MGMT530
Week 1 Discussion 1 & 2 Latest 2018 May
dq 1
WEEK 1: DEFINING THE PROBLEM
66
unread replies.1414 replies.What is the difference between problem solving and
decision making? What are the key aspects to defining the problem for a
decision situation?
Give an example of a decision problem that you are currently dealing with.
dq 2
WEEK 1: ENABLING CONDITIONS
55 unread replies.1414 replies.What role does ability,
willingness, insight, and commitment play in the decision-making process? How
can constraints and other underlying elements complicate the decision-making
process?
Relate an experience from your work.
MGMT530
Week 2 Discussion 1 & 2 Latest 2018 May
dq 1
WEEK
2: DEFINING OBJECTIVES AND ALTERNATIVES
11 unread reply.1414 replies.
Why is it important to define clear
objectives for the decision situation? How can you ensure that you have
identified all the appropriate alternatives? Give an example of a problem that
you are in the process of deciding or have decided on in the past—identify the
objectives and alternatives.
dq 2
WEEK
2: INTUITION
44 unread replies.1515 replies.
What role does intuition
play in decision making? What role does quantitative data play in decision
making? Identify a decision situation in which you used both intuition and data
for your analysis of the situation.
MGMT530
Week 3 Discussion 1 & 2 Latest 2018 May
dq 1
WEEK 3: UNDERSTANDING CONSEQUENCES AND TRADEOFFS
No
unread replies.1010 replies.
Why can it be difficult
to identify consequences for each alternative and objective? What techniques
can be used to simplify the process? Describe a decision situation in which you
made tradeoffs to simplify the alternatives. Did you use the even-swap method,
weighted scoring model, or another approach?
dq 2
WEEK 3: DECISION MAKING IN YOUR ORGANIZATION
No
unread replies.99 replies.
What process does your
organization use to make decisions? Do you clearly identify the problem,
objectives, alternatives, consequences, and tradeoffs? What special techniques
or tools do you use in your process?
MGMT530
Week 4 Discussion 1 & 2 Latest 2018 May
dq 1
WEEK
4: DEFINING UNCERTAINTIES
11 unread reply.1313 replies.
How does your organization assess
uncertainties in your decision-making process? What are the benefits to using
decision trees to assess uncertainties?
Provide an example where uncertainties played a major role in a decision
situation.
dq 2
WEEK
4: DECISION MAKING STYLES
11 unread reply.1111 replies.
What
is your primary decision-making style? What is your manager’s primary
decision-making style? What approaches and tricks have you learned to persuade
your manager?
MGMT530
Week 5 Discussion 1 & 2 Latest 2018 May
dq 1
WEEK 5: RISK TOLERANCE
22 unread replies.1313
replies.
Describe your risk
profile—risk seeking, risk neutral, or risk averse. What are the pitfalls of
your risk attitude? How can knowing your manager’s desirability curve come in
handy during the decision-making process?
dq 2
WEEK 5: SHARING RISK WITH PARTNERS
22 unread replies.1212
replies.
Describe a decision
situation in which you have shared risk with an internal or external business
partner. What were the conditions of the shared risk? Explain why the
arrangement was successful or not.
MGMT530
Week 6 Discussion 1 & 2 Latest 2018 May
dq 1
WEEK 6: LINKED DECISIONS
22 unread replies.1212
replies.
Describe a decision
situation that involved linked decisions. What flexible plans did you use for
the subsequent decision?
dq 2
WEEK 6: COURSE PROJECT PRESENTATIONS
No unread replies.1010
replies.
Briefly describe your problem and post a brief
PowerPoint presentation that summarizes your Course Project no later than Tuesday.
Give feedback to (at least) two other students’ presentations for your
remaining posts. Be sure to post on a total of three different days.
MGMT530
Week 7 Discussion 1 & 2 Latest 2018 May
dq 1
WEEK 7: PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAPS AND MANAGEMENT DECISION-MAKING
22 unread replies.1111
replies.
Provide a real-life example of one of the traps
discussed in the text or the lecture. What can be done to avoid that trap in
the future?
In your second post, discuss a real-life example
of management decision making that you have experienced. If you were the
manager making the decision, would you do anything differently, and why? Online
research on the five steps in the management decision making process may be
helpful with this discussion.
dq 2
WEEK
7: ESTATE CASE ANALYSIS
44 unread replies.1313 replies.This week, we move from the theoretical to the
real world.
