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CMGT 507: Information Management

Spring 2009 Tuesday

Course Syllabus (revised Jan 13, 2009)

Instructor: Ben Lee

Office:ASC 221

Office hours:MWTh 2:30-4:30 pm

best by appointment

Email:

Mobile: (626) 221-7833

Check your email linked to Blackboard regularly. The instructor will regularly send emails about class agenda and logistical arrangements through Blackboard.

Course Description and Objectives

In our personal and professional lives, we often need to think and act when the environment is complex and turbulent, the information uncertain, and meaning ambiguous. Such conditions make us vulnerable to poor outcomes. These outcomes may be spectacular: many remember how the space shuttle Challenger exploded in flight. Other consequences are less dramatic, but no less hurtful to the affected: think about a 65-year old who can no longer earn an income but ha neglected to save and invest for retirement.

The purpose of this course is to help you build a foundation for thinking and acting well. After taking this course, the instructor hopes that you do not contribute to the equivalent of blowing up a space shuttle, or become destitute when you or the people you serve cannot earn an income.

To that end, the course aims to develop an understanding about

  • the prescribed rational approaches to processing information when making decisions;
  • the ways people systematically deviate from rationality by relying on heuristics and by being burdened with cognitive biases;
  • the ways to avoid the most egregious irrational errors;
  • the underlying mathematics surrounding risk taking;
  • the ways in which information environments in organizational contexts can become much more complex and turbulent, and the ways in which such conditions can overwhelm people;
  • the distinction between uncertain organizational situations (when having more information is useful) and equivocal situations (when having more information is not useful).
  • the ways in which people can make sense of confusing organizational environments, and build resilience to act well in face of informational challenges.

Course Materials

Required materials

  • Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions (abbreviated as SC), by John S. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeney, and Howard Raiffa (1999, Harvard Business School Press).
  • Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes, and How to Correct Them: Lessons from the New Science of Behavioral Economics (abbreviated as WSPMBMM), by Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich (1999, Simon & Schuster).
  • Fortune’s Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System that Beat the Casinos and Wall Street (abbreviated as FF), by William Poundstone (2005, Hill and Wang).
  • How to Lie with Statistics (abbreviated as HLS), by Darrell Huff (1993, W. W. Norton).
  • A Primer on Decision Making: How Decisions Happen (abbreviated as PDM), by James G. March (1994, The Free Press).
  • Information and Organizations (abbreviated as IO), by Arthur L. Stinchcombe (1990, University of California Press).
  • Managing the Unexpected: Resilient Performance in an Age of Uncertainty (2nd edition) (abbreviated as MU), by Karl E. Weick and Kathleen M. Sutcliffe (2007, John Wiley).
  • Knowledge Management (abbreviated as KM), by Carl Frappaolo (2006, Capstone Publishing).
  • Various supplementary materials, including simulation materials.

Writing

  • Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th edition) (abbreviated as APA), by the American Psychological Association (2001).

or

The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers (15th edition) (abbreviated as CMS), by The University of Chicago Press.

  • The Art & Craft of Case Writing (2nd edition) (abbreviated as ACCW), by William Naumes and Margaret J. Naumes (2006, M. E. Sharpe).

Recommended materials

  • Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, by Peter L. Bernstein (1996, John Wiley).
  • The Nature of Risk: Stock Market Survival and the Meaning of Life, by Justin Mamis (1991, Addison-Wesley).
  • Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies, by Charles Perrow (1984, Basic Books).
  • The Art of Decision Making: Mirrors of Imagination, Masks of Fate, by Helga Drummond (2001, John Wiley).
  • Sensemaking, by Karl E. Weick (1995, SAGE Publications).

Cases

  • Friendly Fire: The Accidental Shootdown of U.S. Black Hawks over Northern Iraq, by Scott A. Snook (2000, Princeton University Press).
  • Decision for Disaster: Betrayal at the Bay of Pigs, by Grayston L. Lynch (1998, Brassey’s).
  • The Bhopal Tragedy: What Really Happened and What It Means for American Workers and Communities at Risk, by Ward Morehouse and M. Arun Subramaniam (1986, Council on International and Public Affairs).
  • Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster, by Jon Krakauer (1997, Villard Books).
  • Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story (on Enron), by Kurt Eichenwald (2005, Broadway Books).
  • All That Glitters: The Fall of Barings, by John Gapper and Nicholas Denton (1996, Hamish Hamilton).
  • When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long Term Capital Management, by Roger Lowenstein (2000, Random House).
  • Panic! The Story of Modern Financial Insanity, by Michael Lewis (ed., 2008, W. W. Norton).
  • Financial Shock: A 360o Look at the Subprime Mortgage Implosion and How to Avoid the Next Financial Crisis, by Mark Zandi (2008, FT Press).
  • The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream, by Jacob S. Hacker (2008, Oxford University Press).
  • The Complete Turtle Trader: The Legend, the Lessons, the Results, by Michael W. Covel (2007, Collins).
  • The Index Investor (
  • You Can Be a Stock Market Genius: Uncovering the Secret Hiding Places of Stock Market Profits, by Joel Greenblatt (1999, Fireside).
  • Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond, by Bruce C. N. Greenwald, Judd Kahn, Paul D. Sonkin, and Michael van Biema (2001, Wiley Finance).
  • Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles Munger, edited by Peter D. Kaufman (various editions, PCA Publication).
  • Various message boards devoted to a particular approach to financial markets (e.g. the Berkshire Hathway board on the Motley Fool:

