The document outlines the curriculum and assignments for a management course (mgmt 530), focusing on decision-making processes and case analyses related to business scenarios, including a conference decision affected by Hurricane Katrina. It details various weekly assignments, discussion questions, and case analyses that students must complete, emphasizing the importance of defining problems, objectives, alternatives, and evaluating decision-making styles. Additionally, it discusses the potential expansion of Tidewater Services and the challenges the company faces in balancing growth with risk.

1. MGMT 530 Entire Course , Midterm and Final Exam
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MGMT 530 Week 1 Case Analysis (Conference Decision)
MGMT 530 Week 1 DQ 1 Defining the Problem
MGMT 530 Week 1 DQ 2 Enabling Conditions
MGMT 530 Week 2 Case Analysis (Conference Decision)
MGMT 530 Week 2 DQ 1 Defining Objectives and Alternatives
MGMT 530 Week 2 DQ 2 Intuition
MGMT 530 Week 3 Case Analysis Conference Decision Case, Part 2
MGMT 530 Week 3 DQ 1 Understanding Consequences and
Tradeoffs
MGMT 530 Week 3 DQ 2 Decision Making in Your Organization
MGMT 530 Week 4 DQ 1 Defining Uncertainties
MGMT 530 Week 4 DQ 2 Decision Making Styles
MGMT 530 Week 5 Case Analysis Labadee Decision
MGMT 530 Week 5 DQ 1 Risk Tolerance
MGMT 530 Week 5 DQ 2 Sharing Risk with Partners
MGMT 530 Week 6 DQ 1 Linked Decisions
MGMT 530 Week 6 DQ 2 Course Project Presentations
MGMT 530 Week 7 Course Project (US Foods)
MGMT 530 Week 7 DQ 1 Psychological Traps
MGMT 530 Week 7 DQ 2 Estate Case Analysis
MGMT 530 Week 4 Midterm Exam
MGMT 530 Final Exam
===============================================

2. MGMT 530 Entire Course
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This Tutorial doesn’t contain Midterm and Final Exam
MGMT 530 Week 1 Case Analysis (Conference Decision)
MGMT 530 Week 1 DQ 1 Defining the Problem
MGMT 530 Week 1 DQ 2 Enabling Conditions
MGMT 530 Week 2 Case Analysis (Conference Decision)
MGMT 530 Week 2 DQ 1 Defining Objectives and Alternatives
MGMT 530 Week 2 DQ 2 Intuition
MGMT 530 Week 3 Case Analysis Conference Decision Case, Part 2
MGMT 530 Week 3 DQ 1 Understanding Consequences and
Tradeoffs
MGMT 530 Week 3 DQ 2 Decision Making in Your Organization
MGMT 530 Week 4 DQ 1 Defining Uncertainties
MGMT 530 Week 4 DQ 2 Decision Making Styles
MGMT 530 Week 5 Case Analysis Labadee Decision
MGMT 530 Week 5 DQ 1 Risk Tolerance
MGMT 530 Week 5 DQ 2 Sharing Risk with Partners
MGMT 530 Week 6 DQ 1 Linked Decisions
MGMT 530 Week 6 DQ 2 Course Project Presentations
MGMT 530 Week 7 Course Project (US Foods)
MGMT 530 Week 7 DQ 1 Psychological Traps
MGMT 530 Week 7 DQ 2 Estate Case Analysis
===============================================

3. MGMT 530 Final Exam
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(TCOs A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H) Tidewater Services recently
celebrated its 10th anniversary as a professional services firm that
handles investigations for law firms offering amenities, such as
background checks, surveillance, interviewing of witnesses, crash
scene investigation, and other related services.
The company was founded by Lee Herbert who had extensive
experience working for companies that handle investigative work.
Herbert is more of a people person and is always looking for the next
new client to take on. Admittedly, Herbert had no experience in
running a business when he decided to go out on his own and enlisted
the help of his long time friend, Bradley Simmons.
Simmons has spent his career working for larger corporations in
finance and had no experience in investigative services, but was
looking for a change.
Over the 10 years since the company’s founding, Tidewater Services
struggled at first but slowly grew over the last five years. The more
law firms the company works with, the more cases they receive. The
more cases they receive, the more hours they can bill. Tidewater
currently has six investigators and two clerks in addition to Herbert
and Simmons. Over the years, they have expanded and contracted
based on the volume of business and the local economy.
Based in Norfolk, Virginia, Herbert is really interested in expanding
the business to other major cities in the region, believing that “there
are only so many law firms here in Norfolk.” He feels that if they’ve

