Executive Decision Making

Minimize risk and uncertainty by applying formal decision-making processes. Take environmental challenges into account under the constraints of limited time and resources.

Description

In today's competitive business climate, it is imperative that executives know how to make key decisions quickly and decisively. Strategic decisions often entail considerable risks and can have long-range implications for the organization. In this course, participants will learn how to apply formal decision-making processes in order to reduce risk and choose the best course of action for their organization. They will learn methods and techniques for making critical decisions in a challenging environment with limited time and resources. This course focuses on how to maximize available assets, identify risks and obstacles, and gather the necessary data for an informed decision-making process.

Who Should Take This Course?

This course is a priority for executives, managers, and team leaders responsible for their organizations' strategic and operational decisions.

Course Format

All eCornell courses are delivered online and are self-paced. An eCornell instructor leads the online discussions, grades any course projects, and is available to answer specific questions about the course content.

This course contains the following modules:

• The Executive's Decision-Making Tasks
  • Organizational factors and personal characteristics that affect decision making
  • Framing and categorizing situations to aid in making effective, objective decisions
  • Conducting decision-tree analyses
  • Gathering data and evaluating it for completeness, relevance, and possible bias
• Formal Methods for Executive Decision Making
  • Most common formal methods and when to use them
  • Bayesian analysis

Benefits to the Learner

After completing this course, participants will be able to:

• Gather crucial data and resources to inform the decision-making process
• Identify appropriate situations for involving others in a decision-making process
• Ascertain risks, uncertainties, and ambiguities in an executive decision-making environment
• Overcome organizational factors that complicate decision making
• Apply formal methods such as decision trees and Bayesian analysis to arrive at appropriate decisions

Authoring Faculty

Florence Berger, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus

Judi Brownell, Ph.D., Professor

Sponsoring School

Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration

Total Learning Time

Approximately five to six hours over a period of two weeks.

Certificate Information

This course can be applied toward the following certificates:

• Business Leadership Skills
• Leading Management Teams
• Executive Leadership

ACE CREDIT Recommendation

This course contributes to an eCornell Certificate Program that has been recommended for college credit by the American Council on Education's College Credit Recommendation Service (CREDIT). Please refer to the Certificate information page for additional details.

HRCI Recertification

This course been approved for six (6) Strategic Management recertification credit hours toward SPHR and GPHR recertification and six (6) recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR, and GPHR recertification through the Human Resource Certification Institute. Please contact the Human Resource Certificate Institute (HRCI) for further information about certification or recertification.

This course qualifies for 6.00 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from the Project Management Institute (PMI) for Professional Project Managers (PMPs) seeking ongoing education and professional development for continuing certification. eCornell is a Global Registered Education Provider of PMI. PDUs are designated as Category 3.

Project Management Institute Professional Development Units