Esta dissertação tem como objetivo conhecer a produção acadêmica sobre tomada de decisão estratégica pelo alto escalão e entender quais as fundamentações teóricas basilares do tema. Metodologicamente, utilizou-se para este fim de pesquisa bibliométrica e bibliográfica de artigos publicados em periódicos internacionais, complementadas pela leitura analítica dos artigos encontrados na pesquisa. Pesquisou-se as principais palavras-chaves relacionadas ao tema na base de dados Web of Science - ISI Web Of Knowledge, utilizando-se de todos os periódicos e anos disponíveis. Procedeu-se então à leitura dos artigos, retirando aqueles que não refletissem o tema pesquisado, obtendo um total final de 277 artigos. Realizou-se uma análise bibliométrica sobre o conteúdo estudado nos artigos de tomada de decisão, identificando os trabalhos mais referenciados, as publicações mais relevantes, e os periódicos da amostra. Efetuou-se também, uma análise de co-citação, mostrando as relações conceituais entre os trabalhos que fundamentam o tema e identificando tendências dos estudos sobre o tema. Com a leitura analítica e a estruturação do conteúdo dos 277 artigos, expôs-se os objetivos, a base teórica utilizada, os objetos de estudo...

Background: To explore the likely influence and impact of shared decision-making on medical malpractice litigation and patients’ intentions to initiate litigation. Methods: We included all observational, interventional and qualitative studies published in all languages, which assessed the effect or likely influence of shared decision-making or shared decision-making interventions on medical malpractice litigation or on patients’ intentions to litigate. The following databases were searched from inception until January 2014: CINAHL, Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, EMBASE, HMIC, Lexis library, MEDLINE, NHS Economic Evaluation Database, Open SIGLE, PsycINFO and Web of Knowledge. We also hand searched reference lists of included studies and contacted experts in the field. Downs & Black quality assessment checklist, the Critical Appraisal Skill Programme qualitative tool, and the Critical Appraisal Guidelines for single case study research were used to assess the quality of included studies. Results: 6562 records were screened and 19 articles were retrieved for full-text review. Five studies wee included in the review. Due to the number and heterogeneity of included studies, we conducted a narrative synthesis adapted from the ESRC guidance for narrative synthesis. Four themes emerged. The analysis confirms the absence of empirical data necessary to determine whether or not shared decision-making promoted in the clinical encounter can reduce litigation. Three out of five included studies provide retrospective and simulated data suggesting that ignoring or failing to diagnose patient preferences...

peer-reviewed; Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) performance is a function of the composite of the decision-making processes within the enterprise. Owner managers are conscious of the gap in their decision-making efficacy and acknowledge that the process is often unstructured and over reliant on ‘gut feel’. While there is a drive to introduce better decision aids, such as ERP implementations, their propensity to provide data rather than information does not speak coherently to the decision context within the SME. Owner managers typically resort to ex-post accounting measures (often on spreadsheets) as the basis for enterprise decision-making. This would suggest that the understanding of the SME operational decision needs has not been well articulated either in the literature or in current practice. A better understanding of the decision needs structure would facilitate the selection and deployment of more effective decision aids within SMEs. The purpose of this thesis is to provide such a structure via a Method for Structured Operational Decision Making (MSODM), which allows the user to ascertain relative decision difficulty and prioritise the operational decisions requiring management intervention. Relative decision difficulty is determined using the Decision Difficulty Taxonomic Technique (DDTT)...

Business under-performance in the upstream oil and gas industry, and the failure of many decisions to return anticipated results, has led to a growing interest over the past few years in understanding the impacts of current decision-making tools and processes and their relationship with decision outcomes. Improving oil and gas decision-making is thus, increasingly, seen as reliant on an understanding of what types of decisions are involved and how they actually are made in the “real world”. There has been significant work carried out within the discipline of cognitive psychology, observing how people actually make decisions. However, little is known as to whether these general observations apply to decision-making in the upstream oil and gas industry. Nor has there been work on how the results might be used to improve decision-making in the industry. This research is a step towards filling this gap by developing two themes – decision-making process and decision type. It distils a “real world” oil and gas decision-making model together with a theoretical decision-making model. Comparing and contrasting the two models yields several prescriptions for improved decision-making in the upstream oil and gas industry. This research also documents the development of an oil and gas decision making taxonomy that lays a decision space within which to judge the processes of decision-making. The taxonomy builds on established ideas in the human decision-making literature...

