8607-516 Analysing and Interpreting Statistics to Inform Management Decisions

Unit Overview

8607-516 Analysing and Interpreting Statistics to Inform Management Decisions is a unit within the ILM Level 5 qualification in Leadership and management that focuses on improving decision-making by including statistics. Management decisions are critical in setting p approaches and practices that are implemented within the workplace. As such, it is critical for leaders to ensure that these decisions are made based on existing evidence and statistics. Evidence-based practice, which is a contemporary approach to handling management decisions, uses such data and evidence to ensure effective and efficient decisions are made within the workplace.

The leaders must be able to collect, analyse and interpret data in the form of statistics in different areas that inform their decision. Within the organisation, all leaders must be able to handle these statistics effectively to ensure that they positively influence their areas of operations with effective decision-making. 8607-516 Analysing and Interpreting Statistics to Inform Management Decisions is, therefore, a critical unit that helps to build this ability.

The main purpose and aim of the unit is to develop an understanding and ability within the leaders to carry out and use statistical analysis to inform their management decisions. Middle managers and other leaders must be able to accomplish these tasks before making decisions to ensure that they are supported by data. The unit is, therefore, important in different areas of operation and responsibility within the workplace. The unit is taught in 10 hours of guided learning and contributes 2 credit values towards the completion of ILM Level 5 qualification in leadership and management.

Suitability of the Unit

Different leaders and stakeholders face situations where they must make effective choices and decisions. These decisions have a significant implication on the policies, procedures and practices within the workplace and hence impact the organisational performance. It is important for leaders to ensure that in the process of making such decisions, they make critical consideration of existing information and statistics on the issue that they are covering. Management decisions are made at different levels of the organisation, including the strategic level, operational level and tactical level.

As such, there are a large number of stakeholders involved in making decisions in their areas of responsibility, making 8607-516 Analysing and Interpreting Statistics to Inform Management Decisions is a suitable unit for all leaders within the workplace. It helps to build both the knowledge and skills that are required in handling information that is informed of statistics and implementing it within their areas of responsibility.8607-516 Analysing and Interpreting Statistics to Inform Management Decisions is a unit that is designed to suit the learning needs of middle managers.

These are managers with the responsibility of overseeing the tactical level of decisions making. The unit provides them with the understanding of principles and approaches that they can use to effectively make choices within their areas of responsibility that contribute towards the success of their units, lines or departments. However, the unit is also applicable to other stakeholders, including executive management, who make strategic decisions, and the junior managers, who make operational decisions. The unit can also be useful to the employees since it provides them with the necessary information that they can use in their areas of operation as well as prepare them for leadership duties and responsibilities.

Learning Outcomes

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

• Collet and organise relevant data when dealing with a complex workplace problem that is experienced within a period of time, using time series or index numbers

• Apply a statistical tool to test possible relationships within the data and determine the nature of the relationship

• Use the results that have been collected from the statistical analysis to recommend and promote change to planned activities in their areas of responsibility or the organisation in general

• Based on the statistical analysis, implement the changes within the ri areas of responsibility to achieve the desired goals and objectives in solving the complex workplace problem

Key Learning Areas

8607-516 Analysing and Interpreting Statistics to Inform Management Decisions is a unit that aims at improving the understanding of the use of statistical information in backing management decisions. It covers critical areas of understanding statistical analysis of data and implementing the outcomes within the workplace. The key areas of focus include:

Statistical Analysis

This area of learning helps to create the basic foundation for statistical analysis. It helps the learners in the initial stages of identifying the problem by guiding them to understand problem finding, problem analysis and problem definition. The learner is also introduced to methods of data collection and analysis, such as time series analysis and index numbers. They are guided to identify different approaches that can be sued to test the statistical data collected and identify relationships such as univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis. They are guided to statistical analysis methods such as chi-squared analysis. Lastly, the learners are guided to develop effective statistical process control methods.

Interpretation of Results

This area of learning helps the learners to build ability and skills that they can use to interpret the result of statistical analysis and use it to inform management decisions. In this area, the learner is guided to understand the connection between the result of statistical analysis and decision-making. They are guided to use the statistical analysis to plan and implement t changes within their areas of responsibility or the organisation hence creating effective changes to practices, procedures and activities.

Wrap Up

8607-516 Analysing and Interpreting Statistics to Inform Management Decisions is taught in different methods, including using virtual classrooms, online classes and physical classrooms. After completing this learning activity, the learner is evaluated to determine the completion of learning objectives and goals. The assessment includes written assessment and supervised practice. These approaches are used to determine the mastery of the theoretical concepts that have been taught within the classroom as well as assess the use of these concepts and principles within the classroom setting.