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Essay Instructions: This tutor-marked assignment draws mainly on Chapter 4, Decision-Making in Organizations, in the Decision Making textbook edited by Grame Salaman. It consists of one question and accounts for 10% of the total grade assigned to the course. This assignment will be graded out of 100 marks, and 80% of these marks will be allocated to your answer of the question. The remaining 20% will be distributed equally among the following criteria: presentation of ideas and organization of the answer, adherence to specified word count, proper referencing.

In this TMA, you are expected to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the major assumptions of the rational choice theory and its implications on managerial decision making. In your answer, you are expected to show your critical and analytical skills of the subject matter and to use material from outside the textbook. Your answer should be within the specified range of words, and you must follow the Harvard Style of Referencing. You are expected to present a well structured and organized piece of work that is of your own. Plagiarism will not be tolerated, and plagiarized work will be assigned 0 marks.

Question

The rational choice theory assumes that individuals are rational and normally act as maximizing entrepreneurs. Using an essay format in a maximum of 1200 - 1500 words, discuss this proposition, its implications on managerial decision making and critically demonstrate whether this argument is a valid one.

(Use relevant real-life examples or the literature to support your arguments and analysis).

Essay Instructions: These are the instructions by the professor: Write a library research paper detailing the history and evolution of the theory. You must discuss the primary theorist's contributions to the conceptual development of the theory in the first part and the latter part will detail exactly how the theory has been tested in the emperical literature. The paper will have two headings; The History and Development of Rational Choice Theory, and the second heading will be Emperical Testing of Rational Choice Theory. All pages numbered. 4 books and 2 scholarly journal articles as references. One of the books is the text: Siegel L.J.(2004), Criminology, Theories, Patterns, and Typologies,8th ed. Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota: West Publishing Company.
First part is history and emergence; 2 pages. Second part:what is it 2-3 pages. 3rd part: Testing; Where its been tested. one or more pages. thank you!

Essay Instructions: Reference:
Seigel, L. J. (2010). Criminology: The core (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.

*Respond to this discussion:
Rational Choice Theory claims that criminals make the choice to commit crime (Siegel, 2010). It is believed that most crimes are carefully planned and the criminal decides beforehand whether the crime will benefit them and whether there is a good chance, they will be caught. This is part of the cost-benefit perspective. The cost-benefit perspective is based on the idea that criminals ?weigh what they expect to gain against the risks they must undergo and the costs they may incur, such as going to prison? (Siegel, 2010).
The example I will use for the purpose of this discussion is burglary. According to Siegel (2010), ?Before choosing to commit a crime, reasoning criminals carefully select targets, and their behavior is systematic and selective? (p. 85). When planning a burglary, the criminal usually takes careful measures to ensure there is no one home, assess whether there is an alarm system, and weigh the risks of getting caught. The rational criminal will not burglarize a place that has high risks of being caught. According to Siegel (2010), places with alarm systems or dogs are almost always off-limits. The risk is too high.
Rational Choice Theory describes most criminals as rational people. The exceptions to this rule are mentally ill or insane criminals (Siegel, 2010). It takes careful planning and selection in order to commit a crime with the least possibility of being caught. If the risks outweigh the benefits, the crime is deterred, at least for now. The criminal will find other means of getting what he/she wants. Siegel (2010) lists some of the reasons for committing crime as ?personal reasons, including greed, revenge, need, anger, lust, jealousy, thrill-seeking, or vanity? (p. 84). He continues by stating ?The final decision to act is made only after the potential offender carefully weighs the potential benefits and consequences of the planned action and decides that the benefits of crime are greater than its consequences? (Siegel, 2010, p. 84).

Essay Instructions: This paper will review the understanding of Rational Choice Theory. This paper is required to search the news media for a recent article (within 3-4 months) of a case where a single rational actor (president, prime minister, etc.) is the primary decision-maker in a state's policy decision. I would like to use the recent decision by President Obama to ratchet up the pressure on Iran Friday, deciding to implement previously announced oil sanctions that will be the toughest to date. There is an attached document that discusses Rational Choice Theory for review.

The requirement is to review the decision made by President Obama. Provide a short description of the case where the chosen actor made a decision. Include an analysis of the rational actor's decision using the rational choice methodology from this week's readings.
Which rationality is your chosen actor using?:
1. Value rationality?when the agent?s actions (behaviors) are based only on the agent?s beliefs, morals, or values, without regard for the consequences.
2. Traditional rationality?when the agent?s actions are based on traditional behaviors without any considerations of why the actions take place or their consequences.
3. Instrumental rationality?when the agent?s actions are based on achieving some success or objective and the agent is concerned with the consequences of the behavior?this is where rational choice theories are used. (This is the one I prefer to use)

a. What assumptions can you make about the actor's decision?
b. What risk did the actor take?
c. Do you have complete information to determine this actor's rational choice?

* Use current reports from news and media
* This paper must be typed in double-spaced format. Use MS Word 12 or similar font size, black lettering and white backgrounds; and standard font style Times New Roman.
* Follow the format above. Use in-text citations (footnotes) for all information you find through research. Use Turabian style for Footnotes and Bibliography.