Designing Interventions in Business and Society

Course Objective

Bridging Theory and Practice - knowledge: You will obtain knowledge on the design of interventions aimed at influencing behavior as well as on the ethical aspects when adopting influencing tactics. Moreover you will learn about theoretical basis of human happiness. Bridging Theory and Practice - application: You will make use of theoretical knowledge and concepts with regard to happiness, understanding and influencing human behavior, and apply these to real-world challenges, while focusing on the various stakeholders that are involved (co-workers, other organizations, consumers & citizens). Social Skills: You will work in teams to plan and develop an intervention, which will help you develop many of the “soft skills” that are needed to collaborate with others and achieve challenging goals.

Course Content

This integrative project is the capstone course of the minor “Understanding and Influencing Decisions in Business and Society”. The course evolves around the use of theories, tactics and insights in consumer behavior, nudging, leadership and negotiations to design interventions that ultimately could make people more happy. After a brief introduction in which you get acquainted with some of the methods for designing interventions, you start working on an intervention that addresses one of the real-world challenges that will be selected for this course. In this project, you will touch upon (1) design, (2) implementation, and (3) testing/evaluation phases by the development of an action plan. Because this is an integrative course, your intervention will be a multi-disciplinary project, combining for example the insights on leadership with those on judgment and decision making, or combining nudges with negotiation skills. You will work in teams, and present your interventions, which will be judged on both academic and managerial quality. In the other courses of the minor you have acquired a lot of knowledge on strategies how people can be influenced. As influencing people is surrounded with ethical dillema's we will also give attention to the ethical aspects of such tactics.

Additional Information Teaching Methods

Lectures and small-group tutorials.

Method of Assessment

Team project – group assessment. Individual assessment and peer assessment of group project

Recommended background knowledge

All courses of period 1 & 2 in the minor “Understanding and Influencing Decisions in Business and Society"
- Nudge: Influencing Behavior
- Leadership: Mobilizing People
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Managing Negotiations: Getting to Yes
Well-trained in academic method and thinking (i.e., with an academic bachelor).