The Norwegian School of Management BI

The MSc Program, 2003

Gra 6820 Strategic Choice - Syllabus

Credits: 2, ECTS 6

Professor Fred Wenstøp, e-mail fred.wenstop@bi.no, phone 67 55 72 69

Associate professor Carl Brønn, e-mail carl.bronn@ios.nlh.no , phone 64948631

Conference hours by appointment

 [Since last time][Objective][Content][Format][Literature][Grading][Schedule][Group presentations]

First session lecture notes: foundations, harrison1, harrison2

Objective

The objective is to provide a comprehensive perspective on the theory and art of strategic decision-making. The perspective is that of an integrated and interdisciplinary process in which rational decision-makers pursue strategic choices that will provide successful outcomes. The focus is on decision-making at the top of the organization in a multi-disciplinary context.

Content

- Ethical foundations for decision-making

- The decision making process

- Rational decision-making

- Values for decision-making

- Decision-making models

- The psychology of decision-making

- The sociology of decision-making

- The social psychology of decision-making

- Political aspects of decision-making

- Strategic decision perspectives

- Strategic decision success


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Format

The course is structured as a combination of plenary lectures, student presentations and discussions. At the outset of the course, students will be assigned to groups of three. Each group is to prepare a joint term paper. The groups will be assigned to teams, each team consisting of 3 – 4 groups. During the course, the groups in each team will be required to present a term paper topic proposal before their teammates and instructor who will discuss it and give feedback. All members of the group are required to participate in the presentation, and all teammates are required to be present.


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Literature                                                                                                                                     

Compulsory

- Harrison, E. Frank. 1999. The managerial decision-making process. 5th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

- Handouts

Recommended
Goodwin, Paul and George Wright. 1998. Decision analysis for management judgment. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley.

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Grading

The final grade is based on:

n      Written, closed book exam (3 hrs) 25%. You must be prepared to explain or apply the most central concepts in the course

n      Class participation and presentation 25%. This is based on the student group presentations and discussion. Each member of the group is to contribute in the presentation.

n      Term paper 50%. The term paper is also group work, same groups as before.


Schedule, Fall 2003

Auditorium 1, Sandvika

Mondays, 15:00 – 17:45

  1. 25.08   Plenary: Wenstøp. Ethical foundations. Harrison 1 & 2: Overview & The decision making process.
  2. 01.09   Plenary: Wenstøp. Assignment to groups and teams. Harrison 3: Rational decision-making. Rationality as a four-dimensional concept. Example: HIV strategy.
  3. 08.09   Plenary: Wenstøp. Harrison 4: Values for decision-making. Pro&Con. Harrison 5: Decision-making models.
  4. 15.09   Plenary: Brønn. Harrison 6, 7: The psychology of decision-making, the sociology of decision-making.
  5. 22.09   Plenary: Brønn. Harrison 8, 9: The social psychology of decision-making, political aspects of decision-making.
  6. 29.09   Plenary: Brønn. Harrison 10, 11: Strategic decision perspectives, strategic decision success.
  7. 06.10   Group proposals within teams. (Wenstøp)
  8. 13.10   Group proposals within teams. (Brønn)
  9. 20.10   Group proposals within teams. (Wenstøp)
  10. 27.10   Group proposals within teams. (Brønn)
  11. 03.11   Group proposals within teams. (Wenstøp)
  12. 10.11   Group proposals within teams. (Brønn)

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Term paper assignment

Choose a strategic decision making process that has caught your interest. It must be real, but may be on-going or concluded, public or private business.

  1. Describe it, using central concepts from Harrison’s book. Try and identify the ethical principles that underlie the actions or attitudes of the most important actors.
  2. Demonstrate how a rational approach might be applied to a part of the process by carrying out a multi criteria analysis involving goal formulation, weighting and prediction and evaluation of possible outcomes.
  3. Develop a proposal of how Harrison’s eclectic approach could be used to improve the actual process.

 

Length: App. 19 pages exclusive of illustrations and references.

Deadline: Friday December 19 at 14:00