Decision Making Process Essay Example for Free

Decision Making Process Essay .Decision making is the study of identifying and choosing alternatives based on the values and preferences of the decision maker. Making a decision implies that there are alternative choices to be considered, and in such a case we want not only to identify as many of these alternatives as possible but to choose the one that best fits with our goals, objectives, desires, values, and so on.. (Harris (1980)) According to Baker et al. (2001), decision making should start with the identification of the decision maker(s) and stakeholder(s) in the decision, reducing the possible disagreement about problem definition, requirements, goals and criteria. Then, a general decision making process can be divided into the following steps: Step 1. Define the problem. This process must, as a minimum, identify root causes, limiting assumptions, system and organizational boundaries and interfaces, and any stakeholder issues. The goal is to express the issue in a clear, one-sentence problem statement that describes both the initial conditions and the desired conditions.. Of course, the one-sentence limit is often exceeded in the practice in case of complex decision problems. The problem statement must however be a concise and unambiguous written material agreed by all decision makers and stakeholders. Even if it can be sometimes a long iterative process to come to such an agreement, it is a crucial and necessary point before proceeding to the next step. Step 2. Determine requirements. Requirements are conditions that any acceptable solution to the problem must meet. Requirements spell out what the solution to the problem must do.. In mathematical form, these requirements are the constraints describing the set of the feasible (admissible) solutions of the decision problem. It is very important that even if subjective or judgmental evaluations may occur in the following steps, the requirements must be stated in exact quantitative form, i. e. for any possible solution it has to be decided unambiguously whether it meets the requirements or not. We can prevent the ensuing debates by putting down the requirements and how to check them in a written material. Step 3. Establish goals. Goals are broad statements of intent and desirable programmatic values. Goals go beyond the minimum essential must have. s (i. e. requirements) to wants and desires.. In mathematical form, the goals are objectives contrary to the requirements that are constraints. The goals may be conflicting but this is a natural concomitant of practical decision situations. Step 4. Identify alternatives. Alternatives offer different approaches for changing the initial condition into the desired condition.. Be it an existing one or only constructed in mind, any alternative must meet the requirements. If the number of the possible alternatives is finite, we can check one by one if it to meets the requirements. The infeasible ones must be deleted (screened out) from the further consideration, and we obtain the explicit list of the alternatives. If the number of the possible alternatives is infinite, the set of alternatives is considered as the set of the solutions fulfilling the constraints in the mathematical form of the requirements. Step 5. Define criteria. Decision criteria, which will discriminate among alternatives, must be based on the goals. It is necessary to define discriminating criteria as objective measures of the goals to measure how well each alternative achieves the goals.. Since the goals will be represented in the form of criteria, every goal must generate at least one criterion but complex goals may be represented only by several criteria. It can be helpful to group together criteria into a series of sets that relate to separate and distinguishable components of the overall objective for the decision. This is particularly helpful if the emerging decision structure contains a relatively large number of criteria. Grouping criteria can help the process of checking whether the set of criteria selected is appropriate to the problem, can ease the process of calculating criteria weights in some methods, and can facilitate the emergence of higher level views of the issues. It is a usual way to arrange the groups of criteria, subcriteria, and sub-subcriteria in a tree-structure (UK DTLR (2001)). According to Baker et al. (2001), criteria should be †¢ able to discriminate among the alternatives and to support the comparison of the performance of the alternatives, †¢ complete to include all goals, †¢ operational and meaningful, †¢ non-redundant, †¢ few in number. In some methods, see Keeney and Raiffa (1976), non-redundancy is required in the form of independency. We mention that some authors use the word attribute instead of criterion. Attribute is also sometimes used to refer to a measurable criterion. Step 6. Select a decision making tool There are several tools for solving a decision problem. Some of them will be briefly described here,and references of further readings will also be proposed. The selection of an appropriate tool is not an easy task and depends on the concrete decision problem, as well as on the objectives of the decision makers. Sometimes . the simpler the method, the better. but complex decision problems may require complex methods, as well. Step 7. Evaluate alternatives against criteria Every correct method for decision making needs, as input data, the evaluation of the alternatives against the criteria. Depending on the criterion, the assessment may be objective (factual), with respect to some commonly shared and understood scale of measurement (e. g. money) or can be subjective (judgmental), reflecting the subjective assessment of the evaluator. After the evaluations the selected decision making tool can be applied to rank the alternatives or to choose a subset of the most promising alternatives. Step 8. Validate solutions against problem statement The alternatives selected by the applied decision making tools have always to be validated against the requirements and goals of the decision problem. It may happen that the decision making tool was misapplied. In complex problems the selected alternatives may also call the attention of the decision makers and stakeholders that further goals or requirements should be added to the decision model.

