influence decision-makers (e.g. biases and emotions); human error and decision-failures; rule breaking; and group decision-making processes (e.g. teamwork, leadership).  It will teach methods for analysing decision errors, identifying decision-making competencies, observing decision-making, and supporting group decision processes.

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the WT.

Students will be expected to produce 1 case study in the WT.

Brown, R. V. (2005). Rational choice and judgment: Decision analysis for the decider: Wiley.

Furnham, A. (2005). The Psychology of behaviour at Work: Psychology Press.

Kerr, N., & Tindale, R. S. (2004). Group performance and decision-making. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 623-655.

Klein, K., Ziegert, J. C., Knight, P., & Xiao, Y. (2006). Dynamic delegation: Shared, hierarchical, and deinidivudalized leadership in extreme action teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 51, 590-621.

Koehler, D., & Harvey, H. (2007). Handbook of judgment and decision-making. Blackwell.

Lipshitz, R., Klein, G., Orasanu, G., & Salas, E. (2001). Taking stock of naturalistic decision making. Journal of Behavioural Decision Making, 14, 331-352.

Mellers, B., Schwartz, A., & Cooke, A. (1998). Judgement and decision-making. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 447-477.; Reason, J. (1990). Human error. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Reason, J. (1997). Managing the risks of organizational accidents. Aldershot, Ashgate. 

Essay (100%, 3000 words) in the WT.