Decision Making

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Topics

	Bounded Rationality
	Incrementalism
	Garbage-can model
	Decision making problems

Readings

	Rainey: 170 -200, 365 - 366
	Tompkins, 183 - 210
	Ashworth, 73 - 81
	Web: William Langewiesche, "Columbia's Last Flight," The Atlantic Monthly November 2003. (Download)
	Web: Chapter from CAIB Report
	Reserve Reading #3, #4
	Case Study #5 - Reserve Reading #16
	GovExec.Com - Article on how PowerPoint slides contributed to Columbia
	USA Today - Challenger 25 Years Later (1/28/11)
	Article looking back on Challenger 20 years later
	Article looking at myths surrounding Challenger
	Article looking towards the future of spaceflight based on lessons of the shuttle program
	Article looking at the Columbia disaster and decision making problems (9/10)
	Article looking at challenges post Columbia disaster
	Handout on stereotyping

Lecture Notes

View or print lecture notes as an adobe acrobat file

Web Resources

Interested to see if you have any hidden biases or make stereotypes, click here to take a test.

Challenger Disaster: You may want to look at NASA's web site and the site devoted to the Space Shuttle and its current launch status. You could also look at sites devoted to the history of the space shuttle and the Challenger Disaster. Finally, you may want to read through the Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, which is referred to in the case. Time permitting, we will supplement the class discussion with a video that explores how a phenomena called groupthink might have contributed to the ill-fated launch decision.

Movies that Might Be of Interest

There are several movies that illustrate the challenges of effective decision making and problem solving in large organizations. Some personal favorites that I would highly recommend are:

	Apollo 13 (1995) staring Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon: Movie tells the story of the ill-fated mission to land on the moon and how the crew and NASA overcome a series of problems to return the crew safely (True Story).
	*Thirteen Days* (2001) staring Kevin Costner. Movie tells the story of the Cuban missile crisis that brought the U.S. and Soviet Union to the brink of war. The movie does an excellent job of illustrating the decision making process used to resolve the crisis. (True Story).

Books that Might Be of Interest

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