Kesey and Plath: A New American Myth :: Biography Biographies Essays

Kesey and Plath: A New American Myth A mutual friend sets up Ken Kesey and Sylvia Plath on a blind date. They meet in a Boston restaurant and discover they're both writers. Describe the ensuing conversation. Sept. 3, 1955 (from Sylvia's diary) It must have been some terrible mistake. Mother set me up with a certain Ken Kesey, a friend of a friend of the family. Terrible! We met at a restaurant on Harvard Square and it went downhill from there. I came home alright, but barely. I guess I can start from the beginning... Ken is large and very open with his body and gestures. He's from California, which could explain that. He dressed very casually and he had a crazy look in his eyes when he saw me. I don't know if he was happy to be there either. Apparently he goes to Stanford and is studying creative writing. I asked him about his writing and he started a whole speech on psychiatric wards and medications. I didn't want to hear a word about psychiatric wards, but he certainly got my interest. He volunteers to do experiments for money. I can't imagine going through what I went through voluntarily... I did venture to ask him why he was writing about hospitals and he looked very closely at me and said, "You've been there. I know." And he did. He was seeing inside me, all the way inside, and it was the most uncomfortable silence I've ever had. I mumbled an accusation and as soon as it came out, I knew my mother hadn't told him about all that. Dinner went alright, barring the conversation about hospitals. We walked around the square and by the river for awhile and then he invited me to his hotel room and I said no, but I really wanted to leave with him. I've been so bottled up for days... I wanted to do something different. We sat down facing Cambridge and he looked at me again, intently and laughed... "It's all black, isn't it? Then everything shuts down." Ken looked off toward the river. He started to laugh again. "I don't know what you're talking about." Sylvia put her knees closer together. Uncomfortable. "When they throw the switch. When it all shakes and then you black out. Then you can't think for days.