Decision-making in resource allocation can be a complex and daunting task. Often there exist circumstances where there is no clear optimal path to choose, and instead the decision maker must predict future need and allocate accordingly. The application of resource allocation can be seen in many organizations, from military, to high end commercial and political, and even individuals living their daily life. We define resource allocation as follows: the allocation of owner’s assets to further the particular cause of the owner. We propose two ways that computers can assist with the task of resource allocation. Firstly they can provide decision support mechanisms, with alternate strategies for the allocations that might not have been previously considered. Secondly, they can provide training mechanisms to challenge human decision makers in learning better resource allocation strategies. In this research we focus on the latter, and provide the following general hypothesis: Coevolutionary algorithms are an effective mechanism for the creation of a computer player for strategic decision-making games. To address this hypothesis, we present a system that uses coevolution to learn new strategies for the resource allocation game of TEMPO. The game of TEMPO provides a perfect test bed for this research...

From decades of psychological research, the observation that people’s decisions are often biased by particular decision-making flaws has led to discussions of what can be done to de-bias decisions. A key area of research is the study of individual differences in decision-making ability— that is, whether certain people are less susceptible to particular biases. Much of this research, however, has focused on the impact of intelligence on decision-making ability. This, however, is of limited use in industries such as oil and gas where, due to hiring criteria that commonly include at least a bachelor’s degree, a restricted range of intelligence is observed. Given this, it may be more fruitful to consider other sources of potential differences in decision-making ability such as personality traits. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) (Myers et al, 1998) is a personality test based on Jung’s 1921 theory of psychological types (see, e.g., Jung, 1971). People are sorted into one of 16 categories based on their responses to the personality test. Although the test is widely used to identify leadership styles and preferences and therefore influence recruitment decisions (including within the petroleum industry), the impact of Myers-Briggs personality type on decision making itself and...

Introduction: The purpose of this study is to describe the decision about antiretroviral therapy (ART) from the perspective of people living with HIV/AIDS (PWHA) and to develop models to reduce decisional conflict and to optimize the quality of life in PWHA. Methods: 79 HIV+ people who had been offered ART by their physicians participated. In the qualitative part of this study, interviews on reasons and sources of information for decision-making and patient-physician relationship were evaluated with qualitative content analysis. In the quantitative part of this study, questionnaires examined preferred and perceived role in decision-making (Control Preferences Scale), decisional conflict (Decisional Conflict Scale), adherence and symptoms of HIV/ART (ACTG Adherence Questionnaire), quality of life (HIV/AIDS Targeted Quality of Life), depression (Beck Depression Inventory), perceived stress (Perceived Stress Scale), patient-physician relationship (Doctor-Patient Relationship) and beliefs about medicines (Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire). Results: Qualitative: Seventy-three percent decided to take ART, and 27% decided not to take ART. Ten criteria were important: Surrogate markers (87%), quality of life (85%), knowledge/beliefs about resistance (66%)...

Recent studies diverge in their assessments of the extent to which Japanese public opinion may have an influence in foreign policy-making. Societal participation has traditionally not played a significant role in policy formation. This view has been strongly represented in academia until today. Over the 1990s a visible change and an emerging societal activism was taking place in Japan. Research has only recently begun to understand how, and to what extend, public opinion affects the policy-making process on salient domestic issues, but we know far less about the relationship to and effects of public opinion on Japan’s foreign policy-making. The aim of this PhD thesis is to take a closer look at the possible impact of public opinion in Japanese foreign policy decision-making during the leadership of Prime Minister Koizumi (2001-2006). More precisely, to identify and test conditions, which facilitate the impact of public opinion in the foreign policy decision-making processes of Japan. The results shall contribute to explanations of governmental behavior during a strong prime ministerial leadership. Further evidence shall be given, how and when a strong leader chooses to react to public opinion. Methods used in this study are cases study analysis and process-tracing. Reconstruction and interpretation as well as standardized...

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.; Information is the single most important part of the decision-making process. There are many theories and models of decision-making processes that apply to general decisions and others that are for very specific purposes. No single theory/model applies to all decisions. This thesis identifies several relevant theories/models that are both general and specific and explores each process and how information works within and through them to reach a decision. This exposes commonalities that all the theories/models share. They are identification of the scene, the desired end state, and how to reach the desired end state. The successful use of a theory/model requires the person(s) choosing to utilize a theory/model to address one or more of these common criteria to reach the best decision possible. Additionally, the type of situation and the personalities of the person(s) making the decision impact that decision. The person(s) making the decision should understand and know this information and how it influences the decision-making process. Information influences the decision-making process by influencing how the common criteria are answered, how a decision maker responds to the information environment effects...

