Medical professions associated with time pressured environments, incorporate apprenticeship as part of training. While our understanding of decision making has moved towards examining these environments, how does this knowledge apply to instruction in these contexts? / Specific reasoning strategies identified by Patel are useful in assessing medical instruction. Rasmussen's guidelines and Patel's protocol analytic methods are applied in this thesis to assess two time-pressured environments of a local hospital. In the medical and surgical intensive care unit, resident physician instruction and patient care co-occur withing the context of problem solving and decision making. / Differences between the two environments include a flattened hierarchy of communication, information exchange, and decision making content. Trainees approximated the proportion of directed reasoning strategies used by supervisors. Results are attributed to differences in knowledge-based solution strategy use, and medical domain structure. Implications for design of more guided apprenticeship programs is discussed.

Successfully managing interpersonal relationships requires both pursuing desirable bonds and forgoing those that could be costly. Balancing these goals might be more difficult for some than for others, especially for those with low self-esteem who are motivated to connect, yet stifled by their lack confidence in their abilities to attract desirable dating partners. So, when a potential date’s romantic interest is unambiguous, will they eagerly seize any opportunity to connect, or will the desirability of the person making the request influence their decision? In three laboratory experiments, single, female participants were randomly assigned to receive a romantic overture from an ostensible, single, male who was presented as a desirable or an undesirable dating partner. Independent of whether they accepted or rejected the target’s advances, lower, relative to higher, self-esteem individuals experienced more emotional and cognitive uncertainty and distress before and after making their decision. Desirability of the target moderated some of these effects, such that high self-esteem individuals appropriately distinguished between desirables and undesirables, whereas low self-esteem participants experienced distress at the thought of accepting or rejecting either target. Notably, the actual decisions participants made were unaffected by self-esteem, and driven instead by the extent to which the target was presented as possessing desirable social commodities. Results are discussed with reference to potential mechanisms driving self-esteem differences in balancing the pursuit of quality interpersonal bonds while avoiding costly relations.

Background and Purpose: Dental hygienists are targeted for practice expansion to improve public access to oral health care and, therefore, must demonstrate decision making capacity. This study aimed to identify and test the impact of factors influential in dental hygiene decision making. Organizational and gender factors were hypothesized to be most influential. Methods: A phased mixed methods approach was used. Phase I: A series of focus groups were conducted to inform a dental hygiene decision making model, which included key predictor variables and the outcome variable: decision making capacity. Phase II: Aspects of the model were tested via an electronic questionnaire and key informant interviews. Statistical and qualitative thematic analyses were conducted and then findings were merged for interpretation. Results and Interpretation: Focus groups yielded over 75 codes and 6 themes (+ 1 theme from the literature) comprising the model and guiding the survey. The survey had a 38% response rate, and moderate to weak correlations between predictors and the outcome measure were shown. The final statistical model demonstrated Individual Characteristics and graduating from a 3-year program together significantly predicted decision making capacity. When merged with the key informant qualitative data, Individual Characteristics were shown to be a product of broad environmental factors and educational preparation had a particularly strong influence. Conclusions: Individual characteristics and education are predictive of decision making capacity but are outcomes of broad structural influences. Thus, it is recommended that modifications are made to these structures to support dental hygiene decision making in expanded practice.

Can only a subset of individuals – those higher on the ability to understand the sources of emotions – determine whether to disregard or allow the effects of emotions when making decisions? I test two central predictions. First, I test whether individuals high on emotion understanding ability (EUA), one of the key dimensions of emotional intelligence, are less affected by incidental anxiety when making decisions involving risk than their lower ability counterparts. The rationale for this prediction is that individuals who have high EUA are able to correctly identify their source of anxiety and, based on perceived irrelevance, disregard incidental anxiety when making risky decisions, whereas individuals who have low EUA are confused about the source of anxiety and are more influenced by incidental anxiety when making risky decisions. Second, I test whether individuals high on EUA are more affected by integral anxiety when making risky decisions than their lower ability counterparts. The rationale for this prediction is that individuals who have high EUA are able to correctly identify their source of anxiety and, based on perceived relevance, use their integral anxiety to inform their risky decision making whereas those who have low EUA misattribute their anxiety and are less likely to incorporate their integral anxiety into their decision making. In Experiment 1, incidental anxiety reduced risk-taking among individuals with low EUA, but not among their higher ability counterparts. In Experiment 2, the interactive effect of EUA and incidental anxiety on risk-taking was eliminated when I identified the irrelevance of anxiety to the present decision, but it remained when the irrelevance was not identified. To explore the role of EUA in using the adaptive function of emotion in decision making, Experiment 3 assessed whether emotionally intelligent individuals who have high EUA incorporate integral anxiety, as measured by skin conductance responses, into their risk-taking, compared to those with low EUA. Contrary to expectations, the results of Experiment 3 showed that, when EUA was high, there was a negative effect of integral anxiety on risk-taking that was not significant. When EUA was low, there was a significant positive effect of integral anxiety on risk-taking.