Writing and presentation

  • They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Persuasive Writing, by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein (2007, W. W. Norton).
  • Writer’s Reference (with Extra Help for ESL Writers) (6th edition), by Diana Hacker (2007, Bedford / St. Martin’s).
  • USC Writing Center,
  • Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, by Garr Reynolds (2008, New Riders).

Evaluation of Performance

Course project and presentation 48% (For teams: 40% + 8% peer evaluation)

Decision-action analysis and critique20%

Reflections on simulation exercise07%

Leading discussions15%

Participation in class 10%

Grading Practice and Philosophy

This course uses the following grading scheme:

A 95% or higher

A- 90%-94%

B+ 87%-89%

B 83%-86%

B- 80%-82%

C 70%-79%

F 69% or lower

To get a better sense of what these numbers mean, consider these scenarios.

You are a professional engaged by your client to deliver a service wrapped in the form of a project. The project earns a B+ to A- grade, if you delivered the service competently, on time, within budget, and with adequate quality. Your client is reasonably pleased, and you are on her short list of people to call for the next job.

To earn an A for the project means the equivalent of impressing your client, outperforming her expectations. For example, you manage to deliver on time and with quality even when the job scope and demands unexpectedly expand under unreasonable deadlines. This earns you the equivalent of being called first when your client has another job, or being asked to join the client’s firm.

On the other side of the spectrum, a C represents a minimally acceptable result, often delivered grudgingly. An example of a C experience is this: You are at a local franchise restaurant ordering breakfast to go for your colleagues. The service staff packs your order, and moves on to the next customer. You check the bag, and realize that the receipt is missing. You ask for the receipt because you want to be able show your colleagues what their order costs. However, the service staff says, “No, I can't give you a receipt because the order is closed.” You ask to talk to a supervisor. The supervisor comes to the counter. The staff and the supervisor then speak to each other in a non-English language, saying essentially, “What's her problem? Why the eff does she want a receipt for?” You understand perfectly the non-English language, and you say to them, “I need the receipt to show my colleagues, to collect money from them. So give me my effing receipt.” The supervisor reopens the order, and gives you a receipt, making a tremendously displeased face the whole time. So, in this scenario, you got your food and your receipt, so the restaurant staff delivered, but the quality of your experience is poor. The restaurant in this scenario earns no better than a C.

More in terms of your performance in this course, an example of earning a C would be turning in a 12-page report when report asks for 20 pages, or otherwise failing to fulfill in the paper required criteria.

At end of the poor outcome spectrum, an F grade represents failure. This may occur when a student fails to attend more than four classes, or fails to turn in assignments, or does something remarkably bad, such as committing plagiarism.

Delivery of Assignments

The following are important administrative issues about delivery of assignments:

First, all written assignments must be emailed as attachments to the instructor.

Second, all documents should be in Microsoft Word .doc format. If you are using Microsoft Office 2007 (with the .docx format), please convert documents to the .doc format. Documents are to be double-spaced with 1-inch margins, in Times Roman 12 point font.

Third, delivering your assignments on time is crucial to your success in this course. Successful delivery means that the assignment must be received (not merely sent) by the deadline. A deadline in a given week is 3:00 pm on the day class is held. For example, an assignment due on Week 5 has a deadline of 3:00 pm on Tuesday February 10, 2009. Missing deadlines incurs significant penalties (e.g., half of the possible score). Any late assignment still has to be completed and delivered, or it may prevent you from completing the course.

Course Project and Presentation

The course project and presentation is the main deliverable. Acceptable topics are numerous.

Topics may focus on a set of organizational decisions and actions that contributed to poor outcomes. Examples include:

  • the fiasco at the Bay of Pigs,
  • the fall of Enron,
  • the past and present crises in the financial sector, such as the collapse of Barings Bank, Long Term Capital Management, Lehman Brothers, and the evolving housing, credit and economic crises.

See the recommended readings for possible cases. For these topics, the primary task is to analyze and understand how and why the failure occurred, in terms of biases exhibited by key individuals, and poor sensemaking by the collective. Another task is to explore how similar outcomes may be avoided in the future.

