Abstract
The behaviour of the actors in a decision aid process is determined by different factors, all of which have an impact on the effectiveness of the process and its results. A framework, originally created to document decision aid processes and to study the reasons for backward and forward cycles in the process, has been used to comparatively analyse several multi-criteria decision aid interventions. The study has led to the identification of three basic process typologies, in relation with some organisational and processual complexities and factors which, as behavioural aspects, have the main influence on the interaction between the analysts and actors of a decision aid process. The work is a proposal for the behavioral OR research agenda.
Highlights
It is commonly accepted that traditional Operation Research (OR) originally focused on the scientific method to maintain objectivity
We studied sixteen different Multi-Criteria Decision Aiding (MCDA) interventions we had conducted in the eighties and we proposed the nature and role of the main activities in (Norese and Ostanello 1989; Ostanello 1990) to document the steps of a decision aid (DA) process and to study the reasons behind backward and forward cycles, the elements that had forced us to backtrack to previous activities or to change elements of the model or of our understanding of the problem
A DA process deals with a decision problem, in relation to a phase of a decision process (Simon 1960, 1991) and a decision system, i.e. decisionmakers and actors involved in a decision process and a decision structure that is formalized to some extent
Summary
It is commonly accepted that traditional Operation Research (OR) originally focused on the scientific method to maintain objectivity. When my students are involved in internships and work on processes that require analysis and improvements, they are expected to document their activities as well as the rationale behind their choices and actions They tend to only describe the technical tools that they used and the quantitative results of their interventions. Learning from past interventions is difficult without a logical framework that facilitates the analysis of how a context and its perception have oriented an action and why models and methods are tools that sometimes produce a solution that is often only the first step of the nonlinear path of decision aiding. The main components of the framework proposed here (contexts of action and activities) were identified several years ago (Norese and Ostanello 1989), in relation to the literature proposals the first section describes Their usability was tested and improved in several MCDA interventions in the following years. Certain elements of the expertise that has been acquired, from direct experiences with DA in different problems and organisations, are proposed in the conclusions, together with a project of experienced and novice DA analysts’ involvement in future research perspectives
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