Psy­cho­logy of De­cision Mak­ing – We are not Ir­ra­tion­al, are we?

About

Having completed business or management education, most of us are searching for the keys to adaptive decision making in classrooms, textbooks and other controlled environments with clear metrics and practical tools. Rigorous analytical methods can help us in well-ordered situations. Frequently, however, what we were taught about making tough choices quickly falls apart, because the dynamic real-world situations are anything but well structured. We have to rely on our experiences, intuition and creativity instead, and look for a different set of approaches.

A major focus of this inter-disciplinary course is whether, or under what conditions, people deviate from normative rules of decision making that have been developed by other disciplines, such as economics or management. We will examine ambiguous situations which are difficult to understand, and where conventional methods may not lead to good solutions. We will explore assessments of risk and uncertainty, including research on heuristics and biases. We will approach decision situations from the individual's perspective, through the different lenses of individual personalities and styles. We will see how decisions are actually made and how psychological processes can explain the apparent deviation from logic and rationality.

This course will help students develop personal competencies in the following areas:
- enhancing mental effectiveness by learning the psychology behind rational thinking, as well as its barriers;
- identifying personal decision making styles and recognizing the styles and strategies of others;
- strengthening problem solving, decision making and negotiation skills.

Learning objectives
To achieve the grade 12, students should meet the following learning objectives with no or only minor mistakes or errors:

Demonstrate understanding of the major decision making theories as they apply to various business, management, or real-life settings;

Be able to analyse real-world problems, evaluate data appropriately by identifying gaps and making thoughtful assumptions;

Identify the mental models that underlie decision makers' thinking processes;

Recognise crisis situations and present appropriate strategies for handling them;

Recognise the various processes that lead decision makers to be „less than rational” and suggest ways to overcome their limitations and inconsistencies;

Identify strategies for dealing with various levels of ambiguity and uncertainty in problem solving and display understanding of the role of intuition in the decision making process.

Create a visual representation that depicts your line of thought and the logic of the analysis, including the interrelationships and contingencies of the theories used

Course leader

Kinga Konczey Pedro Monteiro - Department of Organization (IOA)

Target group

This is a graduate level course. CBS Summer University courses at Copenhagen Business School is open to all and welcomes domestic and international students as well as professionals

Fee info