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited; This study shows the importance of decision-making skills in a military leader. Different models of decision-making are examined, and effective ways to teach decision making are presented. If, as the literature shows, decision making is an important skill for an officer, one would assume that the United States Naval Academy (USNA) would have a well-defined, clearlyarticulated program that ensures its graduates are, in fact, well-trained in decision making; this study tests that assumption. It presents what the Naval Academy's senior leadership's goals and priorities are for developing midshipmen as decision makers. The study also determines the value placed on decision-making abilities by those primarily responsible for midshipmen's professional development, and how well they believe the Naval Academy prepares midshipmen for the decision-making responsibilities they will face as officers. Opportunities for midshipmen to make decisions are identified, and midshipmen were asked how well they think the Naval Academy prepares them to be decision makers. The findings of this study assess the extent to which the Naval Academy presently develops decision-making skills in its midshipmen.; Major...

CHDS State/Local; Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited; As experienced on 9/11 and learned from the Katrina Report, catastrophic disasters produce environments where situational awareness is low and high levels of uncertainty and equivocality exist. As a result, due to decision-making limitations and an environment wrought with information inadequacies, decision making can become paralyzed. Using grounded theory methodology on disaster cases, and leveraging the theories and processes of Drucker's business model, the military decision-making process (MDMP), the observe orient decide act (OODA) loop, and recognition-primed decision (RPD), making model from the fields of cognitive, social, and decision sciences, a descriptive decision process model emerged. Catastrophic disaster decision-making model (CAT D²M²) is a simple and flexible process that can assist emergency managers in mitigating decision-making paralysis so that lives, the environment, and the economy can be sustained during catastrophic disasters. It is anticipated that the findings and process model from this thesis will contribute further to the research on decision-making; specifically during catastrophic disasters.

Most medical models of end-of-life decision making by patients assume a rational autonomous adult obtaining and deliberating over information to arrive at some conclusion. If the patient is deemed incapable of this, family members are often nominated as substitutes, with assumptions that the family are united and rational. These are problematic assumptions. We interviewed 23 outpatients with cancer about the decision not to resuscitate a patient following cardiopulmonary arrest and examined their accounts of decision making using discourse analytical techniques. Our analysis suggests that participants access two different interpretative repertoires regarding the construct of persons, invoking a 'modernist' repertoire to assert the appropriateness of someone, a patient or family, making a decision, and a 'romanticist' repertoire when identifying either a patient or family as ineligible to make the decision. In determining the appropriateness of an individual to make decisions, participants informally apply 'Sanity' and 'Stability' tests, assessing both an inherent ability to reason (modernist repertoire) and the presence of emotion (romanticist repertoire) which might impact on the decision making process. Failure to pass the tests respectively excludes or excuses individuals from decision making. The absence of the romanticist repertoire in dominant models of patient decision making has ethical implications for policy makers and medical practitioners dealing with dying patients and their families.; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16808705; Eliott JA...

In the traditional decision making process, at post assessment stage, 'weighting' each criterion is a very difficult process and depends heavily on the personal preference of the decision maker. There is a need to provide decision makers with a simple, less human interfered (yet still transparent) mechanism that integrates all the key criteria, while allowing a couple of them to be chosen as Critical Criteria (CC) that are more influential than others in the decision making process. The proposed Interlink Decision Making Index (IDMI) has those features. The paper provides two real cases to demonstrate the advantages of the IDMI approach.; Eric Hu, William Abley and Linda Zou

Concepts of justice and the distribution of public resources have been an important aspect of social debate for centuries. Finding fair and just allocations of natural resources remains a major preoccupation for national governments and their constituent communities. Yet Australian governments, despite their long history of dealing with resource use conflicts, have largely failed to establish lasting legal or institutional frameworks in which resources are allocated in ways that are seen as equitable, fair and just. Where such allocations or decisions are perceived as unjust, underlying social tensions can emerge and result in social conflict. This study examines two such social conflicts in which communities expressed dissatisfaction with government plans and decisions through organized protests. The first case study explores community reactions to a 2006 NSW government action to cut a water allocation in the Murray Irrigation District. The second investigates community reactions to the Victorian government's North South Pipeline and Food Bowl Modernisation Project initiated in 2007. This study investigates these conflicts from a justice perspective, concentrating on notions of fairness and justice. Using a transdisciplinary investigative framework the thesis explores these notions through stakeholder perceptions of procedural justice and distributive justice. Procedural justice is concerned with the fairness of elements of the decision-making process and distributive justice with the outcome or decision. The study aims to find out how people perceive fairness and justice within the social context of the decision-making process and how these perceptions contribute to their acceptance of an outcome. The study also explores how better outcomes might be achieved. The study finds that justice and fairness are critical in determining people's acceptance of...

