The purpose of this text is to provide business students with an introduction to a range of methods for structuring decisions and problems, rather than solving them. All methods discussed are illustrated with case histories, which describe the sequence of events by which the method is applied. The format should make it possible for the reader to establish an informal view of what each methodology claims to be able to do.
Introduction - old and new paradigms of analysis, Jonathan Rosenhead; using cognitive mapping for strrategic options development and analysis (SODA), Colin Eden; SODA and cognitive mapping in practice, Colin Eden and Peter Simpson; soft systems methology, Peter Checkland; an application of soft systems methology, Peter Checkland; the strategic choice approach, John Friend; gambling with frozen fire?, Allen Hickling; robustness analysis - keeping your options open, Jonathan Rosenhead; robustness to the first degree, Jonathan Rosenhead; the manager as politician and general - the metagame approach to analyzing cooperation and conflict, Nigel Howard; the CONAN play - a case study illustrating the process of metagame analysis, Nigel Howard; modelling interactive decisions - the hypergame focus, Peter Bennett et al; using the hypergame perspective - a case study, Peter Bennett et al; diverse unity - the principles and prospects for problem structuring methods, Jonathan Rosenhead.