4. survived 10 years, then they should continue to focus on growing the
business. Simmons, on the other hand, feels that expansion will put
the company at risk as it takes time to develop a decent client base.
They had opened a second office several years back across town but
eventually closed it when it didn’t generate enough revenue to cover
expenses. He’s worried the expansion may bankrupt the company.
Even though the two are business partners, Herbert is the president
and Simmons the vice president. Herbert asked Simmons to evaluate
several options to further expand the business. From Herbert’s
perspective, he has concluded that three objectives are important in
this decision. First, is to find a city with a large number of Fortune
500 companies, a cost of living comparable to Norfolk, and a city that
is in a reasonable distance from Norfolk as he and Simmons would be
spending a lot of time in the new office at first. Because both have
families with young children, Herbert feels that the distance is twice
as important as the other criteria.
Here is the summary of Simmons’ research.
I. Richmond, Virginia: Number of Fortune 500 Companies: 5; Cost of
Living Comparison: 0.934 (less than Norfolk); Driving Distance: 81
miles
II. Charlotte, North Carolina: Number of Fortune 500 Companies: 7;
Cost of Living Comparison: 0.834 (less than Norfolk); Driving
Distance: 283 miles
III. Atlanta, Georgia: Number of Fortune 500 Companies: 10; Cost of
Living Comparison: 0.854 (less than Norfolk); Driving Distance: 503
miles
Question 1. Define the decision problem and the general nature of the
problem. (20 Points)
Question 2. What event triggered
Question 3. Are we imposing any implied constraints on the situation
Question 4. Define the objectives
Question 5. Identify the alternatives

5. Question 6. Compare and contrast the consequences for all three
alternatives by the fundamental objectives. Rank each alternative
using proportional scoring, include weights on the objectives. Are
there any dominated alternatives that can be eliminated? Are there
any even swaps.
Question 7. What decision-making styles are at work here? What is
their attitude towards risk?
Question 8. Are there any biases in play here that may impact the
effectiveness of the decision?
Question 9. What are the uncertainties for this decision situation?
What are their consequences?
Question 10. Evaluate this decision situation using tradeoffs. What
location should they select? Are there any linked decisions? Discuss
any assumptions as needed.
===============================================
MGMT 530 Week 1 Case Analysis (Conference Decision)
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Week 1 Case Analysis: Conference Decision Case
Date: September 2, 2005

6. In less than two weeks, an accounting system user’s conference is
scheduled to be held in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 13–16,
2005. Unfortunately, Hurricane Katrina has struck the city leaving a
wake of destruction. Based on what you see on television, the hotel
and the city cannot possibly accommodate this or any conference for
the foreseeable future.
Approximately 200 attendees are scheduled to attend, flying in from
all over the country. All attendees prepaid their registration fee for the
conference.
With a lot of competition in the marketplace, getting the users to
participate in the annual user’s conference is critical to retain current
customers. During the conference, several product enhancement ideas
are developed by the users, and this input is often used in future
releases of the product.
Potential new customers are invited to the event, and their
involvement often leads to securing new contracts for the accounting
system as they gain confidence in the system, seeing others use it.
As head of the group that puts on the conference, you are faced with
making a determination of what to do with this year’s conference.
You are getting calls from the registered attendees asking what to do.
Senior management feels that the conference is critical to ensure
continued customer engagement and fears that cancelling the
conference altogether will lose the momentum the company has
developed over the past few years.
Other considerations:
 Keeping the original dates and moving to a different city may
drastically increase costs due to the short advanced notice. Will
people cancel because of the higher hotel costs?
 If the date is changed, will the speakers and attendees still be
able to attend?
 Having worked with the local Convention & Visitor’s Bureau
and the hotel, you worry about how their businesses will
survive with all of this destruction and wonder what you can do
to help.

7. For this week’s Case Analysis:
1. Define the decision problem.
2. As part of defining the decision problem, the following
questions should be addressed.
o What is the general nature of the problem?
o What event triggered the situation?
o Are we imposing any constraints on the situation?
o What are the underlying elements of the problem?
o Are there dependencies on other decisions?
Submit your definition of the problem in a MS Word document to the
Week 1 Case Analysis Dropbox. Input your responses in the template
found here. This document is also posted in the Doc Sharing tab.
===============================================
MGMT 530 Week 1 DQ 1 Defining the Problem
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What is the difference between problem solving and decision making?
What are the key aspects to defining the problem for a decision
situation?