While agreeing on the choice of an optimal investment decision is already difficult for any diverse group of actors, priorities, and world views, the presence of deep uncertainties further challenges the decision-making framework by questioning the robustness of all purportedly optimal solutions. This paper summarizes the additional uncertainty that is created by climate change, and reviews the tools that are available to project climate change (including downscaling techniques) and to assess and quantify the corresponding uncertainty. Assuming that climate change and other deep uncertainties cannot be eliminated over the short term (and probably even over the longer term), it then summarizes existing decision-making methodologies that are able to deal with climate-related uncertainty, namely cost-benefit analysis under uncertainty, cost-benefit analysis with real options, robust decision making, and climate informed decision analysis. It also provides examples of applications of these methodologies, highlighting their pros and cons and their domain of applicability. The paper concludes that it is impossible to define the "best" solution or to prescribe any particular methodology in general. Instead...

Artículo de publicación ISI; Collaborative spatial decision making (CSDM) involves multiple stakeholders making strategic decisions based on spatial data. Current CSDM tools have been exploring different ways to integrate spatial data with collaboration, distribution and mobility. Notably, decision-making support has not seen the same level of attention. This paper discusses the challenges raised by the integration of decision-making models in CSDM tools. We review a large collection of decision-making models using three different views: sequential, dynamic and continuous. From this review we derive a conceptual model and a set of functional requirements necessary to integrate decision-making support in CSDM tools. The conceptual model highlights the importance of several functions in decision-making processes: representing problems, finding alternatives and making choices (sequential view); classification and communication (dynamic view); and perception, comprehension and projection (continuous view). The paper also describes a prototype developed to validate the model. The paper provides two main research contributions: a unified view of decision-making support and an innovative CSDM tool blending spatial data with decision-making support.; This research was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/EIAEIA/117058/2010).

This is the final version. It was first published by BioMed Central at http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6939/16/41#ack.; Background: Some people with progressive neurological diseases find they need additional support with eating and drinking at mealtimes, and may require artificial nutrition and hydration. Decisions concerning artificial nutrition and hydration at the end of life are ethically complex, particularly if the individual lacks decision-making capacity. Decisions may concern issues of life and death: weighing the potential for increasing morbidity and prolonging suffering, with potentially shortening life. When individuals lack decision-making capacity, the standard processes of obtaining informed consent for medical interventions are disrupted. Increasingly multi-professional groups are being utilised to make difficult ethical decisions within healthcare. This paper reports upon a service evaluation which examined decision-making within a UK hospital Feeding Issues Multi-Professional Team. Methods: A three month observation of a hospital-based multi-professional team concerning feeding issues, and a one year examination of their records. The key research questions are: a) How are decisions made concerning artificial nutrition for individuals at risk of lacking decision-making capacity? b) What are the key decision-making factors that are balanced? c) Who is involved in the decision-making process? Results: Decision-making was not a singular decision...

This essay analyzes the decision-making processes used by government agencies to approve or reject projects that have significant impacts on the environment. One may believe that an agency will use a well-defined procedural process for making decisions, but in reality, various internal and external factors have greater influences over the decision maker. This essay examines some of the real-life inputs into the decision-making process and analyzes the results of three agency decisions that affected the environment. To begin with, I will describe some of the basic requirements for decision making as provided in the implementing regulations for the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). I will also discuss several academic observations about decision making with an emphasis on environmental assessments. I present three case studies involving different projects that were analyzed by government agencies using the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process. For each example, I provide an overview of the project and the significant issues as documented in the respective EISs. I also describe the agencies’ final decisions and the reasons given for each decision. I plan to demonstrate that government agencies tend to elevate social...

This is a case study on the detection of differences that have occurred in the structure and process that support effective teamwork and decision making among branches: Khonkaen Yone, Sarakram, Leiy, and Head office in Kow-Yoo-Hah Motor company (Thailand.) A comparative approach was considered to use in this research. The data collected from the four different branches were compared to each other in order to find out how they are different. The instrument used in this case study was the organization Team survey instrument developed by Boone and kilmann. The purpose of this case study was to look at differences that occurred among the four branches in the company in 1999. The survey was conducted in January 1 999 at the four branches of Kow-Yoo-Hah Motor Company (Thailand.) The questionnaires were administered to employees currently working at the company. Participation was done on a volunteer basic, and individual confidentiality was maintained. There were 35 participants in Khonkaen branch, 52 participants in Sarakram branch, 36 participants in Leiy branch, and 52 participants in Head office. The questionnaire is composed of four parts. Part I, the respondents were briefly asked to describe their jobs. In Part II, there are forty-six random place questions. The set of forty-six questions was divided in ten main factors: factor1 -Multiple Input and Alternatives...