Decision conferencing is a common approach in
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, ...
. 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
A facilitator is a person who helps a group of people to work together better, understand their common objectives, and plan how to achieve these objectives, during meetings or discussions. In doing so, the facilitator remains "neutral", meaning t ...
helps participants in developing a formal model of the problem on-the-go.
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.
Methodology
Socio-technical approaches derive from the seminal work of
Eric Trist
Eric Lansdown Trist (11 September 1909 – 4 June 1993) was an English scientist and leading figure in the field of organizational development (OD). He was one of the founders of the Tavistock Institute for Social Research in London.
Biography ...
and
Fred Emery
Frederick Edmund Emery (27 August 1925 – 10 April 1997) was an Australian psychologist. He was one of the pioneers in the field of organizational development, particularly in the development of theory around participative work design struct ...
, 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.
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.
Some authors argue that the key process taking place in decision conferencing is the behavioral aggregation of expert judgments.
Other authors embed decision conferencing in the larger family of 'facilitated decision modelling' approaches originated in
operations research
Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve deci ...
.
Notable applications
Some notable applications of decision conferencing are:
* recommending options for
radioactive waste disposal Radioactive waste disposal may refer to:
*High-level radioactive waste management
* Low-level waste disposal
*Ocean disposal of radioactive waste
**Ocean floor disposal
*Deep borehole disposal
*Deep geological repository
See also
* Radioactive wast ...
in the UK by the Committee of Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM)
* priority setting in healthcare planning
* setting a strategic vision for
Pernambuco
Pernambuco () is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it seventh-most populous state of Brazil and with around 98,148 km², being the 19 ...
,
Brasil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area an ...
* prioritizing public investments in social infrastructures
See also
*
Facilitation (business)
Facilitation in business, organizational development (OD) and consensus decision-making refers to the process of designing and running a meeting according to a previously agreed set of requirements.
Facilitation concerns itself with all the tasks ...
*
Problem structuring methods
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 (rather th ...
References
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Decision analysis