Objectives
The goals of the course are:
– to provide a basic background of Behavioral Operations
– to explore the role of human behavior in the use of algorithms

Course description
Behavioral Operations Management focuses on how human behavior affects operations management decision making and, in turn, how operations management decisions affect human behavior. Most operations management models rely on simplistic assumptions when it comes to human behavior. These simplistic assumptions limit the applicability of these models. This is especially the case in quantitative decision models, heuristics, and algorithms. Examples are scheduling algorithms, forecasting models, and inventory models. These algorithms and models usually do not consider behavioral factors that play a role in decision making such as motivation, trust, cognitive limitations, and psychological ownership. This limits usability, usefulness, and acceptance of models in practice, as shown by recent literature on Algorithm Aversion. In the course we analyze these factors and how their effects can be mitigated by incorporating behavioral factors in the design of quantitative models and algorithms.

Please find more details on this course in the course description below.

Lecturers: Dr. Wout van Wezel & Dr. Paul Buijs (University of Groningen)

Course dates: 9 & 23 September 2020

Time: 10.00 -16.00 h.

Location:  Utrecht

Room: t.b.a.

ECTS: 0.5 (attendance) – 2 (attendance + assignment)

Participation: free for TRAIL/Beta/OML members and PhD students of participating faculties

Registration: via the GP-OML website – click here

GP-OML Capita Selecta Behavioural Operations Management – Fall 2020

This course is part of the GP-OML program (www.GPOML.nl)