Sample MGT602 Business Decision Analytics Assignment 2

MGT602 Business Decision Analytics Assignment 2 Sample

Assignment Brief

Individual/Group - Individual
Length - Up to 2,000 words

Learning Outcomes

a) Select and evaluate the usefulness of a range of decision making tools and reflect on your decision-making styles and contrast with other styles to determine the respective levels of rationality and intuition utilized

b) Compare, contrast and critically evaluate sources of data as influences for decision-making in arrange of business contexts

c) Examine and evaluate decision making systems and techniques to engage group decisions and
analyse how these can enhance sustainable outcomes

d) Critically examine emerging tools and technologies for decision making

Submission: 12-week class: By 11:55pm AEST/AEDT Friday of Module 6.1 (Week 11)
Intensive 6-week class. By 11.55pm AEST Friday of module 6.1 (week 6)

Weighting - 40%
Total Marks - 40 marks

Context:

Workplaces today are changing rapidly in parallel with rapid advances in technology and means of communication with teams separated in terms of space and time, that is different geographic locations and time zones, not only within countries, but also across continents. This is something that we in Torrens adapt to on a daily basis as part of a global organization. We need to take into account not only time and space, but other elements of diversity to collaborate effectively for organizational outcomes.

Task:

This assignment is designed for you to critically reflect on key themes for this subject: individual and group decision-making processes; sources of data and analysis, including usage of data analytics for organizational decision-making, and the influence of bias in effective decision-making.
In doing so, you should consider a meaningful work challenge – a project that requires many
decisions to be made- that is relevant for you- in your current, or recent workplace.
[NOTE: Torrens University is a workplace and you have a special role in it.].

CHECKPOINT:

Submit a draft of your outline and discuss your report proposal with your Learning Facilitator by WEEK 9.

Your task is to analyse the project from the perspective of decision-making points/stages. In the analysis, for assignment help you are to consider:

1. The sources of data, and the use of data analytics to identify trends/ patterns that form the evidence for decision-making;

2. Show visualizations of the decision-making process, and analytics to support the decision making;

3. Select at least three decision-making tools and technologies from within the subject modules and show their application for your project. Consider if the decision would be the same/ different by using multiple methods.

4. Present the findings of your results in a business style report that includes clear headings to guide the reader and visualization of the data sources/trends/ patterns, and is underpinned with evidence from relevant contemporary literature, including major resources from within the subject modules.

5. Reference according to the APA 6th. Ed. reference style guide, available at Student Hub@ Torrens.

Submission Instructions:

1. Submit your report to Turn-It-In.
2. Submit your report and TII report via the Assessment link in MGT602 Business Decision
Analytics on the Student Portal.
3. The Learning Facilitator will provide feedback via Grade Centre in the Student Portal.
Feedback can be viewed in My Grades.

Solution

Introduction

Selection of university is one of the prime procedures through which students enter into the field of tertiary education. The selection often becomes a major challenge on part of the students involved. This is mainly owing to the presence of a wide range of educational institutions all at the same time making the procedure more complicated in turn. The fact that almost all students prefer to get into universities providing educational guidance of good standards backed by prevalence of adequate placement facilities as well as exposure to a good faculty throughout the course period makes the university selection process an ever-exhausting dilemma. In this particular paper, I have related my entire experience of finally undertaking admission into Torrens University only after consideration of a number of decision-making models such as the Market Examination Model, Rational decision-making Model and Intuitive Decision-making Model. Thus, this paper portrays the means by which the tools related to decision-making have played a vital role on my end to overcome the challenges and successfully select the university of my choice for further studies.

Scope of auxiliary decisions and associated challenges

Identification of related challenge

It is a largely known fact that almost every student all around the world find university selection to be an ambiguous, time-consuming job involving a greater number of challenges owing to a great deal of factors associated with it thus imposing psychological stress on their end. Like many other countries, in Australia too, there exists a number of modern universities well-known within the concerned educational field for their high brand image and excellent job placement record. Maintaining such a record year after year can be seen to have managed to play a vital role on their end to acquire a number of positive reviews from their students’ end thus enhancing their popularity or winning over confidence of the students showing interest to take admission in such universities from time to time (Su & Chang, 2018). Without any doubt, there remains a great deal of pressure on the students’ end to give more effort than actually necessary in the process of Australian university selection. This is because it is the very selection that somewhat helps pave their way towards success. For instance, in case a wrong institute is selected, it automatically becomes a concern for both the student concerned as well as the university as a whole. This can be supported by drawing reference to the fact that a wrong selection directly bears a high probability to hamper future of the student concerned in negative terms hurting the personal level of growth in the process. On the other hand, from the point of view of the university, in case of wrong selection of students, it is most likely to show a direct impact upon its overall academic level of performance and influence its enrolment process in future as a result (Amani & Kim, 2018). Taking all these factors into consideration, I initially made up my mind to enrol myself into the Torrens University of Australia mainly being influenced by its eye-catching services in actual terms.