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With rapid advance of information technology (IT), computer-based gaming has flourished for decades. Gaming becomes a part of modern culture, especially among emerging digital generations. In addition to the entertaining purpose, attempts are made to use games for serious purpose, such as education and training. With the genuine characteristics that bring enjoyment, engagement, and context, games are considered good tools for business education and training that support or even may substitute the traditional learning methods. However, there is a dearth of research with regards to the comprehensive view of how people can learn business topics through serious games and transfer the value of business games to the work practices. To fill the gap, this dissertation research focuses on the use of serious games in business education and training. In Study I, the two main elements of serious games, namely seriousness and playfulness, and how these elements play roles in game-based learning process, are investigated. From two SEM (Structural Equation Model) analyses of quantitative data from 190 MBA students who have experienced business simulation games, seriousness and playfulness are shown to explain significant parts of the game-based learning process with several antecedents. In addition, Study II investigates the potentially transferrable values of business simulation games to the business practices based on the qualitative data from 43 business professionals who have experienced various business simulation games in their Professional MBA program. The result of analyzing the business professionals arguments in Toulmins framework, various values of serious games in business practice are found. Overall, this dissertation research contributes in providing fundamental insights for future studies regarding the use of serious games in business education and training context. Also, the findings from the research provide implications to the practitioners who consider using serious games in business.

Fishery managers face two problems that are endemic to all renewable resource management: how much of the resource should be extracted, and how should resource users be managed to ensure efficiency and fairness. The predominant fishery management approach addresses these problems through fish stock assessment and resource economics. However, my review of the literature and analysis of the situation in the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve show that both methodologies face serious difficulties: they deal inadequately with uncertainties about the causes of observed behaviour and the likely effects of different policies; they are too focused on readily measurable objectives; and they do not address the effects of the institutional context on management. In Chapter 3, I examine previous applications of Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) with a view to see if they can be applied to fishery management. My analysis shows that until now MCDA has been used to address only the first two sets of fishery management problems: systematically incorporating uncertainty and multiple objectives into policy development. I also argue that existing proposals for the use of Decision Analysis can be classified as variations of one version of MCDA, namely Multiple Stakeholder Decision Analysis (MSDA). The main problems that remain to be resolved relate to the interaction between experts, stakeholders, and managers when there are conflicting interpretations of evidence, and situations of high institutional inertia. In Chapter 4, I examine these problems within the context of ecological management experience and New Institutional Economics. I argue that for complex problems, such as those in the Danube Delta, management that aims to attain narrowly defined optimal fishing yields through command and control measures is unfeasable and undesirable. A more promising approach would seek to strengthen resilience, promote organisational variety, and increase the leverage of stakeholders over those who provide services for them. When one seeks to achieve such a transformation of management, I argue that the intervention needs to take into account the specific institutional circumstances of the client. In Chapter 5, I show how management procedures, problem perception, and strategy development are influenced by organisational structure and the hierarchical position of managers. That is why decision analysis interventions must address both technical as well as institutional needs of clients. In Chapter 6, I discuss Decision Conferencing, an alternative MCDA approach, and argue that it is more suitable for dealing with management problems such as those of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve. Decision Conferences can provide a structure for expert, manager, and stakeholder interaction and can lead to the transformation of social realities. In Chapters 7 and 8, I review the context and concrete environmental and institutional problems that led to the first Decision Conference on an environmental management problem. I report the processes of the Decision Conference, the agreements reached, and anlyse both the short and medium term effects of the intervention. On the basis of that evidence I make claims about the general utility of the approach. The thesis concludes with proposals to improve Decision Conferencing through a framework that provides guidance for context specific process management and helps to ensure that a requisite variety of viewpoints are incorporated into management strategy development.