Some Thoughts on MCDM: Myths and Ideas
Decision making is a most important function and process of management. It is one of the most pervasive problems of management and a pervasive problem in general. Multiple criteria decision making is an approach to decision making. It is the making of decisions taking into consideration multiple conflicting objectives. How do we make decisions? What is involved? There are many simple paradigms, and until recently about all that could be said was that you should list the alternatives, score them on certain dimensions, and then somehow aggregate the scores, and choose an alternative. Unfortunately, many excellent decision makers simply choose an alternative, based on instinct, intuition, or feel. Then they go on. Though that is fine in many cases; in some cases it is not. In this paper I consider some myths of decision making. I then propose some steps that we, as decision analysts and scientists, should consider taking to try to sensitize decision makers to thinking more about their decisions and making better decisions.
An aspiration-level interactive model for multiple criteria decision making
Abstract A simple, eclectic approach for solving discrete alternative multiple criteria decision problems is presented. It is based on the concept of the level of aspiration, and draws on ideas of various researchers. It assumes that the user has a set of alternatives with each alternative having a score on each of a number of objectives or measures of performance. The user determines his levels of aspiration for different objectives. He is then provided with considerable feedback as to the degree of feasibility of each level of aspiration as well as the degree of feasibility with respect to all levels of aspiration as a whole. The closest nondominated solution to the solution specified by the levels of aspiration is provided. The proposed method is easy to use and easy to understand and has been implemented on a personal computer (an IBM PC or compatible with 512K RAM). We describe an experimental application in which 49 students in an MBA program used the method to solve two discrete alternative multiple criteria decision problems.
The Measurement of End-User Computing Satisfaction
This article contrasts traditional versus end-user computing environments and report on the development of an instrument which merges ease of use and information product items to measure the satisfaction of users who directly interact with the computer for a specific application. Using a survey of 618 end users, the researchers conducted a factor analysis and modified the instrument. The results suggest a 12-item instrument that measures five components of end-user satisfaction - content, accuracy, format, ease of use, and timeliness. Evidence of the instrument's discriminant validity is presented. Reliability and validity is assessed by nature and type of application. Finally, standards for evaluating end-user applications are presented, and the instrument's usefulness for achieving more precision in research questions is explored.