Decision Making

Course Director: Karin Svedberg Helgesson

Please note that the number of participants in this course is limited to 40 students.

Learn more about theories and practices of decision making, and be better prepared to face future challenges of decision making as an individual, in groups, and in businesses and other organizations. As a side effect, you will get new perspectives on the decision making of family and friends.

This course starts off by discussing individual decision making and your own experiences. We then turn to group decision making, and to decision making in businesses and other organizations. The course covers decision making in the everyday as well as decision making during crisis, and across the public-private divide.

The course is interdisciplinary in nature and involves cases and case-analysis seminars in addition to more lecture style classes with integrated discussions.

BE0917 Decision Making is a designated CIVICA course.

Content and Topics

Individual Decision Making The experience of participants as individual decision makers, and as students at the SSE and elsewhere, is used as a starting point for introducing theories of decision making. We explore the merits and limits of the idea of the “rational decision maker”, a model of decision making that many students have met in various previous courses in e.g. marketing, management, and economics. We also discuss the cultural boundedness of individual decision making.

Highlighting the interrelatedness of individual- and organizational decision making, we further probe a set of issues to do with employee silence and ethics.

Group Decision Making Group decision making is both similar and different to that of individuals. The assigned decision maker in a group may not have access to all relevant knowledge, and different types of knowledge available may clash. How may such situations be resolved? Another topic discussed is the concept of “groupthink”, a form of group-based irrationality. Here we include an alternative take on how and why it may arise. Some problems relating to group composition and the evaluation of small group performance are also discussed.

Organizational Decision Making Turning to decision making in businesses and other organizations we discuss the various functions of decisions and decision making. Adding to the discussion of ethics and decision making earlier in the course, we further highlight issues to do with values and the use of AI in organizations. We then outline the so-called Garbage Can model and discuss how decision making within messier "Organized Anarchies" differ from that in more rational organizations.

Decision making becomes increasingly complex during crises. On the subject of crisis decision making, we look into models on crisis communication and the interrelationship between crisis- and risk management. This includes ideas on crisis/risk and narratives as well as crisis/risk in the supply chain.

The course concludes with a section on the role of business and other organizations in the formation of public policy and political decision making. Here, we explore the wider conditions for decision making, and the possibilities of affecting the “rules of the game” through lobbying. In terms of theory, we draw on the Kingdon model on Agenda Setting (which, in turn, is based on the Garbage Can model). We also add insights on venue shopping.

Pedagogical Structure
The course has a multi-method approach to learning, inside and outside the class room. The average class session is built around a mix of traditional lecturing (where the literature is outlined and tricky concepts explained), discussions (on the topics at hand) and in-class group work.

We further use cases as means to practice applying course theory to practice during the designated case-analysis seminars. Cases used include business cases, as well as other formats.

Please Note! Details on the themes for each session, assignments how to prepare etc. will be provided only on the Canvas.

Course administrator: Anna.Meijerberg@hhs.se

Having completed the course, the successful participants will be able to:

• apply decision theory to a variety of practices of complex decision making in business firms and other organizations - in everyday situations and during crisis,
• examine the wider context of strategic decision making and evaluate the extent to which important contingencies for such decision making may be altered (e.g. through lobbying),
• reflect upon their own roles in processes of decision making (e.g. through knowledge of how bounded rationality influences the capacity of individuals in decision making) and make illustrations of it and express the insights by using course theories,
• explain how and why “implementation problems” may arise, and to what extent and how such problems may be addressed,
• describe the range of other functions that decisions can fulfil (apart from being choices of particular courses of action), and how these alternative functions may affect decision making in practice.

General entry requirements.

Brunsson, Nils (1990), ‘Deciding for Responsibility and Legitimation’, Accounting. Organizations and Society, (15) 1/2: 47-59.

Cohen, Michael D., James G. March & Johan P. Olsen (1972), ‘A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice’, Administrative Science Quarterly, (17)1:1-25. Excerpt pp. 1-11.

Frey, Dieter & Felix C. Brodbeck (2004), ‘Group Processes in Organizations’, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 6407-6413.

Hale, Joanne E., Ronald E. Dulek & David P. Hale (2005), 'Crisis Response Communication Challenges: Building Theory from Qualitative Data’, Journal of Business Communication, (42) 2:112-134.

