MANAGEMENT SCIENCE- DECISION MAKING THROUGH SYSTEMS THINKING

MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
DECISION MAKING THROUGH SYSTEMS THINKING

Hans G. Daellenbach  Donald C. McNickle
University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

This text is a substantive revision of Systems and Decision Making, published by  John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, UK (1994). As the subtitle indicates, its aim  is to explore Management Science/Operations Research (MS/OR) firmly within a broad systems thinking framework. It is this aspect that sets it apart from most other  introductory texts in MS/OR, whose emphasis is mainly on mathematical techniques  of what has become known as hard operations research.
The aim of MS/OR projects is to provide insights for informed decision making.
The vast majority of that decision making occurs within organizations or, in other  words, within systems. Therefore MS/OR can be viewed as a way of thinking with  a systems focus, i.e. a form of systems thinking. This necessitates a fair general  understanding of systems, systems concepts, and systems control. What is included  in the system defined to analyse a particular problem and what is left out—the  system boundary choices—may have important consequences for the people  actively involved, as well as those passively affected.

Introduction

This chapter aims to whet your appetite to learn more about the complexity and  challenge of effective problem solving. We will briefly describe five real-life situ-  ations that each involved making recommendations as to the best course of action to take. Three look at commercial situations, while the other two deal with issues of  public decision making and policy. They are intended to give you a feel for the great  variety of decision-making problems in terms of area of application, types of  organizations involved, the degree of complexity, and the types of costs and benefits,  as well as their importance. In each instance a systems approach, based on systems  thinking, will lead to more insightful decision making.

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