- Docente: Giovanni Masino
- Language: English
- Teaching Mode: In-person learning (entirely or partially)
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Innovation and Organization of Culture and the Arts (cod. 0902)
Learning outcomes
The main goal of the course is to educate students about people’s decisions and behavior, with a specific focus on groups and organizational settings, and to illustrate how to perform a basic organizational analyis. At the end of the course students will be able to better understand some of organizational and behavioral dynamics at micro and meso level, and to evaluate the quality of decision making in organizations.
Course contents
The course will cover a number of topics related to human decision making, group dynamics and organizational analysis. Concepts and ideas from behavioral economics, social psychology, organization studies and cognitive sciences will be combined in order to provide a general overview of the thems. Specifics topics will include:
- classic rational model: advantages and problems for the understanding of human behavior
- bounded rationality, uncertainty and ambiguity
- heuristics and biases
- incentives and motivation
- social influence
- group decision making: processes, pathologies and leadership
- organizational analysis: relationship between context, goals, coordination mechanisms
Readings/Bibliography
The following is not a list of mandatory readings, but a general list of useful references, provided as additional meterials for student interested in extending their knowledge beyond what specifically discussed in class. More specifc teaching materials (slides, exercises, required readings etc.) will be provided during the course.
Gigerenzer, G., P. M. Todd, and T. A. R. Group. Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999
Gilovich, T. How We Know What Isn’t So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life. New York: Free Press, 1991.
Gneezy, U., and A. Rustichini. “A Fine Is a Price.” Journal of Legal Studies 29 (2000): 1–17.
Kahneman, D. Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.
Kahneman, D., and A. Tversky. “Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk.” Econometrica 47 (1979): 263–291.
Kirby, K. N., and R. J. Herrnstein. “Preference Reversals Due to Myopic Discounting of Delayed Reward.” Psychological Science 6 (1995): 83–89.
Pink, D. H., “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us”, Riverhead Books, 2011
Simon, H. A. Models of Man: Social and Rational. New York: Wiley, 1957.
Thaler, R. H., and C. R. Sunstein. Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008.
Tversky, A., and C. R. Fox. “Weighing Risk and Uncertainty.” Psychological Review 102 (1995): 269–283.
Tversky, A., and D. Kahneman. “Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases.” Science 185 (1974): 1124–1131.
Tversky, A., and D. Kahneman. “The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice.” Science 211 (1981): 453–458.
Teaching methods
The course will be strongly based on real world examples, cases and short exercises. Some short videos will also be used in order to illustrate some classic experiments and phenomena. Also, students will be encouraged to discuss how the topics covered during the course may be relevant for their specific interests and experiences.
Assessment methods
Written exam with a combination of multiple choice questions and open ended questions.
Office hours
See the website of Giovanni Masino