Other feasible topics may focus on the realm of personal finance. For example, if you are curious about a particular investment philosophy or practice (e.g., value as practiced by Warren Buffett, or momentum based market timing, or diversification across asset classes, etc.), explore more. In your exploration, apply what you are learning to evaluate these philosophies and practices. See the recommended readings for possible starting points.

The primary format and method for the project is the case study. As such, we will rely on the book, The Art & Craft of Case Writing, by Naumes and Naumes (2006) as a guide.

The project and presentation may be an individual or a team effort. Teams should consist of up to three members. Members must agree on project’s topic, and share the grade earned. Before joining teams, this means that individual should choose colleagues carefully, agree on how to march each member’s skills and experience with the appropriate responsibilities, and coordinate everyone’s efforts to succeed. At the same time, your contributions to the team will be evaluated by your peers.

The project’s final deliverables take two forms. The first deliverable is an oral presentation, to be given during the final sessions of the course. Each presentation should last no more than 18 minutes; another 12 minutes will be devoted to discussion. The second deliverable is a written paper or a creative product in another medium (e.g., a video, or a website). A written paper must be at least 20 pages. The length and substance of the content in other medium should be discussed with the instructor. This second deliverable is due 6:00 pm May 5, 2009.

In the interim, there are deliverables to ensure you are making good progress; also there are class sessions devoted to the same. More details will be provided soon.

Decision-Action Analysis and Critique

The assignment requires you to analyze and critique one major decision you made in the past, and one major decision you are making or will make soon. For the past decision, focus on one that did not turn as well as you would like. Describe the options, choice and outcomes. Describe how the information environment was uncertain or ambiguous or otherwise challenging. Reflect on how you might have improved that decision and the subsequent actions. Do the same for the current or upcoming decision. Your analysis and critique must rely on the concepts covered in this course.

Each analysis-critique should be at least 4 pages. The past-decision analysis and critique is due on Week 5. The upcoming-decision analysis is due on Week 10.

Reflection on Simulation Exercise

In this course, we will participate in one or two simulation exercises. These exercises allow us to learn about important concepts in a more experiential and active manner. To anchor this form of learning, after each exercise, each student will reflect on and write about their experiences and lessons. Each paper should be at least 2 pages in length, and is due the week after the simulation exercise.

Leading Discussions

Each student will lead two discussions on the given sessions’ assigned readings. Each discussion should take 15-20 minutes, depending on the number of readings covered. The discussion leader’s responsibilities include:

  • Reading the material thoroughly.
  • Identifying the key ideas to be discussed.
  • Preparing 3-5 open ended questions that will challenge students to think critically about the ideas.

More details are described in the document “Notes on Leading a Discussion.”

Attendance and Punctuality, Participation and Attention in Class

Come to class. If you are not here, the instructor cannot teach, and you cannot learn. At the same time, many of you are working professionals and also have personal lives. So, it is understandable that you may be forced to miss an occasional class. You are therefore allowed one absence without penalty. Thereafter, the second absence lowers your final grade by 2% (i.e., a 91% drops to 89%), the third absence lowers by another 3%, the fourth another 4% (i.e., missing four classes lowers the final grade by 2 + 3 + 4 = 9%). Absences beyond the fourth open the possibility that you may fail the course.

Come to class on time. Being on time is appreciated and is respectful to your instructors and peers. The same principles apply for staying through the session. Being late will cost half of the penalty for absences. The same dis-incentive applies for leaving class early without notifying the instructors.

Come to class prepared to participate. This process is critical to the success of this seminar-format course. To do this well, before class you must read the assigned materials and think about their central ideas, arguments, and evidence. To encourage this, you are required to email the discussion leader (cc’ing the instructor) at least two questions about the assigned readings 24 hours before the specific session. Then during class, contribute to the conversation. Ask relevant and thoughtful questions.

Evaluation of your participation is based on the instructor’s general impressions formed throughout the semester. If you participate consistently and meaningfully, you will earn high scores. If you are silent or otherwise disengaged, you will earn next to nothing.

Note on use of personal laptops during class.

Many of you expect to be able to use your personal laptops in class. Laptops are useful tools, and also distracting devices. We know that with your laptop in front of you, you will tend to IM, email, or watch YouTube videos while the instructors and your peers are trying to engage in the lessons. This is very frustrating. Schools elsewhere (notably USC’s Marshall School of Business) have banned the use of laptops in their classes.

This course would not like to impose such a blanket regulation. Instead, we as a class will operate on principles, and the central principle is mutual respect. The instructor is committed to provide you the best possible learning experience. In return, please extend to us the basic courtesy of paying attention in class.

Academic Integrity

The Annenberg School for Communication is committed to upholding the University’s Academic Integrity code as detailed in the in the SCampus Guide. It is the policy of the School to report all violations of the code. Any serious violation or pattern of violations of the Academic Integrity Code will result in the student’s expulsion from the Communication Management program.