The following group decision problem scenario is outside of the formal
organizational structure but highlights the difficulty in making decisions in
group settings and the need to collectively arrive at a group decision-making
process.
Estate Case Decision Problem Scenario
The matriarch of a family passes away after a long illness, leaving a house
that needs major repair work, a few antiques, and a small insurance
policy.
In her Will, she bequeaths everything equally to her three grown children (two
sons and a daughter), but leaves no instructions on how to go about the
disbursement of the estate.
The three children have drifted apart over the years and are not very close,
but are cordial to one another. The eldest son, who lives locally, is named the
executor of the Will. He is somewhat resentful that he served as the primary
caregiver of the matriarch and the others were less involved. The other two
don’t get along very well.
The son that is the executor is not sure what to do, but would like to hang on
to the house for a while until the real estate market improves and eventually
try to sell it for more money than it is worth today.
The daughter thinks that the house should be fixed up with the insurance money
and then sold immediately.
The other son thinks that the house should be sold as is and to not put any
more money into it, splitting the insurance money between the three.
In summary, the facts are as follows.
Objectives
Objective 1—Achieve the highest sale price (twice as important as the other
objectives)
Objective 2—Keep reinvestment in repair and maintenance in house at a
minimum
Objective 3—Complete transaction in the shortest period of time
Alternatives
Alternative 1—Sell the house as is. The real estate agent feels that the house
would sell for $79,000 and could likely sell the house in approximately one
month. No money would be put into fixing up the house.
Alternative 2—Fix up the house, and then sell. The real estate agent feels that
the house would sell for $96,000 and could likely sell the house in
approximately three months. Approximately $15,000 would be put into fixing the
house.
Alternative 3—Wait until the market improves, then fix up and sell. The real
estate agent feels that the house would sell for $120,000 if the market
improved, but it would take at least one year. Approximately $15,000 would be
put into fixing the house and another $5,000 for ongoing maintenance and upkeep.
Based on the facts described, address the following.
- What is the general nature of
the problem? - What event triggered the
situation? - Are we imposing any constraints
on the situation? - What are the underlying
elements of the problem? - Are there dependencies on other
decisions? - What are the consequences and
tradeoffs? - What group decision-making
dynamics are in play here? - Based on a weighted scoring
model, which would be the best alternative (show your work)?
MGMT530
Week 1 Case Analysis Problem Definition Latest 2018 May
- Read the Conference Decision
Case on the Case Analysis page for this week. - Define the decision problem for
the Conference Decision Case.
As part of defining the problem, the following
questions should be addressed.
- What is the general nature of
the problem? - What event triggered the
situation? - Are we imposing any constraints
on the situation? - What are the underlying
elements of the problem? - Are there dependencies on other
decisions? - Submit your definition of the
problem in a MS Word document.
MGMT530
Week 2 Case Analysis Objectives and Alternatives 2018 May
In less than two weeks, an accounting system user’s conference is
scheduled to be held in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 13–16, 2005.
Unfortunately, Hurricane Katrina has struck the city leaving a wake of
destruction. Based on what you see on television, the hotel and the city cannot
possibly accommodate this or any conference for the foreseeable future.
Approximately 200 attendees are scheduled to attend, flying in from
all over the country. All attendees pre-paid their registration fee for the
conference.
With a lot of competition in the marketplace, getting the users to
participate in the annual user’s conference is critical to retain current
customers. During the conference, several product enhancement ideas are
developed by the users, and this input is often used in future releases of the
product.
Potential new customers are invited to the event and their
involvement often leads to securing new contracts for the accounting system as
they gain confidence in the system seeing others use it.
As head of the group that puts on the conference, you are faced
with making a determination of what to do with this year’s conference. You are
getting calls from the registered attendees asking what to do.
Senior management feels that the conference is critical to ensure
continued customer engagement and fears that cancelling the conference
altogether, the company will lose the momentum it has developed over the past
few years.
Other considerations:
Keeping the original dates and moving to a different city may
drastically increase costs due to the short advanced notice. Will people cancel
because of the higher hotel costs?
If the date is changed, will the speakers and attendees still be
able to attend?
