ORG419 Judgement and Decision Making

The course is connected to the following study programs

• Master’s Programme in International Business
• Master's Programme in Shift Entrepreneurship and Business
• Master's Programme in Business Administration
• Master's Programme in Business Administration (5 years)

Teaching language

English.

Recommended prerequisites

SE-105 Introduction to Microeconomics or equivalent

Course contents

The objective of the course is to foster habits of thought and provide tools which will lead to better decision making. This is achieved by learning how to identify and avoid some common types of judgmental errors and to recognize and predict these errors. Using theories from different scientific fields (judgment and decision making, behavioral economics, and psychology) the questions that will be dealt with in the course are: 1) how should we make decisions, 2) how do we make decisions, and 3) what can we do to improve our decision making? Amongst the many topics considered will be: probability judgments, heuristics and biases, utility measurement, judgment of correlation and contingency, risk, choice under certainty, choice under uncertainty, utilitarianism, fairness, social dilemmas, moral judgments, motivational and affective influences on decisions, judgments about the future, behavioral change, nudging, and libertarian paternalism.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this course the student should be able to:

 

• give an overview of important normative, descriptive and prescriptive models of judgment and decision making.

• analyze and show a broad understanding of the normative and descriptive theories of judgment and inference, with reference to their use in practice.

• recognize irrationality in oneself and others and propose ways of improving judgments and inferences.

• identify and analyze processes of judgment, inference and choice within specific contexts and discuss the factors affecting the decision making.

• understand how human behavior is affected by design

• analyze and discuss ethical and moral aspects of decision making and interventions designed to change people’s behavior.

Examination requirements

Approved compulsory assignments and presentations. More information in Canvas

at the start of the semester.

Teaching methods

Lectures, class discussions, compulsory student assignments and presentations. Estimated workload is about 200 hours.

Evaluation

The study programme manager, in consultation with the student representative, decides the method of evaluation and whether the courses will have a midterm- or end of term evaluation, see also the Quality System, section 4.1. Information about evaluation method for the course will be posted on Canvas.

Admission for external candidates

No

Assessment methods and criteria

4-hour written examination with letter grades.