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An up-to-date overview of a range of methods for structuring decisions and problems, useful for strategic thinking and management. Presents six problem-structuring methodologies in a way that makes it easy to determine if that method is appropriate for a given situation. Covers strategic options development and analysis, soft systems methodology, robustness analysis, metagame analysis, hypergame analysis, and strategic choice, including the analysis of interconnected decision areas.
Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis: State of the Art Surveys provides survey articles and references of the seminal or state-of-the-art research on MCDA. The material covered ranges from the foundations of MCDA, over various MCDA methodologies (outranking methods, multiattribute utility and value theories, non-classical approaches) to multiobjective mathematical programming, MCDA applications, and software. This vast amount of material is organized in 8 parts, with a total of 25 chapters. More than 2000 references are listed.
Now, more than ever, planning and managing in the real world is beset by change and uncertainty. Knowledge is incomplete, values are in dispute, decisions of others are often unpredictable. Sheathed in opaque technicalities, inflexible and over-ambitious, the highly mathematical methods of analysing problem situations are no longer considered acceptable. In their place a coherent alternative paradigm has emerged- a range of formal methodologies which aim not to produce 'optimal' solutions but to facilitate an enriched decision-making process. 'Low-tech' transparent and participatory, these methods assist in the formulation and reformulation of problem solving in an uncertain world. This fully revised and updated book brings together contributions from some of the great thinkers on this subject. The authors present the most influential methods (each illustrated with a case study), describe the principles on which the method operates, the step and the stages of analysis, and how these methods relate to the decision making process. The concluding section explores future developments and research issues, as well as links with other relevant domains.
In the Second Edition of Rational Choice in an Uncertain World the authors compare the basic principles of rationality with actual behaviour in making decisions. They describe theories and research findings from the field of judgment and decision making in a non-technical manner, using anecdotes as a teaching device. Intended as an introductory textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, the material not only is of scholarly interest but is practical as well. The Second Edition includes: - more coverage on the role of emotions, happiness, and general well-being in decisions - a summary of the new research on the neuroscience of decision processes - more discussion of the adaptive value of (non-rational heuristics) - expansion of the graphics for decision trees, probability trees, and Venn diagrams.
From the winner of the INCOSE Pioneer Award 2022 The world has become increasingly networked and unpredictable. Decision makers at all levels are required to manage the consequences of complexity every day. They must deal with problems that arise unexpectedly, generate uncertainty, are characterised by interconnectivity, and spread across traditional boundaries. Simple solutions to complex problems are usually inadequate and risk exacerbating the original issues. Leaders of international bodies such as the UN, OECD, UNESCO and WHO — and of major business, public sector, charitable, and professional organizations — have all declared that systems thinking is an essential leadership skill for managing the complexity of the economic, social and environmental issues that confront decision makers. Systems thinking must be implemented more generally, and on a wider scale, to address these issues. An evaluation of different systems methodologies suggests that they concentrate on different aspects of complexity. To be in the best position to deal with complexity, decision makers must understand the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches and learn how to employ them in combination. This is called critical systems thinking. Making use of over 25 case studies, the book offers an account of the development of systems thinking and of major efforts to apply the approach in real-world interventions. Further, it encourages the widespread use of critical systems practice as a means of ensuring responsible leadership in a complex world. The INCOSE Pioneer Award is presented to someone who, by their achievements in the engineering of systems, has contributed uniquely to major products or outcomes enhancing society or meeting its needs. The criteria may apply to a single outstanding outcome or a lifetime of significant achievements in effecting successful systems. Comments on a previous version of the book: Russ Ackoff: ‘the book is the best overview of the field I have seen’ JP van Gigch: ‘Jackson does a masterful job. The book is lucid ...well written and eminently readable’ Professional Manager (Journal of the Chartered Management Institute): ‘Provides an excellent guide and introduction to systems thinking for students of management’
A clearly articulated, well-defined, and relatively stable grand strategy is supposed to allow the ship of state to steer a steady course through the roiling seas of global politics. However, the obstacles to formulating and implementing grand strategy are, by all accounts, imposing. The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy addresses the conceptual and historical foundations, production, evolution, and future of grand strategy from a wide range of standpoints. The seven constituent sections present and critically examine the history of grand strategy, including beyond the West; six distinct theoretical approaches to the subject; the sources of grand strategy, ranging from geography and technology to domestic politics to individual psychology and culture; the instruments of grand strategy's implementation, from military to economic to covert action; political actors', including non-state actors', grand strategic choices; the debatable merits of grand strategy, relative to alternatives; and the future of grand strategy, in light of challenges ranging from political polarization to technological change to aging populations. The result is a field-defining, interdisciplinary, and comparative text that will be a key resource for years to come.
