Handbook : Unit informationEdith Cowan University

School: Business and Law

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

• Unit Title

  Information, Contemporary Technologies and Decision Making

• Unit Code

  MBA6030

• Year

  2016

• Enrolment Period

  1

• Version

  1

• Credit Points

  20

• Full Year Unit

  N

• Mode of Delivery

  On Campus
  Online

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Description

In the contemporary business climate of hyper-competition, volatility and increasingly pervasive technologies, the demand for organisational agility and responsiveness accentuate the degree to which success is linked to managerial decision making: more decisions need to be made, at greater speed, with superior precision in order to achieve effective outcomes. This unit examines the different types of decisions that managers make, embedding these within a variety of business processes and contexts. We examine the role of technologies in providing and analysing this information, whether it is from transactional e-commerce applications, enterprise collaboration systems or customers via social media.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

1. Analyse situations using decision-making models.
2. Evaluate alternative decision-making solutions.
3. Formulate appropriate solutions to decision-making issues.
4. Plan for the implementation of decision-making solutions.
5. Recommend the application of information technologies to decision-making.
6. Specify key contemporary information technologies relevant to decision-making.

Unit Content

1. Business intelligence and big data predictive and real-time analytics, dashboards and scorecards, Internet of Things.
2. Business process analysis and definition.
3. Business value of managerial decision making.
4. Creating solutions for semi-structured decisions (e.g. product and service design).
5. Creating solutions for structured data-driven decisions (e.g. operations).
6. Creating solutions for unstructured decisions (e.g. strategy).
7. Defining knowledge, information and data.
8. Embedding decision making the business process.
9. Enterprise 2.0 - collaborative systems for decision making.
10. Managerial context of decision making, bounded rationality, cultural and national differences.
11. Social media crowdsourcing and customer involvement in decision making.
12. Types of decision and decision making, distortions, criteria for assessing decision-making approaches.

Additional Learning Experience Information

The unit will run on and off-campus. On-campus students will attend a three hour seminar which may include computer work. Students will be expected to study materials from a variety of sources prior to the seminar and participate in class discussion during the seminar. Communication skills will be practised via written exercises, oral discussion and presentations. Study materials will be distributed via the online learning environment Blackboard. The online environment for off-campus students will mirror on-campus activities. External students will be required to post their activities on forums and review the work of others, just as on-campus students will do in class. They will be required to use social-media and record digital presentations for sharing with other students. Students will be expected to research relevant issues of interest in their workplace and discuss them in class for their assignment portfolio. Teaching will be supported through industry representation and participation in order to analyse decision making issues and technologies from a real-world perspective. Industry leaders will feature as guest lecturers, enabling learners to make the connections between theory and practical application.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant Board of Examiners.

Text References

• Suriwiecki, J. (2004). The wisdom of crowds. London: Abacus.
• Sunstein, C. R. (2006). Infotopia:-How many minds produce knowledge. New York; Oxford University Press.
• Simon, H. A. (1976). Administrative behavior : A study of decision-making processes in administrative organization. New York: Free Press.
• McAffee, A. (2009). Enterprise 2.0. Boston, Mass., Harvard Business Press.

Website References

• Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity. http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/mgi/research/technology_and_innovation/big_data_the_next_frontier_for_innovation

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