MGMT3102 Chap.10 Stakeholder Decisions and Trade-offs
Stakeholder Decisions and Trade-offs
From Week 7 the course becomes the K-Tai simulation, in which teams act as senior ethics and responsibility officers choosing among set options across five simulated years.
This chapter explains the scoring rules, including the double weight given to organisational stakeholders, and the Stakeholder Decision Framework's five questions for each decision: the issue, the key stakeholders, the option that creates the most value, the risks and trade-offs, and the choice with its justification.
It works one invented supply chain decision through the framework with scores, then sets out what the two group briefings and the individual reflection reward.
The common thread is that a defended choice with its costs named beats an option presented as costless, in the simulation and in the exam.
What this chapter covers
- 01
The K-Tai role and five simulated years
- 02
Scoring: benefit, harm and double-weighted organisational stakeholders
- 03
Five questions of the Stakeholder Decision Framework
- 04
Comparing options and naming trade-offs
- 05
The decision log
- 06
What the briefings and reflection reward
Worked example · free
Scoring three responses to unsafe supplier dormitories
- +1Option A. Employees 0 (counted twice, still 0), supplier workers -1 because they lose income, customers +1, investors 0: total 0.
- +1Option B. Employees +1 counted twice gives +2, supplier workers +1, customers +1, investors -1 for the cost: total +3.
- +1Option C. Employees -1 counted twice gives -2, supplier workers -1, customers -1, investors +1 for the saving: total -3.
- +1Read the totals with judgement. B leads, and without the double weight it would still lead at +2 against 0 and -2, so the ranking does not depend on the weighting.
- +1Recommend. Option B, managing its cost by sharing repairs with the supplier over time and reporting the audit result.
Key terms
- Stakeholder Decision Framework
- The five-question tool used in the simulation to identify the issue, the key stakeholders, the most valuable option, its risks and the final choice.
- Stakeholder score
- The simulation's running measure of how decisions benefit or harm its stakeholder groups, starting from 900.
- Decision log
- A team's record of each decision's issue, stakeholders, chosen option, value created and trade-offs, kept during seminars.
- Organisational stakeholders
- Employees, executives and directors, whom the simulation weights twice as heavily as other groups.
- Trade-off
- A cost or loss accepted by some stakeholders, or in some period, in exchange for value elsewhere.
Stakeholder Decisions and Trade-offs FAQ
Is there a correct answer to each simulation decision?
The instructions say the aim is less about picking a right answer than about practising analysing relationships, weighing interests, recognising trade-offs and justifying choices. The stakeholder score shows consequences, but the seminar stresses that good or poor reasoning cannot be read from the score alone.
How does the simulation score decisions?
K-Tai has 15 stakeholder groups and starts from a stakeholder score of 900. Each decision can benefit, harm or leave unchanged several groups, raising or lowering the score accordingly, and organisational stakeholders, meaning employees, executives and directors, count twice. Effects accumulate across decisions and years.
What should a decision briefing contain?
Each 500-word briefing focuses on one significant decision and explains the issue, the key stakeholders, the value the chosen option creates, protects or restores, the risks and trade-offs considered, and why the option beat the alternatives. Describing what the team chose without justifying it scores poorly.
How is the individual reflection assessed?
The 1,000-word reflection is weighted on preparation and engagement 25%, critical reflection 25%, application of concepts and research 25%, change in attitude or behaviour 15%, and communication 10%. It should analyse at least one specific simulation decision or outcome using course concepts and research.
How do the simulation weights affect what counts as a good decision?
Because organisational stakeholders count twice, options that protect employees, executives and directors move the score more than options of the same size that help customers or communities. A good briefing notices this and argues on stakeholder value as well as on points, saying when the weighting and the ethical judgement point in different directions.
Exam move
Turn your decision log into exam material. For three decisions, write the five framework answers in two sentences each, including the strongest rejected option. Then practise scoring an invented decision with a small matrix to check your reasoning, but always write the justification in words, because the exam, like the briefings, rewards the argument rather than the arithmetic.
Practise saying when you would choose an option the score does not favour.
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