This book examines the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, its varied uses, as well as its limitations for solving real-world scenarios. While the simplicity of the method compels users to find shortcuts to a real-world problem, it also leads to obtaining wrong results that do not represent reality. By alerting practitioners about the core necessities of a new scenario, this book helps solve this problem, as well as contribute to the field of Multicriteria Decision Making Method (MDCM). The authors use a demonstrative, rather than a theoretical approach, and examine 30 subjects that displays the shortcomings and drawbacks of the AHP. Each one is examined in-depth, discussed, debated and reasoned, using examples, some of them numeric. The book highlights the rationality and common sense of the subjects, and in most cases, validates the criticism by showing through numerical examples, the impossibility of the AHP method to address, let alone solve real-world projects. At the conclusion of each subject, a table is built comparing the similarities and differences between the opinions of the authors and other experts, along with the respective pros and cons.
This book aims to rethink systemic intervention to enhance its relevance for supporting social change in the 21st century. It offers a new systems philosophy and methodology, focusing upon the fundamental importance of exploring value and boundary judgements as part of the intervention process. It includes four detailed examples of the practice of systemic intervention.
Current perspectives on approaches to problem structuring in operational research and engineering and prospects for problem structuring methods applicable to a wide range of practice. Bridging between operational research (OR) and engineering practice, Problem Structuring: Methodology in Practice is grounded in the emergence of soft OR and its development over time as a distinctively new field, broadening the scope of OR to deal with issues of transforming, strategising, and planning in the context of wicked problems. The book is centred on a methodological framing of intervention processes known as problem structuring methods (PSMs) and the techniques presented are suitable for practitioners across a broad range of disciplines. Written by a highly qualified professor of engineering and management, Problem Structuring: Methodology in Practice contains four linked sections that cover: I. Problem formulation when dealing with wicked problems, justification for a methodological approach, the emergence of soft OR, the relevance of pragmatic philosophy to OR practice. II. Traces debates and issues in OR leading to the emergence of soft OR, comparative analysis of PSMs leading to a generic framework for soft OR practice, addressing practical considerations in delivering PSM interventions. III. Charts the emergence of a problem structuring sensibility in engineering practice, introduces a new PSM based on hierarchical process modelling (HPM) supported by teaching and case studies, makes the case for a processual turn in engineering practice supported by HPM with relevance to OR practice. IV. Evaluation of PSM interventions, survey of applications, use of group support systems, new developments supported by machine learning, recontextualising soft OR practice. Problem Structuring: Methodology in Practice is a thought-provoking and highly valuable resource relevant to all “students of problems.” It is suitable for any UK Level 7 (or equivalent) programme in OR, engineering, or applied social science where a reflective, methodological approach to dealing with wicked problems is an essential requirement for practice.
Systems Prospects is a record of the papers presented at the first con ference organised by the United Kingdom Systems Society (UKSS), held at Thwaite Hall, Hull University (UK), on the dates 12th-15th July, 1988. The UKSS originally came together in 1978 as the Barford Group (the first meetings were held in the town of Barford), comprising academics from the four institutions that incorporated departments which primarily were con cerned with developing the theory and practice of so-called systems scienc- namely Aston University, City University, Lancaster University and the Open University. The meetings of the Barford Group were deemed to be successful, so much so that a decision was made to widen its horizons to incorporate more generally those of the United Kingdom systems community (a diffuse number of academics and practitioners) - hence the title UKSS. The society, ten years later, is extant and has achieved new levels of success in the last few years in terms of rising membership and international reputation. The membership is now drawn from a wide variety of academic and commercial and industrial organisations, and from most reaches of the nation. There is also an international contingent in the membership. It is right that there should be such diversity since the UKSS is founded on the notion of equality (of creed, sex, race, class and so on ••• ). This community is "glued" together by the Society's own publication, Systemist, as well as through workshops and now this conference.