Learning and Thinking in Organizations (313-0-20)
Instructors
Peter David Meyerhoff
Meeting Info
Annenberg Hall 345: Mon, Wed 3:30PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
Learning & Thinking in Organizations explores human judgment and decisionmaking under conditions of uncertainty. You will learn to recognize recurring patterns in your own cognition and that of the people around you, and examine the ways those tendencies can lead people to better or worse courses of action. The class opens with a focus on the work of two research psychologists, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, who developed an important framework for understanding how people reach conclusions and make decisions. Their work shaped, in part, the foundations of the field of behavioral economics.
As we move through the quarter, we will draw on this framework to analyze human judgment and organizational decisionmaking in medicine, public health, criminal justice, sports, and social media. We will investigate ways to use insights from research to improve the functioning of organizations, with a goal of making life better for the people that work in them and the people they serve. Importantly, we will also consider the limitations of the cognitivist perspectives of Tversky and Kahneman and will explore embodied and extended views of the mind developed by modern-day researchers.
In the final project, working either independently or in a group, you will research an organizational phenomenon and develop a design for change using the theoretical perspectives from the course. Grading is based on quizzes, a midterm, and a final project.
The course takes place during the late stages of a global pandemic, during a period of significant social and cultural conflict in the United States and increasing geopolitical instability. Students are strongly encouraged to use the analytic perspectives from the class to investigate questions of interest to them throughout the class and on the final project.
Class Attributes
Attendance at 1st class mandatory