Auxiliary decisions for future action source

At the time of making selection about university, identifying my source of action in the near future seemed to hold immense importance for me. This acted as a kind of guidance on my end to decide the subject combinations that are likely to work best for me and enable me to acquire better exposure to the external environment of working. Such exposure often tends to put students like us in a challenging position in case we fail to attain enough expertise or subject knowledge in our preferred area of interest.

Analysis of Data

Following adoption of an approach to rational decision-making, an initiative has been undertaken to analyse the existing challenging scenario through initiation of a decision-making approach which is qualitative by nature. The prime factors that have duly been involved within the adopted decision-making approach include scope of placement, ranking placed by authorities or brand image of the university, associated feedback of students, overall details of the faculty, total cost of the course as well as fees structure of the targeted university (Zhang, Liu & Gao, 2019). In subsequent terms, each of these factors have duly been marked out of a total of 10 thus managing to produce an overall score for each of the universities targeted at large. A detailed analysis of the scores obtained in the form of a matrix made it quite clear for me to undertake admission in Torrens University. While making score it has been taken care that no biasness is there in making score matrix. However, some blind spots were there regarding information of future exposure to students regarding each university. On this note, the scores obtained managed to give me a rough idea or rather indication of the high level of exposure that I am likely to acquire as well as the better-quality knowledge of my preferred area of education following admission into it in comparison to the other alternative universities otherwise available.

Reflect upon the decisions with help of decision-making models

It is the decision-making procedure duly based on multiple criteria that has grown out to be a major part of the study of operation in order to support performance standards of decision-makers like us. In this regard, it has been a largely observed fact that students belonging to Torrens University in Australia manage to acquire heights from job opportunities coming from some of the popular brands of the world thus enjoying admittance to technology that seems to be cutting-edge through ages. Besides this, a number of graduates often seem to secure placement with organisations they have already been associated with at time of learning through the counselling department of the university concerned mainly to enhance opportunities to socialise. Such decision-making measures thus has contributed to shift the entire academic procedure into the one driven by data through implementation of appropriate statistical techniques for analysis (Azizan et al. 2017).

For instance, from the university point of view, a number of factors hold responsibility at the time of selecting students for their desired course and handle the international based students. This often involves consideration of a number of variables such as ability to pay the course fees, grades obtained, parental support, level of seriousness and dedication of the students concerned. Similar to the way students usually select their desired colleges, application of sufficient statistical techniques upon the estimated values of the factors taken into consideration is likely to enable management of the college concerned to come to certain decisions. This involves improvisation of its performance criteria as well as the related scope and making amendments in fee or course structure as per necessity.

The three major models that have been considered in order to determine the best possible solution and the Torrens University to obtain its desired outcome are as follows:

Market examination Model

This particular model plays a vital role with regard to conducting a wide range of market research prior to actual application of e-marketing measures (Sharma et al. 2019). In this regard, universities are observed to utilise various e-marketing techniques guided by the sole motive of promoting their business operations through providing awareness of the services offered on its end all around the globe. Such detailed research work is largely a proactive means helpful in undertaking expected decisions such as the kind of students who would be joining the specific universities. In the current context, the adopted market research within Australia has been based upon 12 universities who have initiated research on various students and gathered sufficient data in order to arrive at finalised decisions. Adherence to such analytical measures automatically contributes to optimal management of time, upgradation of branding of the university thus streamlining the entire procedure from beforehand (Marchau et al. 2019).

Such an initiation of market examination strategy on part of the universities to understand needs of the students involved on one hand and students determining the best possible universities for them on the other initiates determination of the best one irrespective of the fact that this is associated with a number of geographical challenges and is time consuming by nature. Thus, such an in-depth analysis of the market has enabled me to come up with the solution that Torrens University is the best choice for me.

Rational decision-making Model

This particular model as portrayed in Appendix 1 often takes into regard a number of associated limitations and objectives. This holds applicable at times when some employee accepts a new job offer in a different country (Amani & Kim, 2018). The prime issue on this note might involve the problem of commuting to office thus creating a need to avail public transport options or purchase a new car. This might also involve consideration of some other factors such as understanding the budget available, identification of preferred model or brand. Consideration of some other alternative options such as public transport or car sharing backed by implementation of statistical measures might lead to undertaking rational decisions.

The rational decision-making model for this particular case of selection of university is discussed as follows:
Identification of existing problem: Out of all the universities operating in Australia, identify the university best applicable for further studies and place judgement whether Torrens University is a suitable one or not.
Establishment of decision criteria: Taking universities that provide adequate exposure to students and possess sufficient facilities into consideration.

