DECISION-MAKING BIASES AND PITFALLS
Read the following chapter about the intercultural application of diversity and inclusion, watch the short
video on the advantages of cultural diversity, and then complete the SLP assignment.
Ferdman, B. M., & Deane, B. R. (2014). Chapter 5: Intercultural competence: Vital
perspectives for diversity and inclusion. In Diversity at work: The practice of inclusion.
[Books24x7 version]. Available in the Trident Online Library.
Meyer, E. (2016). The advantages of cultural diversity [Video]. [Books24x7 version]. Available in the Trident
Online Library.
We’ve all had experiences where we have been frustrated by a decision that our supervisor made. You have
probably blamed this decision on your boss being “closed-minded,” “stubborn,” or “pigheaded.” But after
reading the background materials you should be able to more precisely examine and define the precise
decision-making biases or pitfalls that your supervisor made.
For this assignment, think of three bad decisions that your current or past supervisors made. For each
decision, explain what bias discussed in the background materials likely led to this bad decision. You must use
biases specifically discussed in Bolland and Fletcher (2012); Kourdi (2003); or Hammond, Keeney, and Raiffa
(2008). For each of the three decisions, include:
A) A brief description of the decision and why you think it was a bad one
B) What kind of bias you think lead to this decision, and why
C) A reference to one of the background readings from this module
Finally, conclude your paper with a discussion about which of the three readings from the background materials
would be most useful for your supervisor to read in order to help make better decisions and avoid biases.
Explain why you think this reading would be more useful than the other two readings.
The paper should be 2–3 pages in length.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all steps listed in the instructions.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to
summarizing general background materials.
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials page. Rely primarily on the required background
readings as your sources of information.
Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic
Paper, including pages 13 and 14 on in-text citations.