Contributor: Thomas L. Saaty
Contribution: He holds the chair of University Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering USA. He wrote a paper on “Decision making with the analytic hierarchy process”
Details: There are many intangibles involved in decision making which need to be traded off. In order to do that, it is important to measure and evaluate the intangibles along with the tangibles. Thomas L. Saaty, who is internationally recognized for his decision-making process, called as the AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process). It is a concept of measurement through pairwise comparisons and focuses on the opinion of experts to deduce priority scales.
Reference: Saaty, T. L. (2008, March 19). Decision making with the analytic hierarchy process. Retrieved from Inderscience Publishers: http://inderscience.metapress.com/content/02t637305v6g65n8/
Contributors: Marilyn Manser and Murray Brown
Contribution: They wrote a paper on the Marriage and Household Decision Making; A Bargaining Analysis.
Details: Decisions concerning marriage, fertility labor supplies and consumption patterns have been discussed in the theory. It provides the analysis of household behavior and the decision making difficulties they face and then applies two-person cooperative game theory to settle the problem.
Remarks: Problem analysis depends on various factors as one method cannot fit every scenario. The above mentioned contributors have revolved around several different aspects of scenarios a household may face and provided them with solutions to analyze their problem and work on it.
Reference: Marilyn Manser, M. B. (1980, February). Marriage and Household decision-making. Retrieved from JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2526238?uid=3738952&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21104673251131
Contributor: John W. Boudreau
Contribution: He wrote a paper on the Decision Theory Contributions to HRM Research and Practice.
Details: The theory focuses on the recent developments that have produced interest in applying decision theory to a wide range of HRM decisions, thus proposing a new approach to the decisions. Also reviews the extensions of utility formulas that incorporate variables from financial and economic theory into the HRM decision model.
Remarks: This theory can prove useful for those studying Human Resource Management (HRM) decisions. It will also be helpful for organizations as well as it incorporates financial and economic theory model too, in the HRM decision model.
Reference: Boudreau, J. W. (2008, May 1). Decision Theory Contributions to HRM Research and Practice. Retrieved from Wiley Online Library: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-232X.1984.tb00897.x/abstract
Contributor: Herbert A. Simon
Contribution: Herbert introduced a model in his book “Rational Decision Making in Business Organizations”.
Details: The rational decision making model consists of a series of steps, beginning with problem, opportunity identification, and ending with actions to be taken on decisions made. Herbert A. Simon, in his book, started step by step in order to grasp the attention of the reader and make him understand fully the contents of his book.
Remarks: H. A. Simon wrote a remarkable book on the topic of Rational Thinking, through which the reader is able to learn the fundamental properties of decision making and understanding the basic criteria of rational thinking.
Reference: Simon, H. (1978). Rational Decision-Making in Business Organizations. American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol 69(4), 493-513. Retrieved from http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1978/simon-lecture.pdf
Contributor: Graeme Harper
Contribution: He has written various books on creative thinking in relation to decision making and has also won many awards, such as the National Book Council Award.
Details: His work focuses on key issues and Global Perspective in Creative Writing, Creative Writing Research and Conclusion, enabling the reader to grasp the fundamental aspects of thinking creatively in decision making.
Remarks: Graeme Harper's has made immense contributions to enhance people's decision making skills, keeping in mind that a brain that is brimming with outstanding ideas is the successful one.
Reference: Dianne Donnelly, G. H. (2012). Key Issues in Creative Writing. Retrieved from Google Books: http://books.google.com.sa/books?id=l_IFhJX8EGUC&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56&dq=creative+writing+and+decision+making&source=bl&ots=TVffE0NnHm&sig=pvejoUntlg1MaoTbkt6yWHk1zO4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-_N3VLPZDcjzas
Contributor: Rita Almeida Ribeiro
Contribution: R. A. Ribeiro has written a paper titled “Fuzzy multiple attribute decision making: A review and new preference elicitation techniques”
Details: Contributions include main theories and methods used for multiple attribute decision making in a fuzzy environment. Also, the techniques discussed range from statistical to scaling methods based on linguistic variables. Furthermore, in order to aid the decision maker to express his/her attribute preferences, new elicitation techniques to determine attributes importance are proposed.
Remarks: The work by R. A. Ribeiro enables a more versatile elicitation procedure as well as providing crisp preferences. It helps in the multiple attribute decision making in a fuzzy environment.