Having worked with the local Convention & Visitor’s Bureau and
the hotel, you worry about how their businesses will survive with all of this
destruction and wonder what you can do to help.
Using the same information from last week’s Case Analysis, build
on the work you did last week by identifying the following.
Define the objectives for the Conference Decision Case. The
objectives should be separated into fundamental and means objectives.
Identify the alternatives for the case.
MGMT530 Week
3 Case Analysis Problem Definition Latest 2018 May
Two weeks after New Orleans was devastated by
Hurricane Katrina, you made the decision to postpone the conference and select
a different city to hold the conference. Based on your initial objectives and a
survey you took of the registered attendees, you created the following
consequence table based on the information available.
|
ALTERNATIVES |
|||||
|
Cancel conference for this year—schedule for next year |
Keep in New Orleans, but schedule for a later date (when the |
Keep same dates, but move to another city |
Move to another city and schedule for a later date |
||
|
OBJECTIVES |
Maximize attendance |
Does not meet objective.Senior management stated that |
Does not meet objective.Uncertainty on when New Orleans |
Does not meet objective.Cost and logistics of finding a |
Meets objective.In a survey of attendees, they |
|
Keep conference costs at current level |
Does not meet objective.Refunding registration fees would |
Does not meet objective.Because of uncertainty with city, |
Does not meet objective.Conference would lose money and |
Meets objective.A preliminary survey shows that |
From the survey, you found out that the
attendees were willing to still come to the conference and suggested three
cities as possible new locations for this year’s event.
- Chicago
- Las Vegas
- New York City
As you move forward in locating available hotels
and conference facilities, you formulate the following objectives to select
which cities will be best to hold the rescheduled conference.
- Airfare (the estimated average
round trip cost of the attendees) - Hotel Room Rate (the nightly
rate the attendees will pay during the conference) - Conference Costs (the costs you
will incur for meeting facilities, reception, registration, etc.) - Survey Response (you want to
factor in how the cities were ranked based on the survey you conducted.)
Because the budget is tight, you feel that the
Conference Cost objective is twice as important as the other three objectives.
Based on your research, here is the information
you gathered on the cities the user group was interested in.
New Orleans(Not applicable, but used to compare
original costs of conference)
|
Average |
$300 to $400 |
|
Hotel Room |
$149.00 |
|
Conference |
$16,000 |
|
Survey Rank |
Not Applicable |
Chicago
|
Average |
$200 to $300 |
|
Hotel Room |
$149.00 |
|
Conference |
$25,000 |
|
Survey Rank |
1 |
New York
|
Average |
$300 to $400 |
|
Hotel Room |
$349.00 |
|
Conference |
$20,000 (Meeting |
|
Survey Rank |
2 |
Las Vegas
|
Average |
$200 to $300 |
|
Hotel Room |
$169.00 |
|
Conference |
$15,000 |
|
Survey Rank |
3 |
MGMT530 – Conference Decision Case, Part 2
Using this information, create the following.
- A consequence table
- A weighted scoring model
Are there any dominated alternatives that can be
eliminated? Are there any even swaps?
For additional resources pertaining to this
assignment, please review the Building a Weighted Scoring Model Video found
under the Week 3 Lecture Tab and the Conference Decision Case, Part 2 Video
below. A weighted scoring example is located in Files under the name Sample
Decision Problem.
MGMT530
Week 5 Case Analysis Uncertainties and Risk Latest 2018 May
INTRODUCTION
In January 2010, the island nation of Haiti was devastated by an
earthquake.
Royal Caribbean International, a major cruise line, owns a private
beach in Haiti, which is typically a port of call on several of their Caribbean
cruise itineraries. The private port, known as Labadee, is about 80 miles away
from Port au Prince. The beach was unaffected by the quake.
In the days following the earthquake, the company wrestled with
several issues as they determined whether to continue to stop in Labadee or
temporarily abandon the port of call.
Their objectives would be to 1) ensure guest satisfaction; 2)
protect the brand; and 3) maximize profitability.
Some of the consequences they considered as they tried to
determine whether the cruise line should continue to make a stop in Haiti in
the midst of this crisis are as follows.
- Will
cruise passengers be interested in relaxing on a beach when hundreds of
thousands are homeless and hungry just 80 miles away? Could this impact
new reservations or cause people to cancel? Based on research and
consulting with others, you believe there will be minimal impact.