8. Give an example of a decision problem that you are currently dealing
with.
===============================================
MGMT 530 Week 1 DQ 2 Enabling Conditions
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What role does ability, willingness, insight, and commitment play in
the decision-making process? How can constraints and other
underlying elements complicate the decision-making process?
Relate an experience from your work.
===============================================
MGMT 530 Week 2 Case Analysis (Conference Decision)
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9. Week 2 Case Analysis: Conference Decision Case
Date: September 2, 2005
In less than two weeks, an accounting system user’s conference is
scheduled to be held in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 13–16,
2005. Unfortunately, Hurricane Katrina has struck the city leaving a
wake of destruction. Based on what you see on television, the hotel
and the city cannot possibly accommodate this or any conference for
the foreseeable future.
Approximately 200 attendees are scheduled to attend, flying in from
all over the country. All attendees pre-paid their registration fee for
the conference.
With a lot of competition in the marketplace, getting the users to
participate in the annual user’s conference is critical to retain current
customers. During the conference, several product enhancement ideas
are developed by the users, and this input is often used in future
releases of the product.
Potential new customers are invited to the event and their
involvement often leads to securing new contracts for the accounting
system as they gain confidence in the system seeing others use it.
As head of the group that puts on the conference, you are faced with
making a determination of what to do with this year’s conference.
You are getting calls from the registered attendees asking what to do.
Senior management feels that the conference is critical to ensure
continued customer engagement and fears that cancelling the
conference altogether, the company will lose the momentum it has
developed over the past few years.
Other considerations:
 Keeping the original dates and moving to a different city may
drastically increase costs due to the short advanced notice. Will
people cancel because of the higher hotel costs?
 If the date is changed, will the speakers and attendees still be
able to attend?
 Having worked with the local Convention & Visitor’s Bureau
and the hotel, you worry about how their businesses will

10. survive with all of this destruction and wonder what you can do
to help.
Using the same information from last week’s Case Analysis, build on
the work you did last week by identifying the following.
1. Define the objectives for the Conference Decision Case. The
objectives should be separated into fundamental and means
objectives.
2. Identify the alternatives for the case.
For additional resources pertaining to this assignment, please review
the Decision Making Drag and Drop Interactive found under the
Week 2 Lecture tab. Additionally, an Overview of Decision Making
Objectives can be found here. An example utilizing fundamental and
means objectives can be found here. These documents can also
be found in the Doc Sharing tab.
Submit your definition of the problem in a MS Word document to the
Week 2 Case Analysis Dropbox. Input your responses in the template
found here. This document is also posted in the Doc Sharing tab.
===============================================
MGMT 530 Week 2 DQ 1 Defining Objectives and
Alternatives
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11. Why is it important to define clear objectives for the decision
situation? How can you ensure that you have identified all the
appropriate alternatives? Give an example of a problem that you are
in the process of deciding or have decided on in the past—identify the
objectives and alternatives.
We will be looking at two key decision-making elements, which are
objectives and alternatives. The objectives will determine the criteria
for evaluating solutions to the defined problem. The alternatives for a
decision situation are the options that need to be considered.
Let us kick off the week by answering the following questions.
When relating objectives to decisions, is it fair to say that the clearest
objectives lead to the easiest decisions?
===============================================
MGMT 530 Week 2 DQ 2 Intuition
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What role does intuition play in decision making? What role does
quantitative data play in decision making? Identify a decision
situation in which you used both intuition and data for your analysis
of the situation.

12. For the second discussion, we will analyze the role that intuition plays
in the decision-making process.
OK, I would like to get this politically incorrect idea out of the way
from the start ... As you begin to participate in this topic, please
consider and share your position on whether you believe intuition is
more of a female skill and data analysis more of a male skill?
===============================================
MGMT 530 Week 3 Case Analysis Conference Decision Case,
Part 2
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Date: September 15, 2005
Two weeks after New Orleans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina,
you made the decision to postpone the conference and select a
different city to hold the conference. Based on your initial objectives
and a survey you took of the registered attendees, you created the
following consequence table based on the information available.
ALTERNATIVES
Cancel
conference for
this year—
schedule for
next year
Keep in New
Orleans, but
schedule for
a later date
(when the
hotels re-
open)
Keep same
dates, but
move to
another
city
Move to
another
city and
schedule
for a later
date

