Year

2021

Season

Spring

Paper Type

Master's Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Degree Name

Master of Science in Psychological Science (MSPS)

Department

Psychology

NACO controlled Corporate Body

University of North Florida. Department of Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. C. Dominik Guess

Second Advisor

Dr. Juliana Leding

Rights Statement

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Abstract

Current work environments require leaders to make effective and sound decisions in unpredictable situations. How can leaders improve their dynamic decision-making (DDM) skills? The current studies explored the effects of a training program on improving DDM in two computer-simulated tasks with different task characteristics. This study was comprised of two experiments. The first experiment included 83 undergraduate students who independently managed a computer simulated chocolate factory (ChocoFine). The second experiment included 111 students who played the role of a fire rescue chief overseeing a forest fire (WinFire). Half of the participants in each simulation group received a brief training on 15 frequent DDM errors. All the participants were later asked to select the errors they made from an error training sheet. We hypothesized that participants who received the training in DDM errors would show better performance compared to those who did not receive the error training prior to the start of the simulated tasks. Furthermore, we hypothesized that participants in the training condition would report fewer self-reported errors than those in the control, no-training condition. The results showed that the participants in the ChocoFine and WinFire training groups had better performance scores and self-reported fewer errors than the participants in the no-training group. These findings have strong implications for organizations, as they can utilize this error training to prepare future management personnel better for the challenges of novel, complex, dynamic, and uncertain situations.

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