INTRODUCTION TO DECISION MAKING - 2025/6

Module Overview

Introduction to Decision Making is designed to empower students with the knowledge and skills necessary to make informed and effective decisions in the world of business. Content is intended to complement rather than repeat any previous study of business or economics and assumes no previous formal study in these areas. The module places students at the centre of their learning, fostering critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities that are crucial for success in a dynamic and complex business environment. Through a combination of theoretical concepts, case studies, and practical exercises, students will develop the competencies needed to analyse, evaluate, and communicate business decisions that align with organisational objectives and ethical considerations. Students will study basic behavioural and management principles and undertake evaluative exercises to assess the desirability of outcomes. Financial and data-driven decision making will be explored. Underlying ethical themes such as sustainability and equality and diversity will be examined alongside drivers such as profitability and innovation. Assessments are designed to build digital capabilities and enhance employability skills and resourcefulness.

Module provider

Surrey Business School

Module Leader

WHITE Erivan (SBS)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 3

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

This module offers students further insights into material encountered on concurrent Foundation Year modules (MAN0001 and MAN0003) and helps students develop their understanding of associated concepts and theories. Indicative content includes:

• Behavioural and management theories of decision making, drawing on the insights of Peter Drucker, Charles Handy and others

• Socio-economic drivers in the decision making process, including profitability, stakeholder/shareholder influence, ethics and sustainability

• Data analysis and its influence on decision making, enabling students to develop their understanding of the significance of quantitative data and to critically analyse its efficacy

• Evaluating outcomes in organisations; students will use case studies to help build their understanding of the complexity of business decision making, particularly in the global firm

• Mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, different types of innovation and creative destruction (drawing on the work of Schumpeter); helping students develop an insightful knowledge of a globalised world and preparing them for their place within it in ways that will be further developed in MAN0004 in semester two.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

None.

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of models to help understand and analyse real world dilemmas. They will work together on taking and explaining decisions when faced with data from real world scenarios and consider the impact of competing drivers. 

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• One multiple choice question exam paper (1 hour duration) 

• One individually produced vlog submission (max. 5 minutes' duration)

Formative assessment and Feedback

The practice multiple choice test paper will enable formative feedback in verbal and written form. Students will have the opportunity to submit a shorter (max 2 minutes' duration) formative vlog, also individually produced. This will enable them to receive valuable assessment advice, and develop resourcefulness and resilience within the subject area through evaluation and application of feedback before they undertake the summative assessment in this format. 

Further Feedback

Further formative feedback and guidance by peers and tutors will be provided during seminar time.  In addition, students are encouraged to prepare carefully for individual tutorial times, to ensure that tutor feedback at those times is relevant to their needs at that point of their work in progress.  Students are welcome too to email draft work and queries to module tutors for informal written feedback, and to make use of module tutors’ office hours and drop-in times for individual guidance and feedback. 

Module aims

• To give students the opportunity to identify and explore prominent models of decision making developed by behavioural and management theorists
• To support students to critically examine the desirability of decision making models and explore their impact upon outcomes in relevant environments
• To allow students to analyse and critically reflect upon the key drivers behind decision making, including data driven considerations and ethical aspects such as sustainability and fairness

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to introduce students to the complexity of decision making in organisations. It will enable them to unpick the drivers behind decision making and suggest and critically evaluate alternatives. They will explore current newsworthy issues and suggest ways in which adverse outcomes may be ameliorated. Financial and ethical drivers will be explored and their comparative influence in different contexts assessed. Risk will also be examined. Students will initially be supported through scaffolded approaches to learning, which will gradually give way to more of a flipped learning approach, placing increasing responsibility on students to prepare material ahead of the seminar and come ready to participate in learning activities.

The module will employ a student-centred approach, encouraging active participation and engagement. The following methods will be utilised:

 

• Lectures and tutorials for concept/theory introduction and clarification.


• Group work and collaborative projects in seminars to enhance problem-solving skills.


• Guest speakers and industry experts for practical insights.


• Case studies and scenarios for practical application of decision-making theories.


• Online resources and platforms for self-directed learning.


• Regular feedback and reflection sessions to track progress and provide guidance.
  
  The learning and teaching methods include:
  
  • Lectures 
  
  • Seminars 
  
  • Guided reading and research
  
  • Independent study

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MAN0002

Other information

The Foundation Year programme is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability, and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to support students to develop knowledge, skills, and capabilities in the following areas: 

Employability: the emphasis on business decision making in an applied context in this module underpins the ethos of beginning to prepare students from Foundation level to make informed decisions in managerial capacities in the future.  Informal group presentations allow students to develop the confidence in speaking to an audience (which is often lacking when students progress to university from school or college).  The assessed vlog task element of the module has been designed to allow students to build on this platform effectively to become strong oral digital communicators in employability situations in the future, both at recruitment stages and to communicate effectively on video with internal and external stakeholders.

Digital Capabilities: digital literacy is a vital skill in today’s world and this module aims to ensure that students enter the first year of their degree programmes equipped with relevant skills.  In particular, this module stresses digital creation, through the vlog task, in combination with MAN0003 (Creativity, Resourcefulness, Enterprise and Task Evaluation) where a digital creation workshop builds awareness and capabilities to support successful completion of this assessment.  Feedback on students’ creative digital skills on a formative blog helps focus and develop key attributes.  In addition, a workshop session dedicated to identifying misinformation and disinformation associated with fake news and information is designed to support students in developing the critical thinking skills to navigate the mass of digital information available to them. Students will also be introduced to Orbis as a company data source, and encouraged to think analytically and critically about the data that are presented.

Resourcefulness and Resilience: As the module progresses, there is increasing reliance on students preparing material in advance of seminars, thus enabling class time to maximise interactive activities: this provides students with structured opportunities to develop an independent approach to learning and sound time management skills, which will be increasingly necessary in Semester 2 (e.g. for MAN0003 (Creativity, Resourcefulness, Enterprise and Task Evaluation) and MAN0005 (Research Project)), at higher levels of study and in future employment. The module includes a formative assessment, designed to allow students to learn from work in progress and make effective use of feedback, thereby encouraging a resourceful and independent approach to study.

Sustainability: key themes within this module connect with sustainability in the context of its relevance to business and hospitality and tourism management. Business ethics and greenwashing are introduced early in the module through case studies, so that students are able to use their increased awareness to analyse decisions in light of the wider context of the shareholder/stakeholder debate.

Global and Cultural Capabilities: globalisation and culture have significant impacts in very many areas of decision making in business and hospitality and tourism management. Topics covered in this module include mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) and provide a platform for more in-depth study in this area in Semester 2, where all Business & Hospitality Management students study MAN0004 (Global Business Contexts).

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.