13. O
B
J
E
C
T
I
V
E
S
Maximize
attendance
Does not meet
objective.
Senior
management
stated that
cancelling is not
an option.
Does not
meet
objective.
Uncertainty
on when New
Orleans will
be back in
business is
too far off.
Does not
meet
objective.
Cost and
logistics of
finding a
new
location and
getting
attendees to
change
flights with
such short
notice is
cost
prohibitive.
Meets
objective.
In a survey
of
attendees,
they would
be willing
to look at a
new date in
October
and were
most
interested
in Las
Vegas,
Chicago, or
New York
as
alternative
sites.
Keep
conference
costs at
current
level
Does not meet
objective.
Refunding
registration fees
would cause a
loss for
conference.
Does not
meet
objective.
Because of
uncertainty
with city, the
registration
fees would
need to be
refunded.
Does not
meet
objective.
Conference
would lose
money and
incur
additional
costs for last
minute
scheduling.
Meets
objective.
A
preliminary
survey
shows that
costs
would be
similar to
current
budget.
From the survey, you found out that the attendees were willing to still
come to the conference and suggested three cities as possible new
locations for this year’s event.
1. Chicago
2. Las Vegas

14. 3. New York City
As you move forward in locating available hotels and conference
facilities, you formulate the following objectives to select which cities
will be best to hold the rescheduled conference.
 Airfare (the estimated average round trip cost of the attendees)
 Hotel Room Rate (the nightly rate the attendees will pay during
the conference)
 Conference Costs (the costs you will incur for meeting facilities,
reception, registration, etc.)
 Survey Response (you want to factor in how the cities were
ranked based on the survey you conducted.)
Because the budget is tight, you feel that the Conference Cost
objective is twice as important as the other three objectives.
Based on your research, here is the information you gathered on the
cities the user group was interested in.
New Orleans (Not applicable, but used to compare original costs
of conference)
Average Airfare: $300 to $400 (Round trip cost per person)
Hotel Room Rate: $149.00 (Conference rate per room per night)
Conference Costs: $16,000 (Meeting rooms, reception,
refreshments, registration materials, etc.)
Survey Rank Not Applicable
Chicago
Average Airfare: $200 to $300 (Round trip cost per person)
Hotel Room Rate: $149.00 (Conference rate per room per night)
Conference Costs: $25,000 (Meeting rooms, reception,
refreshments, registration materials, etc.)
Survey Rank 1
New York
Average Airfare: $300 to $400 (Round trip cost per person)
Hotel Room Rate: $349.00 (Conference rate per room per night)
Conference Costs: $20,000 (Meeting rooms, reception,

15. refreshments, registration materials, etc.)
Survey Rank 2
Las Vegas
Average Airfare: $200 to $300 (Round trip cost per person)
Hotel Room Rate: $169.00 (Conference rate per room per night)
Conference Costs: $15,000 (Meeting rooms, reception,
refreshments, registration materials, etc.)
Survey Rank 3
Using this information, create the following.
 A consequence table
 A weighted scoring model
Are there any dominated alternatives that can be eliminated? Are
there any even swaps?
For additional resources pertaining to this assignment, please review
the Building a Weighted Scoring Model Video found under the Week
3 Lecture Tab and the Conference Decision Case, Part 2 Video below.
A weighted scoring example is located in Doc Sharing under the
name Sample Decision Problem.
Submit your definition of the problem in a MS Word document to the
Week 3 Case Analysis Dropbox. Input your responses in the template
found here. This document is also available in the Doc Sharing tab.
===============================================
MGMT 530 Week 3 DQ 1 Understanding Consequences and
Tradeoffs
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16. Why can it be difficult to identify consequences for each alternative
and objective? What techniques can be used to simplify the process?
Describe a decision situation in which you made tradeoffs to simplify
the alternatives. Did you use the even-swap method, weighted scoring
model, or another approach?
Our objectives this week are to:
Build a consequence table with accuracy and completeness.
Compare alternatives using a consequence table.
Evaluate alternatives by examining tradeoffs.
Evaluate alternatives by using a weighted scoring model.
Concepts covered this week will help you as you develop alternatives
for your course project.
Please start by answering the main question.
Would you say that past experiences are only loosely good predictors
of future outcomes ....why?
===============================================
MGMT 530 Week 3 DQ 2 Decision Making in Your
Organization
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17. What process does your organization use to make decisions? Do you
clearly identify the problem, objectives, alternatives, consequences,
and tradeoffs? What special techniques or tools do you use in your
process?
In your organizations, what is the general balance of quantitative and
qualitative information used to make decisions? Too much of one or
the other
===============================================
MGMT 530 Week 4 DQ 1 Defining Uncertainties
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How does your organization assess uncertainties in your decision-
making process? What are the benefits to using decision trees to
assess uncertainties?
Provide an example where uncertainties played a major role in a
decision situation.
In the context of uncertainty, is there a difference between
'possibility' and 'probability'?
===============================================
MGMT 530 Week 4 DQ 2 Decision Making Styles