Reference: Ribeiro, R. A. (1996, March 11). Fuzzy multiple attribute decision making: A review and new preference elicitation techniques. Retrieved from ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0165011495001662
Contributor: Jim Reason
Contribution: Jim Reason has written a book by the name “Managing the Risk of Organizational Accidents”.
Details: The book deals with various aspects of decision making, particularly stressing on the nature of organizational accidents and discussing it in depth so as to produce the right guidance to decision making with respect to risk management. It proactively identifies risks, prioritizes them and provides effective strategies for dealing with them. He mainly identifies the two types of accidents; Individual accidents and organization accidents. Columbia tragedy was concluded as an organization accident by him in his book.
Remarks: This risk management analysis is the basis in managing risks through-out the life cycle of a project or program to provide improved decision making and effective utilization of resources, thus increasing the chance of success.
Reference: Reason, J. (2004, October 27). NASA. Retrieved from Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents: http://rmc.nasa.gov/archive/rmc_v/presentations/reason%20managing%20the%20risks%20of%20organizational%20accidents.pdf
Contributor: Rakesh Sarin
Contribution: Sarin has a book written by the name of "Engineering Happiness." also currently Editor-in-Chief for Decision Analysis Society. Also wrote "How to Engineer A Happy Life."
Details: Sarin's work is dedicated to advancing the theory, application and teaching of all aspects of decision analysis. The primary focus of his work is to develop operational decision making methods which are also easy to implement. His work also revolves around the applications of decision analysis as well as creative problem structuring.
Remarks: Sarin has done remarkable effort in emphasizing a theoretical and practical interdisciplinary vision of risks and its manifestations. The noticeable thing about his work on operational decision making methods was that all the methods he proposed were easy to implement.
Reference: Overview. (2014). Retrieved from Decision Analysis Society: https://www.informs.org/Community/DAS
Contributor: John C. Henderson
Contribution: John wrote a paper titled “Design and implementation of decision support system in the public sector”.
Details: The paper "Design and Implementation of decision support system in the public sector" examines the implications of utilizing decision support systems in the public sector based on a DSS developed and implemented for a community mental health system. It was concluded in the paper that the system was considered to be implemented successfully which was shown by the experiences.
Remarks: Developing and implementing decision aids in the public sector is a difficult task. The need to facilitate access to decision aids as well as support individual and organizational learning is openly addressed and made easy to understand through various examples in the decisions support systems of this paper.
Reference: John C. Henderson, D. A. (1984, September). Design and Implementation of Decision Support Systems in the Public Sector. Retrieved from Archive: https://archive.org/stream/designimplementa00hend#page/n0/mode/1up
Contributor: Jean-Guy Blais
Contribution: Jean-Guy Blais is Professor of Measurement and Evaluation at the Faculty of Education, University of Montreal.
Details: Jean-Guy Blais completed his PhD at the University of Montreal and did his postdoctoral studies at Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey. He heads a Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture research team devoted to systems, technologies, and measurement models for assessment in education. His research interests are related to optimal conditions for applications of IRT and Rasch models as well as the use of information technology for large-scale assessment.
Remarks: Jean-Guy Blais has done tremendous efforts in working for the evaluation of decisions. His extensive work on the information technology proves his expertise in this field.
Reference: List of Contributors. (2014). Retrieved from Amazon Web Services: http://documents.routledge-interactive.s3.amazonaws.com/9780415894579/Simon_List%20of%20Contributors.pdf
Contributor: David Arnott
Contribution: David is known for his paper on “A critical analysis of decision support systems research”.
Details: The article in the above mentioned link explains the behavior and condition of the DSS (Decision Support System research). In order to analyse this, an in-depth research is carried on the Decision Support System that stresses on the evolution of several groupings of the particular investigation. This research is based on an in depth study of 1020 essays presented in 14 leading journals from 1990 to 2003.
Remarks: David Arnott has done an in depth analysis of the Decision Support System, about its nature, state as well as its conditions, and hence, provided the world with an easy formula to understand it and therefore work accordingly. His research includes the development of personal DSS and hence, he has written over 70 scientific papers in the DSS area (decision Support Area).
Reference: David Arnott, G. P. (2005, April 12). A critical analysis of decision support systems research. Retrieved from Journal of Information Technology: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jit/journal/v20/n2/abs/2000035a.html