Hayes, Jan & Sarah Maslen (2015). Knowing stories that matter: learning for effective safety decision-making. Journal of Risk Research, 18(6), 714-726.

Harrison, Debbie, C-F Helgesson, and Karin Svedberg Helgesson (2019) ´Invasive species, risk management, and the compliance industry: The case of Daro Marine’, In R. P. Gephart Jr., C. C. Miller & K.S. Helgesson (Eds), The Routledge Companion to Risk, Crisis and Emergency Management, New York: Routledge, 283-295.

Iyengar, Sheena S. & Mark R. Lepper (1999), 'Rethinking the Value of Choice: A Cultural perspective on Intrinsic Motivation', Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 3: 49-366.

Kahneman, Daniel (2003), ‘Maps of Bounded Rationality: Psychology for Behavioral Economics’, The American Economic Review, (93) 5: NB! Excerpt: pp. 1449-1461 + 1469-1470.

Manias, Elisabeth & Annette Street (2001), ‘The Interplay of Knowledge and Decision Making between Nurses and Doctors in Critical Care’, International Journal of Nursing Studies, 38:129-140.

Milliken, Frances J., Elizabeth W. Morrison & Patricia F. Hewlin (2003) 'An Exploratory Study of Employee Silence: Issues that Employees Don’t Communicate Upward and Why', Journal of Management Studies, 40: 1453-1476.

Pralle, Sarah B. (2003), 'Venue Shopping, Political Strategy, and Policy Change: The Internationalization of Canadian Forest Advocacy’, Journal of Public Policy, (23) 3: 233-260.

Pralle, Sarah B. (2009) Agenda-setting and climate change, Environmental Politics, (18)5: 781-799.

Sheffi, Yossi (2019), 'Spatial and Temporal Patterns in Global Enterprise Risk', In R. P. Gephart Jr., C. C. Miller & K.S. Helgesson (Eds), The Routledge Companion to Risk, Crisis and Emergency Management, New York: Routledge, 283-295.

Umphress, Elizabeth E. & John B. Bingham (2011) 'When Employees Do Bad Things for Good Reasons: Examining Unethical Pro-Organizational Behaviors', Organization Science, 22: 3: 621-640.

Whyte, Glen (1998), ‘Recasting Janis´s Groupthink Model: They Key Role of Efficacy in Decision Fiascos, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2/3: 185-209.

The maximum score on the course is 100p. In order to pass, students need to fulfill the attendance requirements, and have a minimum total score of at least 50p on the Individual Written Exam.

Please Note! This course does not permit the use of AI for submitted course work. The use of AI tools, including ChatGPT or similar systems, is not permitted for assignments or any other course work submitted. In order to achieve the ILOs of the course, students are expected to read and process the course material themselves. They are to make their own analyses, and to write their own assignments.

Attendance (pass/fail)

The following interactive discussion and feedback sessions are compulsory:

• Case Analysis Seminars (compulsory attendance) During these seminars, we apply course theories to business cases and other types of cases, based on your individual preparations. For each of the 4 case-analysis seminars, full attendance is based on being present and active at the seminar, and on having up-loaded the individual brief case preparation (500-600 word) by the assigned deadline (please see Assignments for details).

Attendance during lectures is not mandatory. However, attendance is recommended throughout the course in order to promote learning. Lectures are designed based on the premise that students are familiar with the content from previous lectures and seminars. That said, an occasional absence from a lecture is not a problem.

If you have any questions re: attendance, please contact the Course Director in advance.

Individual Written Exam (100p)

At the end of the course there is an individual on-site exam. The 3-hour exam consists of two to three open ended questions. Questions are designed to cut across course themes and articles in the readings. Each question may consist of one or more sub-questions.

Find the course schedule in TimeEdit

A new lecture on “Values, AI & Decision Making” and an associated article have been introduced to provide more possibilities for reflection on the use of AI in organizations.

The course tried out a somewhat different exam format during 2026. As the administrative complexity of the new format was underestimated, it was decided to revert back to the established and well functioning exam format.

Have you been granted educational support because of a documented disability? If so, please contact the course director as soon as possible so that adequate accommodations can be made.

Contact specialneeds@hhs.se if you have questions about being granted educational support or need a copy of your educational support certificate.

For more information, visit the Specific Educational Needs page on the Student Hub (login required).