Rational Analysis for a Problematic World Problem Structuring Methods for Complexity, Uncertainty and Conflict

Rational Analysis for a Problematic World Problem Structuring Methods for Complexity Uncertainty and Conflict 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 overambitious, the highly mathematical methods of analysing problem situations—largely unquestioned until the mid 1970s—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 situation in an uncertain world. This specially commissioned volume brings together the most influential of these new methods. Each is elaborated in two chapters: the first describes the principles on which the method operates, the steps and stages of the analysis and their relation to the decision process, while the second illustrates its application in a case study. Introductory and concluding chapters identify the nature of the crisis which has engulfed the conventional problem–solving approach, establish the essential unity of the emerging alternative paradigm, and chart the prospects for this new departure in analysis for a problematic world. For undergraduate and graduate students of management, systems and OR, as well as practitioners who are faced with the real–life problems of planning, managing and making decisions in a climate of complexity, conflict and uncertainty, this book will prove to be invaluable. "… a thought provoking collection of articles, delivering a strong message about the way decision analysis is moving." Helen Couclelis, University of California at Santa Barbara, USA "… sets out extremely clearly what soft OR is about … the editor and authors deserve all credit." M.C. Jackson, Systems Practice