8605-414 Data Collection and Analysis to Justify Management Decision Making

Unit Overview

8605-414 Data Collection and Analysis to Justify Management Decision Making is a unit within the ILM Level 4 module that focuses on understanding the role that data collection and analysis have in influencing decision-making within the organisation. Modern organisations need to be managed using evidence-based practice. This is a form of practice that is supported by existing data and statistics that support the process of management and decisions making.

As such, it is significantly important that the leaders within the organisation understand the different approaches that can be used to gather and analyse information to support their decision-making. This unit ensures that the managers have the necessary skills and information that are required to make critical decisions concerning different aspects of managing their organisations. Managers further need to ensure that they give a justification of decisions that they have made and the rationale that they have used to make the decisions using effective data backing and support.

The main aim of 8605-414 Data Collection and Analysis to Justify Management Decision Making is to help build the understanding and the ability to effectively gather, analyse and present data that backs decision-making as required of middle managers, both practising and potential. This unit is one of the main ones that is used to develop the understanding of practising and potential middle managers on their roles within the organisation and in their specific areas of responsibility where they are required to effectively use existing data to support managerial practices. The unit is taught in 10 hours of guided learning and contributes 3 credit values to the overall completion of the ILM Level 4 Module.

Suitability of the Unit

All managers within the organisation must have the ability to analyse and use existing information to make important decisions. This provides the basis for the implementation of evidence-based practice, which has proved to be effective in supporting the pursuit of the organisation to make decisions that support organisational goals ad objectives. The unit is therefore important for managers tasked with duties of making decisions at different levels of leadership, which include the tactical, operational and strategic levels of decisions making.

The unit is designed to suit the needs of middle managers. These are managers responsible for making tactical decisions for the organisation in their areas of responsibility. Line managers, departmental heads and regional managers are provided with the necessary skills and knowledge that they can use to improve the efficiency of their decisions making by the use of different methods of collecting, analysing and utilising the data that is the exposal of the organisation to ensure they improve their contribution to the organisations and ability to support the decisions they make in achieving different goals and objectives within the organisations. The unit, however, is not limited to the middle-level managers within the organisation.

The executive management has a huge task of making strategic decisions for the organisations. This strategic decision must be backed by data to ensure that they are able to effectively forecast changes within the industry that could influence the organisation by affecting the ability to achieve the desired levels of performance in future. The first-line managers and team leaders have the responsibility of making decisions on the operational level, which needs to be backed by sufficient data. 8605-414 Data Collection and Analysis to Justify Management Decision Making is, therefore, a versatile that can be used to improve the ability of different leaders to make decisions as well as prepare those in lower levels of leadership for future responsibilities as middle-level managers.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the unit, the learners should be able to:

• Show understanding of the different sources of data and methods of data collection that can be used in different contexts within their areas of operation

• Gather data from different sources on organisation issues hence ensuring they maximise available sources and opportunities to acquire information

• Analyse the data using different methods of data analysis to identify patterns and anomalies that can support decision-making in their areas of responsibility

• Present, using both visual and diagrammatic methods, the data that is analysed in a suitable form that meets the needs of the intended audience

• Provide rationale for making decisions by using data analysis to support management decisions made within their areas of operation

• Evaluate the efficiency of data collection and analysis methods selected in supporting the managerial roles, including decision making

Key Areas of Learning

8605-414 Data Collection and Analysis to Justify Management Decision Making is a unit that helps to build the awareness of the middle levels managers on the role that data play in supporting their ability to effectively fulfil their responsibilities. The unit therefore focuses on areas of learning that build an appreciation of the role of data and builds the ability to gather, analyse, and present data. Some of the main learning areas within the unit include:

Data Collection, Analysis and Presentation

This area of learning provide the learners with the ability to build their knowledge and skills on different approaches that they can employ within the organisation to achieve the desired performance in terms of collecting and handling data to support managerial roles, mainly decisions making.

The learners are guided to appreciate methods of data collection for both primary and secondary data and the tools that they can use to collect data from participants or the market. They are also made to appreciate methods of data validation that ensure the data qualifies to supports managerial decision-making. In this area of learning, the learners are helped to develop effective diagrammatic and visual representations of data using spreadsheets and graphical representations, as well as presenting data in tables and studying characteristics of the data.

Data Analysis and Decision Making

This area of learning helps to create awareness of the role that data plays in making organisational decisions. The learners are taken through t eh different models and techniques of decision-making, helping them to appreciate the role that data can play in the various model. They are also guided to use data in their presentations to stakeholders and other audiences to support their decision-making.

Evaluation

On completing the unit, the learners are required to complete a 3000-word assessment. This assessment evaluates the efficiency of the process of learning across the unit and the mastery of content taught within the unit.