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24 How people make decisions involving multiple objectives<br />

If human decision making is not as bad as earlier researchers believed,<br />

does decision analysis still have a role as an aid to management decision<br />

making? We believe it does. The fast and frugal heuristics identified by<br />

Gigerenzer et al. enable us to make smart choices when ‘time is pressing<br />

and deep thought is unaffordable luxury’. Major decisions, such as<br />

a decisions on whether to launch a new product or where to site a<br />

new factory, do merit time and deep thought. Decision analysis allows<br />

managers to use this time effectively and enables them to structure and<br />

clarify their thinking. It encourages decision makers to explore trade-offs<br />

between attributes and both clarifies and challenges their perceptions of<br />

risk and uncertainty. As the previous chapter indicated it also delivers a<br />

documented and defensible rationale for a given decision and enhances<br />

communication within decision-making teams.<br />

The rest of this book is devoted to showing how decision analysis<br />

methods can provide these important benefits and hence overcome the<br />

limitations of unaided decision making. The next chapter introduces<br />

a method designed to support decision makers faced with decisions<br />

involving multiple objectives. As we shall see, in contrast to heuristics<br />

like the lexicographic strategy or elimination by aspects, this method is<br />

designed to allow decision makers to make compensatory choices.<br />

Discussion questions<br />

(1) In what circumstances is the recognition heuristic likely to work well?<br />

(2) A manager is ordering 40 inkjet printers for staff working in the<br />

company’s main office. Details of the available models are given<br />

below. The print quality score has been produced by an independent<br />

magazine. The score ranges from 1 = very poor to 5 = excellent.<br />

Model Price<br />

Mono printing<br />

speed (ppm)<br />

Print quality<br />

score<br />

Noise level<br />

(dBA)<br />

Solar $200 12.0 5 45<br />

Symbol $159 7.8 4 46<br />

Real $169 5.4 3 38<br />

CCC $250 6.0 5 40<br />

Tiger $80 4.1 4 48<br />

Linwood $110 5.6 4 43<br />

GA $185 5.4 4 40<br />

Superb $210 7.2 4 45

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