- Because
the community near the beach depends financially on the cruise line for
income, would suspending the stop in Haiti make the country worse off?
Based on your analysis, there is a high likelihood that the area would be
negatively impacted if the line pulled out of Labadee.
- How
would the media respond? Would they get bad press for continuing to stop
in Haiti and be perceived as profiting in the midst of this tragedy, or
will the public perception be worse if they suspend sailing to Haiti
during this crisis? You determine that there is a higher chance that the
company would get bad press if the company suspended services than if they
continued to include it on itineraries.
MGMT530 – Labadee Decision
Using a risk profile such as the one below, define the
uncertainties and make the recommendation for a decision for the Labadee Case.
For additional resources pertaining to this assignment, please
review the How to Draw a Simple Decision Tree Video found in the Week 5 Lesson,
the Developing a Decision Tree Video found in the Week 4 Lesson, and the
Labadee Decision Video below.
MGMT530
–Labadee Decision
Week
5 Case Analysis Template
The
objectives for the assignment were to define the uncertainties using a risk
profile and make the recommendation for a decision for the Labadee Case.
Students
will have a wide variety of responses based on the limited information provided
in the case.
Risk
Profile
|
Uncertainty |
||
|
Outcome: |
Chance |
Consequences: |
|
Uncertainty |
||
|
Outcome: |
Chance |
Consequences: |
|
Uncertainty |
||
|
Outcome: |
Chance |
Consequences: |
Decision Recommendation
|
Decision |
|
|
Alternative |
Summary |
MGMT530
Week 7 Course Projects Latest 2018 May
OBJECTIVES
The objective of the Course Project is to provide you with
practice in creating, justifying, and explaining a decision-making proposal.
All elements involved in the creation of this proposal, from problem definition
through action plan, must be covered. Further, the proposal, as constructed,
must meet the tests of any sound business plan, namely that it has specific and
measurable goals and objectives, clearly defined activities, stipulated time
frames during which those activities will take place, and clearly defined
measurable outcomes.
The subject matter of your paper should be business-oriented in
nature and should avoid decisions that depend largely on intuition to solve.
GUIDELINES
Although the length of the paper is not predetermined, a 10–15
page analysis, including data and appendices, is probably correct. You will
also share a summary PowerPoint presentation with fellow students during the
Week 6 Discussion.
The Final Course Project Proposal with the PowerPoint presentation
isdue by the end of Week 7(graded).
Required Outline
The following outline is required for your Course Project.
- Executive
Summary(less
than one page)
This summary is a short, carefully worded description of the problem
situation that identifies the recommended solution. A brief justification
and explanation of the selection method is to be included, highlighting
factors that contributed to selecting the recommended alternative. - Decision
Problem Overview
Describe the
nature and scope of the decision problem selected, its history together
with causes, and the outcomes of any previous attempts to deal with it.
In
order to define the problem correctly, the following questions should be
addressed.
- What
is the general nature of the problem? - What
event triggered the situation? - Are
we imposing any constraints on the situation? - What
are the underlying elements of the problem? - Are
there dependencies on other decisions?
Briefly introduce the
key decision elements—objectives, alternatives, consequences, and uncertainties;
details are to be discussed in the following sections.
- Objectives
Statement
Explain each objective in detail. Separate objectives into fundamental and
means objectives. A minimum of three objectives is required. - Alternatives
Describe each alternative, and explain how the alternatives differ from
one another. A minimum of three alternatives is required. - Selection
Describe the
alternative recommended and why. Explain the tradeoffs you utilized or
present a weighted scoring model. Explain why you feel that this report
contains sufficient information to make a decision on the problem.
Describe any additional information that would be useful to have. - Consequences
Explain how you determined the values for each alternative and their
corresponding objectives. Show your consequence table, either in this
section or as an appendix. Include the bases for forecasts and any
techniques or tools used to estimate consequences. Discuss the reliability
of your predictions. Indicate what events were considered to be uncertain,
explain the probabilities of their occurrence, and what information you
used to establish your confidence level in these probabilities. A minimum
of two uncertainties is required for the paper. - Implementation,
Monitoring, and Control
This section
contains a detailed implementation plan. There will be an explanation of
how the recommended alternative will be implemented, resources dedicated
to accomplishing it, and key individuals who will be responsible for the
plan’s success. Details should be included on how the plan will be
monitored, subsequent evaluation criteria, and how the plan can be
amended. - Works
Cited(at
least two external sources should be used)
Presentation
Once you have outlined your paper, you should be ready to begin a
PowerPoint presentation. As you develop the contents of the sections in your
paper, you should extract bullet-point ideas that best express your intended
message. If you prefer, use the slides to brainstorm and organize your thoughts
before writing the paper. Then refer to your presentation to guide and remind
you of the flow of your storyline.
