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.

Background readings:

Lombardo, J. (2014). Common Biases and Judgment Errors in Decision Making Organizational Behavior. Education Portal https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Now go through the following three readings to get a deeper understanding:

Bolland, E., & Fletcher, F. (2012). Solutions: Business problem solving. (Available from Trident Online Library. Read only the relevant chapters.)

Kourdi, J. (2011). Chapter 10: Avoiding the pitfalls and developing an action plan. Effective Decision Making: 10 Steps to Better Decision Making and Problem Solving. London: Marshall Cavendish International [Asia] Pte Ltd. [eBook Business Collection]

Hammond, J. S., Keeney, R. L., & Raiffa, H. (1998). The hidden traps in decision-making. Harvard Business Review, 76(5), 47-58. [Business Source Complete]

Improving creativity in decision making. (2014). Pearson Learning Solutions, New York, NY.

Assignment Expectations

Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all steps listed in the instructions.

Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials.

Make sure to cite readings from the background materials page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of information