Authors: Ralph L. Keeney
ISBN-13: 9780674931985, ISBN-10: 067493198X
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Date Published: February 1996
Edition: Reprint
Ralph L. Keeney is a private consultant in San Francisco, as well as Professor of Systems Management, Institute of Safety and Systems Management, University of Southern California. He is coauthor (with Howard Raiffa) of Decisions with Multiple Objectives, which was awarded the Lanchester Prize of the Operations Research Society of America.
The standard way of thinking about decisions is backwards, says Ralph Keeney: people focus first on identifying alternatives rather than on articulating values. A problem arises and people react, placing the emphasis on mechanics and fixed choices instead of on the objectives that give decisionmaking its meaning. In this book, Keeney shows how recognizing and articulating fundamental values can lead to the identification of decision opportunities and the creation of better alternatives. The intent is to be proactive and to select more attractive decisions to ponder before attempting any solutions.
Keeney describes specific procedures for articulating values by identifying and structuring objectives qualitatively, and he shows how to apply these procedures in various cases. He then explains how to quantify objectives using simple models of values. Such value analysis, Keeney demonstrates, can yield a full range of alternatives, thus converting decision problems into opportunities. This approach can be used to uncover hidden objectives, to direct the collection of information, to improve communication, to facilitate collective decisionmaking, and to guide strategic thinking. To illustrate these uses, Keeney shows how value-focused thinking works in many business contexts, such as designing an integrated circuit tester and managing a multibillion-dollar utility company; in government contexts, such as planning future NASA space missions and deciding how to transport nuclear waste to storage sites; and in personal contexts, such as choosing career moves and making wise health and safety decisions.
An incisive, applicable contribution to the art and science of decisionmaking, Value-Focused Thinking will be extremely useful to anyone from consultants and managers to systems analysts and students.
Outstanding...Innovative thinking.
PART 1: Concepts
1. Thinking about Values
1.1 Value-Focused Thinking
1.2 Creating Alternatives
1.3 Identifying Decision Opportunities
1.4 Thinking about Values
1.5 The Uses of Value-Focused Thinking
2. The Framework of Value-Focused Thinking
2.1 Framing a Decision Situation
2.2 Fundamental Objectives
2.3 The Decision Context
2.4 Guiding Strategic Thinking and Action
2.5 The Framework
2.6 Comparing Alternative-Focused and Value-Focused Thinking
2.7 Ethics and Value Neutrality
Part 2: Foundations
3. Identifying and Structuring Objectives
3.1 Identifying Objectives
3.2 Identifying Fundamental Objectives
3.3 Structures of Objectives
3.4 How to Structure Objectives
3.5 Desirable Properties of Fundamental Objectives
3.6 Relating Objectives Hierarchies and Objectives Networks
3.7 Incomplete Objectives Hierarchies and Networks
3.8 Objectives Hierarchies for Groups
4. Measuring the Achievement of Objectives
4.1 The Concept of an Attribute
4.2 The Types of Attributes
4.3 Developing Constructed Attributes
4.4 Use of Proxy Attributes
4.5 Desirable Properties of Attributes
4.6 The Decision of Selecting Attributes
4.7 Connecting Decision Situations with Attributes
5. Quantifying Objectives with a Value Model
5.1 Building a Value Model
5.2 Multiple-Objective Value Models
5.3 Single-Objective Value Models
5.4 Prioritizing Objectives
5.5 The Art of Assessing Value Models
5.6 Issues to Consider in Value Assessments
Part 3: Uses
6. Uncovering Hidden Objectives
6.1 Insights from Attributes
6.2 Insights from Violations of Independence Assumptions
6.3 Insights from Value Tradeoffs
6.4 Insights from Single-Attribute Objective Functions
6.5 Insights from Multiple Value Assessments
7. Creating Alternatives for a Single Decisionmaker
7.1 Counteracting Cognitive Biases
7.2 Use of Objectives
7.3 Use of Strategic Objectives
7.4 Focus on High-Value Alternatives
7.5 Use of Evaluated Alternatives
7.6 Generic Alternatives
7.7 Coordinated Alternatives
7.8 Process Alternatives
7.9 Removing Constraints
7.10 Better Utilization of Resources
7.11 Screening to Identify Good Alternatives
7.12 Alternatives for a Series of Similar Decisions
8. Creating Alternatives for Multiple Decisionmakers
8.1 Pleasing Other Stakeholders
8.2 Stakeholder Influence on Your Consequences
8.3 Clarifying Stakeholder Values for Group Decisions
8.4 Creating Alternatives for Negotiations
9. Identifying Decision Opportunities
9.1 Use of Strategic Objectives
9.2 Use of Resources Available
9.3 A Broader Decision Context
9.4 Monitoring Achievement
9.5 Establishing a Process
9.6 Negotiating for Your Side and for the Other Side
9.7 Being in the Right Place at the Right Time
9.8 When You Have No Idea about What to Do
10. Insights for the Decisionmaking Process
10.1 Guiding Information Collection
10.2 Evaluating Alternatives
10.3 Interconnecting Decisions
10.4 Improving Communication
10.5 Facilitating Involvement in Multiple-Stakeholder Decisions
10.6 Guiding Strategic Thinking
Part 4: Applications
11. Selected Applications
11.1 NASA Leadership in Space
11.2 Transporting Nuclear Waste
11.3 Research on Climate Change
11.4 Air Pollution in Los Angeles
11.5 Design of Integrated Circuit Testers
11.6 Collaborating on a Book
12. Value-Focused Thinking at British Columbia Hydra
12.1 Identification and Structuring of the Strategic Objectives
12.2 First Revision of the Strategic Objectives and the Preliminary Attributes
12.3 Current Version of the Strategic Objectives and Attributes
12.4 The Quantitative Value Assessment
12.5 Insights from the Value Assessment
12.6 Decision Opportunities
13. Value-Focused Thinking for My Decisions
13.1 Strategic Objectives for Life
13.2 Guiding Involvement in Professional Activities
13.3 Decisions about Health and Safety
13.4 Professional Decisions
13.5 Personal Decisions
13.6 Value-Focused Thinking and You
References
Index of Applications and Examples
General Index