Managerial Decision Making Discussion Questions

1. Assume that you are part of a mediation team that has been brought in to help overcome an impasse between negotiators who are deliberating the use of embryonic stem cells for a research project. The decision makers are polarized along ethical and religious lines. Since this is a potentially emotional issue, what would you do in order to break this impasse? How could the fixed pie concept come into play in this situation?

2. We have each had to negotiate during the process of purchasing a home or automobile. Analyze the last major purchase that you were involved with and discuss that purchase in terms of the decision-analytic approach. What was your BATNA and how did that come into play?

3.Eventually, the United States and Iran will have to sit down and negotiate the use of nuclear power. Discuss the issues that could be involved in such a negotiation. What cognitive mistakes might be made by the negotiators in this case? How could these mistakes be overcome in order to reach an acceptable agreement?

4.Discuss some of the reasons why managers continue to use unstructured employment interviews despite the abundant evidence that they are not useful for predicting future job performance.

5. Discuss the three-staged de-biasing process (unfreezing, change, and refreezing) and explain the mechanisms that make each of them hard to implement. In your discussion, include how you believe such a process can help you, personally, to improve your decision-making.

6.Describe the concept of linear decision-making. Also, discuss how a linear decision-making model could have helped you in making a past decision.   This response should consist of no less than 200 words

7.Bazerman and Moore suggest that we should understand the biases of others. Discuss this concept in terms of why it is important for us to understand other peoples' biases. In your discussion, focus on how you might be able to improve your decision-making in a group setting.