Decision conferencing

Last updated

Decision conferencing is a common approach in decision analysis. It is a socio-technical process to engage key players in solving an issue of concern by (1) developing a shared understanding of the issue, (2) creating a sense of common purpose, and (3) generating a commitment to the way forward. It consists in a series of working meetings, called 'decision conferences'. During a decision conference an impartial facilitator helps participants in developing a formal model of the problem on-the-go. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

History

The idea of decision conferencing is attributed to Cameron Peterson and his colleagues at the Decision & Design Inc. in the late 1970s, which was then developed by the Decision Analysis Unit of the London School of Economics and Political Science led by Lawrence D. Phillips. [4]

Methodology

Socio-technical approaches derive from the seminal work of Eric Trist and Fred Emery, who studied the interaction between people and technology in the work environment.

The technical element of decision conferencing typically consists in the development of a multiple criteria decision analysis model to represent the multiplicity of conflicting objectives involved in a decision. [5]

The social aspect of decision conferencing draws from the literature on group decision processes. Some of this research shows that groups rarely outperform their most knowledgeable members, unless the interaction is mediated by impartial facilitation, decision modelling and information technology. [6]

Some authors argue that the key process taking place in decision conferencing is the behavioral aggregation of expert judgments. [7]

Other authors embed decision conferencing in the larger family of 'facilitated decision modelling' approaches originated in operations research. [8]

Notable applications

Some notable applications of decision conferencing are:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cognitive bias</span> Systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment

A cognitive bias is a systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment. Individuals create their own "subjective reality" from their perception of the input. An individual's construction of reality, not the objective input, may dictate their behavior in the world. Thus, cognitive biases may sometimes lead to perceptual distortion, inaccurate judgment, illogical interpretation, and irrationality.

Bounded rationality is the idea that rationality is limited when individuals make decisions, and under these limitations, rational individuals will select a decision that is satisfactory rather than optimal.

Sociotechnical systems (STS) in organizational development is an approach to complex organizational work design that recognizes the interaction between people and technology in workplaces. The term also refers to coherent systems of human relations, technical objects, and cybernetic processes that inhere to large, complex infrastructures. Social society, and its constituent substructures, qualify as complex sociotechnical systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Decision-making</span> Cognitive process to choose a course of action or belief

In psychology, decision-making is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be either rational or irrational. The decision-making process is a reasoning process based on assumptions of values, preferences and beliefs of the decision-maker. Every decision-making process produces a final choice, which may or may not prompt action.

The Delphi method or Delphi technique is a structured communication technique or method, originally developed as a systematic, interactive forecasting method that relies on a panel of experts. Delphi has been widely used for business forecasting and has certain advantages over another structured forecasting approach, prediction markets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Decision theory</span> Branch of applied probability theory

Decision theory or the theory of rational choice is a branch of probability, economics, and analytic philosophy that uses the tools of expected utility and probability to model how individuals would behave rationally under uncertainty. It differs from the cognitive and behavioral sciences in that it is mainly prescriptive and concerned with identifying optimal decisions for a rational agent, rather than describing how people actually make decisions. Despite this, the field is important to the study of real human behavior by social scientists, as it lays the foundations for the rational agent models used to mathematically model and analyze individuals in fields such as sociology, economics, criminology, cognitive science, and political science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multiple-criteria decision analysis</span> Operations research that evaluates multiple conflicting criteria in decision making

Multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) or multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is a sub-discipline of operations research that explicitly evaluates multiple conflicting criteria in decision making. It is also known as multiple attribute utility theory, multiple attribute value theory, multiple attribute preference theory, and multi-objective decision analysis.

Decision analysis (DA) is the discipline comprising the philosophy, methodology, and professional practice necessary to address important decisions in a formal manner. Decision analysis includes many procedures, methods, and tools for identifying, clearly representing, and formally assessing important aspects of a decision; for prescribing a recommended course of action by applying the maximum expected-utility axiom to a well-formed representation of the decision; and for translating the formal representation of a decision and its corresponding recommendation into insight for the decision maker, and other corporate and non-corporate stakeholders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Issue-based information system</span> Argumentation scheme

The issue-based information system (IBIS) is an argumentation-based approach to clarifying wicked problems—complex, ill-defined problems that involve multiple stakeholders. Diagrammatic visualization using IBIS notation is often called issue mapping.

Social translucence is a term that was proposed by Thomas Erickson and Wendy Kellogg to refer to "design digital systems that support coherent behavior by making participants and their activities visible to one another".

The IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society is a professional society of the IEEE. It aims "to serve the interests of its members and the community at large by promoting the theory, practice, and interdisciplinary aspects of systems science and engineering, human-machine systems, and cybernetics".

Suitability analysis is the process and procedures used to establish the suitability of a system – that is, the ability of a system to meet the needs of a stakeholder or other user.

Value sensitive design (VSD) is a theoretically grounded approach to the design of technology that accounts for human values in a principled and comprehensive manner. VSD originated within the field of information systems design and human-computer interaction to address design issues within the fields by emphasizing the ethical values of direct and indirect stakeholders. It was developed by Batya Friedman and Peter Kahn at the University of Washington starting in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Later, in 2019, Batya Friedman and David Hendry wrote a book on this topic called "Value Sensitive Design: Shaping Technology with Moral Imagination". Value Sensitive Design takes human values into account in a well-defined matter throughout the whole process. Designs are developed using an investigation consisting of three phases: conceptual, empirical and technological. These investigations are intended to be iterative, allowing the designer to modify the design continuously.

