Investigating the factors affecting decision-making within teams in dynamic organisational contexts

Main Supervisor: Dr Neal Hinvest, Department of Psychology, University of Bath
Industry Co-Supervisor: Dr. Boris Altemeyer, Cognisess Ltd

The project will investigate factors affecting the decision-making of individuals actors in an organisational context in the private sector. Fast paced start-up companies require staff to make independent and team-based decisions affecting company performance (revenues). In an environment of high stress, both the decision-making process and the results of decisions made can illicit stress on both a cognitive and emotional level. The project will investigate the link between individual character traits, emotional and cognitive quotient and decision-making ability under stress. The study will incorporate an investigation of the impact of team dynamic on an individual’s decision-making ability, and the context in which a decision is made. The objective is to develop new insights into the linkages between individual personality, team context and decision-making effectiveness. The results of the study will inform the design and validation of novel, gamified cognitive assessments to be developed and commercialised by Cognisess Ltd.

Cognisess will be able to make anonymised datasets available to the PhD student for research purposes, and obtain access for client interviews as part of the proposed research data collection phase.

Cognisess are a private sector SME specialising in people analytics, with an in-house research team of psychologists and data scientists. Cognisess’ proprietary web-platform, Cognisess Pro, hosts 52 gamified assessments, verified against CANTAB, that test and measure 150 attributes relating to cognitive and emotional traits. Cognisess are based in Bath employing 30 people. They have previously engaged with the University of Bath’s School of Management, deploying the Cognisess platform for an innovation assessment as part of the MBA programme.

Dr. Neal Hinvest is a Lecturer in Behavioural Economics within the Department of Psychology. Dr Hinvest has expertise in integrating psychology into economics models of risk and decision-making and is Director for the MSc Applied Psychology and Economic Behaviour. Dr. Boris Altemeyer is the Chief Science Office and Head of Research and Development at Cognisess Ltd. He obtained a PhD in Psychology from the University of Westminster.

Application Criteria:

Applicants for a studentship must have obtained, as a minimum, a First or Upper Second Class UK Honours degree, or the equivalent qualifications gained outside the UK, in a psychology-related topic. A Masters degree is also preferred, in a psychology-related topic.

Please ensure you clearly quote the project title in the personal statement section of the online application form when applying.

Anticipated start date: September 2020