Hedda gabler Essay

Drama has no single definition and does not have a common meaning that can be applied to the wide range of texts, plays, acts, and various others that can be called drama. However, drama is â€Å"by far the most economical means of expression† (Esslin, 1976). The subjects expressed in drama are extensive and diverse and can be declared dramatically or subtly. A common and almost essential subject matter expressed in drama is the representation of social issues. Drama can be manipulated and used as a powerful political weapon; as propaganda. Indeed, during periods such as war, cinema and theatre were used commonly as a form of propaganda in order to gain the attention and support of the public. Perhaps then, drama’s representation of social issues differs from that of propaganda only in the way drama is used. Propaganda’s representation of social issues is often limited because of it being censored, controlled, in the hands of mainly the government. Its purpose is to persuade and convince a targeted audience of a central idea. Nonetheless, it can reflect social issues such as poverty, war, famine, or perhaps equality, democracy, peace. In Ibsen’s play Hedda Gabler, Ibsen is able to use this piece of drama as a tool to comment on social values and issues; these issues being about women and their place in a ‘double-standard society’. His message is subtle but strong. While this piece of drama represents a substantial social issue, it could also be used as propaganda to argue Ibsen’s views on women. Subsequently, Hedda Gabler, as a piece of drama representing social issues, differs only from the way propaganda may have represented it in that it is drama and its aim is to express not persuade. It also differs in the way it is used: as drama or as propaganda. The diverse forms of drama are able to express many different themes and issues, including many different social issues. These include marriage, gender and sexual equality, politics, war, crime, racism and discrimination, poverty, religion, and class division. Drama is a universal form of expression and communication that can contribute to social changes by the issues it discusses. The social issues that drama represents can often be controversial and the author, playwright, or poet must try to either convince the audience of the argument they are trying to make or present the audience with a final idea or the issue itself causing them to truly reflect on it. In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, the greedy Jew Shylock suffers the hatred and injustice which Jews were treated with. The play is able to represent the treatment of a racial minority and a significant social issue. Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, represents social issues such as the position of women in a Victorian marriage, while in Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession, the social issue of prostitution is represented. Shakespeare wrote through Hamlet, that theatre holds â€Å"the mirror up to nature† however, Martin Esslin writes that it is society, rather, that theatre holds a mirror to. Drama is able to influence society greatly by the social issues it represents. While these issues may sometimes be controversial, the impact of drama is more immediate, direct, and powerful, contributing to great social change. Propaganda is a certain form of message presentation usually aiming to persuade and convince an audience of an issue or idea. Sometimes it deliberately delivers false or deceiving information which supports the interests of those in power or those who are endeavoring to seize power while it may discredit those who abuse their power such as a corrupt government or simply an opposition group. Propaganda was commonly used in times of war or hardship. In this respect, it is able to represent social issues such as war, peace, poverty, or equality. However, propaganda’s representation of social issues is limited because it is a biased piece of information which only shows one side of an often multi-sided issue. One of the principal examples of propaganda was during the Nazi regime in Germany from 1933 to the end of World War Two. The Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda sent out powerful propaganda in order to win the hearts and minds of the masses. This propaganda represented social issues such as discrimination and hatred towards the Jews, strong patriotism, anti-Communism, and national socialism. As this Nazi propaganda was extremely biased, it fails to represent other social issues such as the violence of the Nazi regime and the â€Å"Final Solution† to the Jewish problem- their persecution and slaughter. Meanwhile, Chinese propaganda from the last two to three decades represents social issues such as loyalty to the Communist government while it fails to represent social issues like extreme poverty. The social issues it represents are limited because it is biased. In Soviet Russia, propaganda represented political discipline and economic prosperity, and social issues such as a happy working society and national literacy to strengthen Communism. It does not represent social issues such as the class divisions, religion, and social differences and inequalities. As the aim of propaganda is to persuade, only one side of an argument will be shown. Therefore, propaganda’s representation of social issues will be limited because it depends on the purpose and the creator to decide to what extent social issues may be represented. The way in which drama represents social issues may be different to that of propaganda, but drama can also be used as a form of propaganda. Drama in the form of theatre and cinema was used commonly as a propaganda tool in places like Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia in the 1960s. The German plays and movies often had issues of anti-Semitism and the rule of the Aryan race. Propaganda films such as Triumph of the Will were aimed at the population of Germans who were considered Aryans, of the issue of anti-Semitism and the enemy the Jews were, while also reinforcing the purity of the Aryan race. Another way drama has been used as propaganda has been through the ‘pageant’, one of the earliest forms of drama. The pageant is, in simplest terms, â€Å"a play on wheels†. However, in the United States in the 1900s, pageants were used to bring awareness to social issues in the form of propaganda. Silk workers went on strike in 1913 in New Jersey with the pageant exposing the strike and also gaining the attention of the media. Other strikes with similar purposes came to be known as the â€Å"Drama of Democracy†. They began to be used as political propaganda representing social issues such as work and wages, working conditions and hours. When drama is used as propaganda, its representation of social issues is limited in comparison to when it is simply drama. This is because drama and propaganda have different objectives and will represent the same thing differently.