The presentation will be used to showcase your decision problem in
one of the Week 6 Discussion topics, where you will receive feedback from your
fellow students. This exercise will assist you in finalizing your Course
Project prior to submission at the end of Week 7.
BEST
PRACTICES
Additional hints on preparing the best possible project follows.
- Apply
a three-step process of writing: plan, write, and complete. - Prepare
an outline of your research paper before you go forward. - Complete
a first draft and then go back to edit, evaluate, and make any changes
required. - Use
visual communication to further clarify and support the written part of
your report. Example graphs, diagrams, photographs, flowcharts, maps,
drawings, animation, video clips, pictograms, tables, and Gantt charts.
MILESTONES
Suggested:
Week 1:Determine your Course Project decision
problem you want to research.
Week 2:Identify and share the decision problem
for your project in the third Week 2 Discussion topic (ungraded).
Week 3:Identify objectives and alternatives for
your project.
Week 4:Identify the consequences and tradeoffs
for your project.
Week 5:Identify and analyze your uncertainties
for your project. Also, make your decision and prepare your initial PowerPoint
presentation.
Required:
Week 6:Submit a draft of your PowerPoint
presentation to this week’s second Discussion topic, and offer feedback to at
least two other students’ presentations.
Week 7:Submit your completed Course Project and
finalized PowerPoint presentation.
The following are the best practices in preparing this paper.
- Cover
Page—Include
who you prepared the paper for, who prepared it, and the date. - Table
of Contents—List
the main ideas and section of your paper and the pages in which they are
located. The illustrations should be included separately. - Introduction—Use a header on your paper.
This will indicate you are introducing your paper.
The purpose of an introduction or opening is to
- introduce
the subject and why the subject is important; - preview
the main ideas and the order in which they will be covered; and - establish
a tone of the document.
Include in the introduction a reason for the audience to read the
paper. Also, include an overview of what you are going to cover in your paper
and the importance of the material. (This should include or introduce the
questions you are asked to answer on each assignment.)
- Body
of Your Report—Use
a header titled with the name of your project. Then proceed to break out
the main ideas. State the main ideas, state major points in each idea, and
provide evidence. Break out each main idea you will use in the body of
your paper. Show some type of division, like separate sections that are
labeled; separate group of paragraphs; or headers. You would include the
information you found during your research and investigation. - Summary
and Conclusion—Summarizing
is similar to paraphrasing but presents the gist of the material in fewer
words than the original. An effective summary identifies the main ideas
and major support points from the body of your report. Minor details are
left out. Summarize the benefits of the ideas and how they affect the
tourism industry. - Work
Cited—Use
the citation format as specified in the Syllabus.
MGMT530
final exam Latest 2018
·
The exam will consist of a single case study in which you will apply the
rational decision-making process to determine the best alternative based on the
information provided. It is important that you show your work on how you
arrived at your decision recommendation.
(TCOs A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H) Tidewater
Services recently celebrated its 10th anniversary as a professional services
firm that handles investigations for law firms offering amenities, such as
background checks, surveillance, interviewing of witnesses, crash scene
investigation, and other related services.
The company was founded by Lee Herbert who had extensive experience working for
companies that handle investigative work. Herbert is more of a people person
and is always looking for the next new client to take on. Admittedly, Herbert
had no experience in running a business when he decided to go out on his own
and enlisted the help of his long time friend, Bradley Simmons.
Simmons has spent his career working for larger corporations in finance and had
no experience in investigative services, but was looking for a change.
Over the 10 years since the company’s founding, Tidewater Services struggled at
first but slowly grew over the last five years. The more law firms the company
works with, the more cases they receive. The more cases they receive, the more
hours they can bill. Tidewater currently has six investigators and two clerks
in addition to Herbert and Simmons. Over the years, they have expanded and
contracted based on the volume of busines
