Essay MGT 422 Decision Making for Leaders TUI

Essay MGT 422 Decision Making for Leaders TUI

MGT 422 Decision Making for Leaders TUI

MGT 422 Module 1 Introduction to Decision Making

MGT 422 Module 1 Discussion What Is Your Decision Making Style?

Discussion Topic

Do a search on Google or Bing on “decision-making quiz” or “decision-making questionnaire” and find quiz that you find interesting that evaluates your own decision-making style. Don’t fill out the first quiz that you find, instead look around at a few quizzes first and find one that you think seems to fit most with the material covered in the module and seems to be useful. Then fill out this quiz that you find the most useful.

Share the link and the results of the quiz with your classmates. Were the results surprising to you? Explain whether or not you found the quiz useful and also what concepts from the background materials applied to the results of the quiz (cite the specific background reading that was relevant).

Also, take at least one other quiz posted by one of your classmates and share your results and thoughts on the quiz.

MGT 422 Module 1 Case

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 Buhler (2001) 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 Buhler (2001) and Kourdi (2003), write a 4- to 5-page paper addressing the following questions:

1. 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 Buhler (2001) or Kourdi (2003).
2. 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 Buhler (2001) or Kourdi (2003) to come up with these steps.
3. 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 Buhler (2001) or Kourdi (2003) as appropriate.

MGT 422 Module 1 SLP

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.

MGT 422 Module 2 Decision Making Biases and Pitfalls

MGT 422 Module 2 Discussion Decision Making Bias Videos

Discussion Topic

Most of the sources in the background materials are library textbook chapters or journal articles. In general, these sources are considered much more credible than various random webpages that you will find online. When finding an online source, you need to carefully consider the credibility of the source. Factors to consider include the credentials of the person who wrote the materials, whether this person is trying to sell you something, and of course you also need to use your own intuition as to whether or not a source seems credible.

Your task for this discussion is to go to YouTube or videos.google.com and find a video that explains cognitive/heuristic biases covered in the background materials such as confirmation bias, overconfidence bias, etc. Use word searches such as “decision-making biases,” “heuristic biases,” “overconfidence, anchoring, framing, confirmation bias,” and similar searches. You should find many videos, but the difficult part will be to try to find a video that is A) relevant to the topics covered in the module, B) from a credible source, and C) easy to understand and follow.

To find a video from a very credible source, look at a video from Nobel Prize winner and heuristic bias expert Daniel Kahneman. Credible yes, but I can’t guarantee you will stay awake during the video. So see if you can also find a video from a source that appears credible but and has information consistent with the background material readings but also keeps you awake and helps you understand the different types of decision-making biases.

Share the link with your classmates and explain why you think the video is both useful and credible, and which biases from the background materials the video helps explain.

Also, watch at least one other video posted by your classmates and share your thoughts on this video.

MGT 422 Module 2 Case

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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?
4. 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.
5. 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.

MGT 422 Module 2 SLP

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.

MGT 422 Module 3 Group Decision Making

MGT 422 Module 3 Discussion Group Decision Making Videos

Discussion Topic

There are numerous videos on group decision making available online. Some of them are very professional; others seem somewhat amateurish or are designed for or by high school students.

Do a search on YouTube for videos on group decision making or on specific group decision-making techniques discussed in the background materials. Choose a video you found to be very useful at explaining the techniques in the background materials, and another video that you found to be amateurish or not very useful.

Post the links and share with your classmates. Also, share with your classmates what you found useful and not useful about each video, and whether or not you recommend your classmates view the video to prepare for their written assignments.

MGT 422 Module 3 Case

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.

MGT 422 Module 3 SLP

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:

1. Are all voices equally heard, and is diversity of the group reflected within the feedback?
2. Is time spent at the meetings productive, or is a lot of time wasted?
3. Are the decisions that are made solid ones? Or do they suffer from problems mentioned in the background materials such as groupthink?
4. Are ideas expressed at meetings creative and original, or are original ideas discouraged?
5. 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 Sims (2002).

MGT 422 Module 4 Leadership and Decision Making Styles

MGT 422 Module 4 Discussion Vroom Yetton Decision Making Model Sources

Discussion Topic

The Vroom-Yetton decision-making style model is one of the toughest topics that we’ve covered in the class. In essence it is fairly simple—as a leader, the style you choose for making a decision depends on the situation. What makes it more difficult though is that the diagram and other features can be intimidating.

For this discussion, first review the background readings on this model. Then find some sources online regarding this model—they can be either webpages or a videos. Make sure the information presented in this source matches what you’ve read in the background materials, but also find one that you think helps simplify or explain this model in a clear manner.

Share the link to this source with your classmates and address the following issues:

1. Is the source credible?
2. Does the information in the source regarding the Vroom-Yetton model match what you’ve read in the background materials?
3. Why do you find this source easier to follow? How did it help you understand this model?

MGT 422 Module 4 Discussion Integration

Discussion Topic

Given the readings and assignments in the course, explain how taking this course has given you new insights into your own profession and career. Describe two concepts from this course that you think are most applicable to your career.

After responding to the Reflective Discussion above, please complete an anonymous Course Evaluation Survey. Instructors are not able to view course evaluation reports until after the grade submission period is over. Thank you for your feedback.

MGT 422 Module 4 Case

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 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:

1. 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
2. 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?
3. 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.

MGT 422 Module 4 SLP

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:

1. Describe the decision that management had to make, and also whether their decision-making style was autocratic, consultative, or group-based. Explain your reasoning.
2. 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.
3. 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.