Global Warming Causes And Effects - 880 Words

Global warming has increased significantly since the 1800s and is becoming a significant impact in our everyday lives. It is considered one of the most challenging environmental problems that exists today. Due to global warming, temperatures on Earth are rising and it’s affecting the way people live. Many people feel concerned about this issue while others could not care less. Developing countries do not understand the impact global warming has and how they should contribute to it while developed countries that contribute to global warming know that this situation is a big impact. Global warming is caused by a myriad of factors and as a result have negative effects on the people and how they live. The biggest cause of global warming is human expansion of the greenhouse effect, which is when the atmosphere traps in heat radiating from Earth towards space and as a result causes the Earth to be warm known as global warming. (Randal, Shaftel, and Tenenbaum). Global warming is caused by the emission of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which traps in heat making the planet warmer. Before the Industrial Revolution, â€Å"manufacturing was done in people’s homes using hand tools and basic machines.† During the 18th century of the Industrial Revolution, there was an increase of factories to help with manufacturing which dramatically changed human life and lifestyle. The steam engine, iron, and textile industries played big roles in the Industrial Revolution, which improvedShow MoreRelatedGlobal Warming : Causes And Effects905 Words   |  4 Pagesindependent variables that are contributing to the cause of a problem the world is currently faced with, global warming. What is global warming? Well, global warming is a rise in the Earth s average atmospheric temperature that causes corresponding changes in climate and that may result from the greenhouse effect (which I will talk more about.) Which is when our ozone layer has a hole which gradually increases, and increases heat from the sun. This causes major problems such as the polar caps meltingRead MoreCause And Effect Of Global Warming953 Words   |  4 Pagesunderstand the cause and effect of global warming, but it can take years for scientists to reach a consensus. The claims that global warming is the next apocalypse or is just some fairy tale lack scientific proof. These claims have confused the general public, and leave many citizens’ questions unanswered. Many people are concerned about the overall decline of environmental health due to an increase in man-made greenhouse gas emissions, but experts are now clarifying the debate on global warming with hardRead MoreGlobal Warming : Cause s And Effects1369 Words   |  6 PagesGlobal Warming: Clearing up the Confusion to Become Part of the Solution Global warming, often confused with the term â€Å"climate change,† is a problem of worldly proportions that knows no limits, caused in large part by human actions. If it continues unchecked, its effects will be felt around the planet, from human society, to the environment, to the world economy. The purpose of this research paper is to understand the topic of global warming, its causes and effects, in order to help understandRead MoreGlobal Warming : Causes And Effects1325 Words   |  6 Pages Global warming is already taking place. It stopped being a prediction. The temperature at the earth’s surface has averagely increased by around 0.60 C.Both the oceans and the air are warming. It is believed that the greenhouses gases’ concentrations in the atmosphere have increased dramatically since the periods of pre-industrialization. This condition is caused by the activities of human beings most especially through the burning of fossil fuels such as natural gas, oil,Read MoreGlobal Warming : Causes And Effects973 Words   |  4 PagesGlobal warming has become a massive problem throughout the world, and as the population grows so do the effects of climate change. What people do not know is that it is the leading cause of the earth’s end and might be a minor cause of death in the far future. Global warming is one of the many things that humans have caused that has no easy fix. Professors Charles Kennel, V. Ramanathan, and David G. Victor at the University of California – San Diego say that â€Å"Greenhouse gas concentrations are trendingRead MoreGlobal Warming : Causes And Effects1206 Words   |  5 PagesGlobal warming is a naturally occurring phenomenon within our planet that needs to be reduced because it is affecting us in many harmful ways. It is one of the most current and widely discussed factors. It has been impacting us negatively in ways such as biodiversity and climate conditions. Several curr ent trends clearly demonstrate that global warming is directly impacting on rising sea levels, the melting of ice caps and significant worldwide climate changes. Over the years, scientists have conductedRead MoreGlobal Warming : Causes And Effects1453 Words   |  6 PagesGlobal Warming Introduction A slight change in temperature may not seem that bad but a small rise in global temperature can do a lot of damage. Global warming is an increase in the earth s average atmospheric temperature that causes corresponding changes in climate [11]. This report is going to discuss the many causes of global warming as well as the effects that come with it. It will also discuss ways to prevent global warming from happening. Causes of Global Warming Global warming is whatRead MoreGlobal Warming : Cause And Effect1471 Words   |  6 Pages Global warming (Cause/Effect) Jimareo Kimmons Comp I Dr. Sarthou 10/30/2015 Droughts, lengthy hot spells, heavy downpours, floods, and other extreme weather events are occurring more frequently and intensely every year. Around the world, research teams are analyzing these trends, noting the changes in temperature, rainfall, ice mass, sea level, and many other variables recorded by weather measuring devices. The trends are undeniable: the Earth is getting warmer. Polar sea iceRead MoreGlobal Warming : Causes And Effects1381 Words   |  6 PagesEarth is broken, and we all had a hand in breaking it, inadvertently though it may have been, by adding an abundance of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere that contribute directly to global warming; and we continue to do so every time we start our car, turn up the heat, turn on the lights or throw away trash. Global warming is a problem, caused in large part by human activity, and as it stands, poses a monumental threat to the planet and all of its occupants; while mega polluters do not have an incentiveRead MoreGlo bal Warming: Causes and Effects1422 Words   |  6 Pagesï » ¿Global warming has been a very contentious issue of late in regards to environmental health and safety. Many pundits and critics alike exclaim that global warming is not as prevalent as individuals claim. One such pundit is that of George Will, whose article, Dark Green Doomsdayers indicates that global warming is simply a hoax. The statistics however prove otherwise. Global warming and its effects are far reaching. Society is affected due to higher frequency of natural disasters and drought.