In multiple criteria decision aiding (MCDA), multicriteria classification involves problems where a finite set of alternative actions should be assigned into a predefined set of preferentially ordered categories (classes). For example, credit analysts classify loan applications into risk categories, customers rate products and classify them into attractiveness groups, candidates for a job position are evaluated and their applications are approved or rejected, technical systems are prioritized for inspection on the basis of their failure risk, clinicians classify patients according to the extent to which they have a complex disease or not, etc.

Transition management is a governance approach that aims to facilitate and accelerate sustainability transitions through a participatory process of visioning, learning and experimenting. In its application, transition management seeks to bring together multiple viewpoints and multiple approaches in a 'transition arena'. Participants are invited to structure their shared problems with the current system and develop shared visions and goals which are then tested for practicality through the use of experimentation, learning and reflexivity. The model is often discussed in reference to sustainable development and the possible use of the model as a method for change.

Stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis (SMAA) is a multiple-criteria decision analysis method for problems with missing or incomplete information.

Behavior informatics (BI) is the informatics of behaviors so as to obtain behavior intelligence and behavior insights. BI is a research method combining science and technology, specifically in the area of engineering. The purpose of BI includes analysis of current behaviors as well as the inference of future possible behaviors. This occurs through pattern recognition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Problem structuring methods</span>

Problem structuring methods (PSMs) are a group of techniques used to model or to map the nature or structure of a situation or state of affairs that some people want to change. PSMs are usually used by a group of people in collaboration to create a consensus about, or at least to facilitate negotiations about, what needs to change. Some widely adopted PSMs include

Marketing engineering is currently defined as "a systematic approach to harness data and knowledge to drive effective marketing decision making and implementation through a technology-enabled and model-supported decision process".

Valerie Belton, commonly known as Val Belton, is a retired professor of management science at University of Strathclyde. She is a researcher who has worked on the design and application of multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approaches for over 30 years. She co-authored a book on this field Multicriteria Decision Analysis: An Integrated Approach, that was released in 2002. She has attempted to incorporate multi-criteria decision analysis with problem structuring techniques, system dynamics, and other analytical approaches. She has a number of scholarly articles to her name and served as the editor of the journal Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis.

References

  1. ↑ Edwards, Ward; Miles, Ralph F.; von Winterfeldt, Detlof (2007). Advances in Decision Analysis. From Foundations to Applications. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 375–399. ISBN   978-0-521-68230-5.
  2. ↑ Phillips, Lawrence D. (2006). "Decision Conferencing" (PDF). London School of Economics and Political Science. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  3. ↑ Phillips, Lawrence D.; Bana e Costa, Carlos A. (2007-05-17). "Transparent prioritisation, budgeting and resource allocation with multi-criteria decision analysis and decision conferencing" (PDF). Annals of Operations Research. 154 (1): 51–68. doi:10.1007/s10479-007-0183-3.
  4. ↑ "Decision conferencing". www.lawrencephillips.net. Archived from the original on 2014-12-28. Retrieved 2016-07-06.
  5. ↑ Drugs, Committee on Ethical and Scientific Issues in Studying the Safety of Approved; Practice, Board on Population Health and Public Health; Medicine, Institute of (2012-05-01). Decision Conferencing and Multicriteria Decision Analysis. National Academies Press (US).
  6. ↑ Reagan-Cirincione, Patricia (1994-05-01). "Improving the Accuracy of Group Judgment: A Process Intervention Combining Group Facilitation, Social Judgment Analysis, and Information Technology". Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 58 (2): 246–270. doi:10.1006/obhd.1994.1036.
  7. ↑ Reagan-Cirincione, Patricia; Rohrbaugh, John (1992-01-01). Wright, George; Bolger, Fergus (eds.). Decision Conferencing A Unique Approach to the Behavioral Aggregation of Expert Judgment. Springer US. pp. 181–201. doi:10.1007/978-0-585-34290-0_9. ISBN   9780306438622.
  8. ↑ Franco, Luis A.; Montibeller, Gilberto; Cochran, James J.; Cox, Louis A.; Keskinocak, Pinar; Kharoufeh, Jeffrey P.; Smith, J. Cole (2010-01-01). "On-The-Spot" Modeling And Analysis: The Facilitated Modeling Approach. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. doi:10.1002/9780470400531.eorms0975. ISBN   9780470400531.
  9. ↑ CoRWM (2006). "Recommendation to Government" (PDF). Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  10. ↑ Airoldi, Mara; Morton, Alec; Smith, Jenifer A. E.; Bevan, Gwyn (2014-11-01). "STAR--people-powered prioritization: a 21st-century solution to allocation headaches" (PDF). Medical Decision Making. 34 (8): 965–975. doi:10.1177/0272989X14546376. ISSN   1552-681X. PMID   25118084.
  11. ↑ Airoldi, Mara (2013-12-01). "Disinvestments in practice: overcoming resistance to change through a sociotechnical approach with local stakeholders". Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. 38 (6): 1149–1171. doi:10.1215/03616878-2373175. ISSN   1527-1927. PMID   23974471.
  12. ↑ Bana e Costa, Carlos A.; Lourenço, João Carlos; Duarte Oliveira, Mónica; Bana e Costa, João C. (2013-01-12). "A socio-technical approach for group decision support in public strategic planning: The Pernambuco PPA case". Group Decision and Negotiation. 23 (1): 5–29. doi:10.1007/s10726-012-9326-2.
  13. ↑ Bana e Costa, Carlos A.; Fernances, Tânia G.; Correia, Paulo V. D. (2006-07-01). "Prioritisation of public investments in social infrastructures using multicriteria value analysis and decision conferencing: a case study" (PDF). International Transactions in Operational Research. 13 (4): 279–297. doi:10.1111/j.1475-3995.2006.00549.x.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.