Managerial & Ethical Decision-Making

Department

Bachelor's program Business & Management

Course unit code

B&M-B-4-BAS-MED-SE

Number of ECTS credits allocated

Name of lecturer(s)

FH-Prof. Priv.-Doz. Dr. Stöckl Thomas, FH-Prof. Priv.-Doz. Dr. Siebert Johannes, Dr. Siebert Jana

Mode of delivery

Recommended optional program components

none

Recommended or required reading

Siebert, Johannes (2021). "Give yourself a nudge: How you can make better decisions", TEDxInnsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria (link, link)
Siebert, Johannes U. "How to become your own decision architect and make better career decisions", Information for study and career, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliches Studium, October 2023, 47-51
Siebert, Johannes U.; Rüdiger von Nitzsch. " The Job Selection Problem for Career Starters: A Decision-Theoretical Application. Part 1: Structuring the Problem into Objectives, Alternatives and Uncertainties", Scientific Contributions, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliches Studium, December 2020
Rüdiger von Nitzsch; Siebert, Johannes. The Job Selection Problem for Career Starters: a Decision-Theoretical Application Part 2: Identifying the Best Alternative using the ENTSCHEIDUNGSNAVI, Wissenschaftliche Beiträge, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliches Studium, November 2018, 4-11
Siebert, Johannes U.; Keeney, Ralph. "Decisions: Problems or Opportunities? How you can prevent unpleasant decision situations", Scientific Contributions, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliches Studium, June 2020, 49(6), 1-6Hammond, J. S., Keeney, R. L., & Raiffa, H. (1998). Even swaps: A rational method for making trade-offs. Harvard Business Review, 76, 137-150. (link)
Howard, R. A., Korver, C. D., & Birchard, B. (2008). Ethics for the real world: Creating a personal code to guide decisions in work and life. Harvard Business Press.
Keeney, R. L. (2021), SMARTER BUSINESS DECISIONS. Management and Business Review (MBR), 195pp. (link)
Keeney, R. L. (2020). Give yourself a Nudge: Helping Smart People Make Smarter Personal and Business Decisions. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. (link for MCI students)
Keeney, R. L. (1992). Value-focused Thinking: A Path to creative Decision Making. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Keeney, R. L. (1994). Using Values in Operations Research. Operations Research 42(5), pp. 793-813.
Siebert, Johannes; Keeney, Ralph L. (2015)"Creating More and Better Alternatives for Decisions Using Objectives". Operations Research, September/October 2015, 63(5), 1144-1158. (link)
von Nitzsch Rüdiger, Tönsfeuerborn Mendy., Siebert Johannes U. (2020) Decision Skill Training with the Entscheidungsnavi. In: de Almeida A.T., Morais D.C. (eds) Innovation for Systems Information and Decision. INSID 2020. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 405. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64399-7_2

Level of course unit

Bachelor

Year of study

Spring 2025

Semester when the course unit is delivered

Language of instruction

English

Learning outcomes of the course unit

In “Managerial & ethical decision-making”, we aim at developing your critical ability to independently undertake and solve business problems using scientific methods. Having completed this course, you will have acquired sound theoretical knowledge and developed practical skills so that you are able to
• frame decision problems appropriately for single and multiple decision makers/stakeholders
o formulate decision statements
o identify and structure objectives
o operationalize objectives with suitable criteria (not necessarily KPI)
o systematically develop attractive alternatives
o identify states and uncertainties
• elicit preferences (their own as well as of others),
• master decision rules and decision trees
• aggregate preferences using multi-attribute utility theory
o explicitly consider uncertainties
o consider multiple objectives
o check robustness of the results (identify rank reversals, etc.)
• use digital decision-support tools
• make ethical decisions
• become their own decision architect
• proactively convert decision problems it decision opportunities

Course contents

To manage a company comprises different functions, decisions, and measures. Therefore, concepts of rationality will be critically discussed in the context of decision-making methods in business and behavioral economics. Moreover, the ethical component in decision-making will be highlighted.
• Value-focused Thinking
• Proactive Decision Making
• Rational decision making
• Decision biases
• Preference elicitation and aggregation
• Ethical decision-making
• Case studies

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

The course comprises an interactive mix of lectures, discussions and individual and group work.

Work placement(s)

none

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