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What is your primary decision-making style? What is your manager’s
primary decision-making style? What approaches and tricks have you
learned to persuade your manager?
===============================================
MGMT 530 Week 4 Midterm Exam
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1. (TCO A) Your small services company has grown rapidly during
its first two years and has outgrown the workspace that you have
leased for three years. As the operations manager, you have been
asked to lead a decision-making team to select a location for the
growing company. Your desire is for the team to make an effective
decision.
i. What criteria should your decision-making approach have to ensure
that it is effective?

19. ii. Describe the eight elements for effective decision making used in a
rational decision-making approach. (Points : 20)
2. TCO A) Understanding fundamental and means objectives are
important to decision analysis and decision making. As your business
has grown, you are evaluating moving your company to a larger
office closer to several of your key customers and are looking at
several different alternatives.
i. Identify your fundamental objectives.
ii. How would those objectives be used in the decision-making
process?
iii. Identify your means objectives.
iv. How would the means objectives be used in the decision-making
process
3. (TCO A) Sally Jones, customer service manager for Gecko
Insurance, is considering three job candidates for an open senior
customer service representative position. In trying to decide which
candidate is the best overall fit for the job, Sally has concluded that
three criteria are important in this decision. First, of course, is to have
a candidate with at least five years of customer service experience in
the car insurance industry working in a call center. This objective is
most important, twice as important as each of the other two criteria.
The second criterion is to have a candidate with excellent customer
service skills. The third criterion is for the candidate to have some
experience in a coaching or supervisory role. Sally will be losing one
of her managers to retirement in a year and wants to prepare this
candidate for that job. The second and third benchmarks are equally
important. Here is a summary of each of the candidates.
I) Robert Bentley: seven years of customer service experience; scored
an 80 out of 100 on the customer service skills questionnaire; one
year of experience training new customer service representatives.
II) Jane Porsche: five years of customer service experience; scored an
85 out of 100 on the customer service skills questionnaire; two years
of supervisory experience.
III) Paula Mercedes: four years of customer service experience;
scored a 75 out of 100 on the customer service skills questionnaire; no
experience coaching or supervising.

20. i. What is Sally's problem or opportunity in this situation?
ii. What is the overall objective for Sally's decision? What are the
fundamental objectives that support the overall objective?
iii. What are Sally's alternatives for this decision situation?
iv. Evaluate this decision situation using tradeoffs or a weighted
scoring model. Based on that analysis, to which candidate should
Sally offer the job? (Points : 50)
4. TCO B) Utilizing intuitive thinking in today’s business
environment is a must according to research and practical experience.
i. Why is intuition important to managers today, and how reliable is it
in decision making?
ii. Develop three approaches for improving one’s intuition to enable
better decision making.
===============================================
MGMT 530 Week 5 Case Analysis Labadee Decision
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In January 2010, the island nation of Haiti was devastated by an
earthquake.
Royal Caribbean International, a major cruise line, owns a private
beach in Haiti, which is typically a port of call on several of their
Caribbean cruise itineraries. The private port, known as Labadee, is
about 80 miles away from Port au Prince. The beach was unaffected
by the quake.