Weighing of decision criteria: Understand whether the students considered are likely to avail suitable teaching options as well as exposure to proper managerial faculty.

Finding out alternatives: A detailed analysis of all major alternatives available in hand such as scope of placement, kind of course or faculty offered and course fee structure.

Evaluation of available alternatives: Following in-depth consideration of all alternate options available, formulation of personalised mean score of all available universities on basis of selected criteria.
Selection of the best one: Finally, announcing the university that fulfilled all the focused criteria as the best one.

Intuitive decision-making Model

The intuitive decision-making model involves adoption of really quick actions based on available correct information (Abubakar et al. 2019). Such a model is more or less structured by nature and largely chooses a further subjective viewpoint. This involves consideration of the very pattern backed by salience and recognition.

Themes taken into consideration in decision-making procedure

Counselling of international students is largely regarded as a complex one as it includes individuals belonging to varied mind-set, emotions and background (Aminudin et al. 2018). As per demonstration in Appendix 2, the model in this particular case mainly initiated decisions as well as ethics mainly based upon decisions. The solution that successfully fits all major criteria of the students as mentioned within the data analysis part has duly been considered underpinning the blind spots and biasness. This, in turn, enabled me to decide upon the ideal action course and discover the best possible one by adequately following the required steps.

Module 1

This particular module has been a helpful one since it included application of a number of models related to decision-making used within the research work at large.

Module 2

The module helped develop a better understanding of the challenges identified within the study and develop the rational model in turn.

Module 3

This module, in particular, has enabled convey knowledge regarding the need for diversity and challenges associated therewith thus paving the way towards undertaking the right decision at the right time thus fulfilling the motive of selecting the right desired career.

Module 5 and Module 6

Both these modules have contributed to better adoption of data analysis procedures as well as enabling the researcher concerned to maintain adherence with the concept of Auto Intelligence. All these thereby helped formulate the critical path to undertaking a decision about the university to be selected for further study.

Conclusion

From the overall discussion, it can be concluded selecting the university out of the many available in Australia seemed to be a crucial challenge on part of the students. It is the development of the score matrix and adherence to an intuitive decision-making approach that play a crucial role in this regard and identify the best possible one. This, backed by adoption of decision-making models, helped better examine the market and arrive at concrete decisions in turn.
 

Reference List

Abubakar, A. M., Elrehail, H., Alatailat, M. A., & Elçi, A. (2019). Knowledge management, decision-making style and organizational performance. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 4(2), 104-114. Retrieved from: https://sci-hub.se/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2444569X17300562

Amani, M., & Kim, M. M. (2018). Study abroad participation at community colleges: Students’ decision and influential factors. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 42(10), 678-692. Retrieved from: https://sci-hub.se/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10668926.2017.1352544

Aminudin, N., Huda, M., Kilani, A., Embong, W. H. W., Mohamed, A. M., Basiron, B., ... & Triono, A. (2018). Higher education selection using simple additive weighting. International Journal of Engineering and Technology (UAE), 7(2.27), 211-217. Retrieved from: https://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/84795/1/MiftachulHuda2018_HigherEducationSelectionUsingSimple.pdf

Azizan, F. L., Ahmad, N. A., Rahim, N. F., Daud, R., Samani, M. C., Zailani, M. A., ... & Kamal, A. A. (2017). Factors that Influence Program Selection and Its Relationship with Students’ Achievement in Pre-University Study. Asian Social Science, 13(9). Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mohamad-Fhaizal-Mohamad-Bukhori-2/publication/319527678_Factors_that_Influence_Program_Selection_and_Its_Relationship_with_Students%27_Achievement_in_Pre-University_Study/links/59b11573a6fdcc3f888dcedc/Factors-that-Influence-Program-Selection-and-Its-Relationship-with-Students-Achievement-in-Pre-University-Study.pdf

Marchau, V. A., Walker, W. E., Bloemen, P. J., & Popper, S. W. (2019). Decision making under deep uncertainty: from theory to practice (p. 405). Springer Nature. Retrieved from: https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/22900/1007261.pdf?sequence=1

Sharma, P. N., Shmueli, G., Sarstedt, M., Danks, N., & Ray, S. (2019). Prediction?oriented model selection in partial least squares path modeling. Decision Sciences. Retrieved from: https://sci-hub.se/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/deci.12329

Su, J., & Chang, A. (2018). Factors affecting college students’ brand loyalty toward fast fashion. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management. Retrieved from: https://sci-hub.se/https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJRDM-01-2016-0015/full/html

Zhang, P., Liu, G., & Gao, W. (2019). Distinguishing two types of labels for multi-label feature selection. Pattern Recognition, 95, 72-82. Retrieved from: https://sci-hub.se/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031320319302353