21. In the days following the earthquake, the company wrestled with
several issues as they determined whether to continue to stop in
Labadee or temporarily abandon the port of call.
Their objectives would be to 1) ensure guest satisfaction; 2) protect
the brand; and 3) maximize profitability.
Some of the consequences they considered as they tried to determine
whether the cruise line should continue to make a stop in Haiti in the
midst of this crisis are as follows.
 Will cruise passengers be interested in relaxing on a beach
when hundreds of thousands are homeless and hungry just 80
miles away? Could this impact new reservations or cause
people to cancel? Based on research and consulting with
others, you believe there will be minimal impact.
 Because the community near the beach depends financially on
the cruise line for income, would suspending the stop in Haiti
make the country worse off? Based on your analysis, there is a
high likelihood that the area would be negatively impacted if
the line pulled out of Labadee.
 How would the media respond? Would they get bad press for
continuing to stop in Haiti and be perceived as profiting in the
midst of this tragedy, or will the public perception be worse if
they suspend sailing to Haiti during this crisis? You determine
that there is a higher chance that the company would get bad
press if the company suspended services than if they continued
to include it on itineraries.
Using a risk profile such as the one below, define the uncertainties
and make the recommendation for a decision for the Labadee Case.
For additional resources pertaining to this assignment, please review
the How to Draw a Simple Decision Tree Video found under the
Week 5 Lecture tab, the Developing a Decision Tree Video found

22. under the Week 4 Lecture tab, and the Labadee Decision Video
below.
Submit your definition of the problem in a MS Word document to the
Week 5 Case Analysis Dropbox. Input your responses in the template
found here. This document is also available in the Doc Sharing tab.
===============================================
MGMT 530 Week 5 DQ 1 Risk Tolerance
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Describe your risk profile—risk seeking, risk neutral, or risk averse.
What are the pitfalls of your risk attitude? How can knowing your
manager’s desirability curve come in handy during the decision-
making process?
===============================================
MGMT 530 Week 5 DQ 2 Sharing Risk with Partners
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23. Describe a decision situation in which you have shared risk with an
internal or external business partner. What were the conditions of the
shared risk? Explain why the arrangement was successful or not.
Is “blame” a risk-mitigator or risk-enhancer?
===============================================
MGMT 530 Week 6 DQ 1 Linked Decisions
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Describe a decision situation that involved linked decisions. What
flexible plans did you use for the subsequent decision?
===============================================
MGMT 530 Week 6 DQ 2 Course Project Presentations
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24. Briefly describe your problem and post a brief PowerPoint
presentation that summarizes your Course Project no later than
Tuesday.
Give feedback to (at least) two other students’ presentations for your
remaining posts. Be sure to post on a total of three different days
===============================================
MGMT 530 Week 7 Course Project (US Foods)
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Objectives
The objective of the Course Project is to provide you with practice in
creating, justifying, and explaining a decision-making proposal. All
elements involved in the creation of this proposal, from problem
definition through action plan, must be covered. Further, the proposal,
as constructed, must meet the tests of any sound business plan,
namely that it has specific and measurable goals and objectives,
clearly defined activities, stipulated time frames during which those
activities will take place, and clearly defined measurable outcomes.
The subject matter of your paper should be business-oriented in
nature and should avoid decisions that depend largely on intuition to
solve.
Although the length of the paper is not predetermined, a 10–15 page
analysis, including data and appendices, is probably correct. You will

25. also share a summary PowerPoint presentation with fellow students
during the Week 6 Discussion.
The Final Course Project Proposal with the PowerPoint presentation
is due by the end of Week 7 (graded).
Required Outline
The following outline is required for your Course Project.
 Executive Summary (less than one page)
This summary is a short, carefully worded description of the
problem situation that identifies the recommended solution. A
brief justification and explanation of the selection method is to
be included, highlighting factors that contributed to selecting
the recommended alternative.
 Decision Problem Overview
Describe the nature and scope of the decision problem
selected, its history together with causes, and the outcomes of
any previous attempts to deal with it.
In order to define the problem correctly, the following questions
should be addressed.
· What is the general nature of the problem?
· What event triggered the situation?
· Are we imposing any constraints on the situation?
· What are the underlying elements of the problem?
· Are there dependencies on other decisions?
Briefly introduce the key decision elements—objectives, alternatives,
consequences, and uncertainties; details are to be discussed in the
following sections.
 Objectives Statement
Explain each objective in detail. Separate objectives into
fundamental and means objectives. A minimum of three
objectives is required.

26.  Alternatives
Describe each alternative, and explain how the alternatives
differ from one another. A minimum of three alternatives is
required.
 Selection
Describe the alternative recommended and why. Explain the
tradeoffs you utilized or present a weighted scoring model.
Explain why you feel that this report contains sufficient
information to make a decision on the problem. Describe any
additional information that would be useful to have.
 Consequences
Explain how you determined the values for each alternative
and their corresponding objectives. Show your consequence
table, either in this section or as an appendix. Include the bases
for forecasts and any techniques or tools used to estimate
consequences. Discuss the reliability of your predictions.
Indicate what events were considered to be uncertain, explain
the probabilities of their occurrence, and what information you
used to establish your confidence level in these probabilities. A
minimum of two uncertainties is required for the paper.
 Implementation, Monitoring, and Control
This section contains a detailed implementation plan. There will
be an explanation of how the recommended alternative will be
implemented, resources dedicated to accomplishing it, and key
individuals who will be responsible for the plan’s success.

27. Details should be included on how the plan will be monitored,
subsequent evaluation criteria, and how the plan can be
amended.
 Works Cited (at least two external sources should be used)
Presentation
Once you have outlined your paper, you should be ready to begin a
PowerPoint presentation. As you develop the contents of the sections
in your paper, you should extract bullet-point ideas that best express
your intended message. If you prefer, use the slides to brainstorm and
organize your thoughts before writing the paper. Then refer to your
presentation to guide and remind you of the flow of your storyline.
The presentation will be used to showcase your decision problem in
one of the Week 6 Discussion topics, where you will receive feedback
from your fellow students. This exercise will assist you in finalizing
your Course Project prior to submission at the end of Week 7.
A recommended Course Project template can be found here . This
document is also posted in the Doc Sharing tab.
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MGMT 530 Week 7 DQ 1 Psychological Traps
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28. Provide a real-life example of one of the traps discussed in the text or
the lecture. What can be done to avoid that trap in the future?
An interesting human phenomenon is becoming trapped in one's own
imagination of self. It is, of course, very important to manage one's
reputation by comparing and reconciling how others see you with
how you see yourself and want others to see you.
Is there a way to protect one's integrity and remain consistent, yet also
be flexible and adaptable to change and growth?
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MGMT 530 Week 7 DQ 2 Estate Case Analysis
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www.newtonhelp.com
This week, we move from the theoretical to the real world.
The following group decision problem scenario is outside of the
formal organizational structure but highlights the difficulty in making
decisions in group settings and the need to collectively arrive at a
group decision-making process.
Estate Case Decision Problem Scenario
The matriarch of a family passes away after a long illness, leaving a
house that needs major repair work, a few antiques, and a small

29. insurance policy.
In her Will, she bequeaths everything equally to her three grown
children (two sons and a daughter), but leaves no instructions on how
to go about the disbursement of the estate.
The three children have drifted apart over the years and are not very
close, but are cordial to one another. The eldest son, who lives locally,
is named the executor of the Will. He is somewhat resentful that he
served as the primary caregiver of the matriarch and the others were
less involved. The other two don't get along very well.
The son that is the executor is not sure what to do, but would like to
hang on to the house for a while until the real estate market improves
and eventually try to sell it for more money than it is worth today.
The daughter thinks that the house should be fixed up with the
insurance money and then sold immediately.
The other son thinks that the house should be sold as is and to not put
any more money into it, splitting the insurance money between the
three.
In summary, the facts are as follows.
Objectives
Objective 1—Achieve the highest sale price (twice as important as the
other objectives)
Objective 2—Keep reinvestment in repair and maintenance in house
at a minimum
Objective 3—Complete transaction in the shortest period of time
Alternatives
Alternative 1—Sell the house as is. The real estate agent feels that the
house would sell for $79,000 and could likely sell the house in
approximately one month. No money would be put into fixing up the
house.

30. Alternative 2—Fix up the house, and then sell. The real estate agent
feels that the house would sell for $96,000 and could likely sell the
house in approximately three months. Approximately $15,000 would
be put into fixing the house.
Alternative 3—Wait until the market improves, then fix up and sell.
The real estate agent feels that the house would sell for $120,000 if
the market improved, but it would take at least one year.
Approximately $15,000 would be put into fixing the house and
another $5,000 for ongoing maintenance and upkeep.
Based on the facts described, address the following.
1. What is the general nature of the problem?
2. What event triggered the situation?
3. Are we imposing any constraints on the situation?
4. What are the underlying elements of the problem?
5. Are there dependencies on other decisions?
6. What are the consequences and tradeoffs?
7. What group decision-making dynamics are in play here?
8. Based on a weighted scoring model, which would be the best
alternative (show your work)?
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