ABSTRACT
In the previous chapters, the various procurement systems have been identified and described, and it is from this wide range of means of procuring the design, construction and other aspects of the project that the client has to select the most appropriate method to ensure that their needs and objectives are met. In order to understand how such selections should be and are made, it is first neces-
sary to recognise the principles of decision-making and choice in general. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines ‘decision’ as a ‘settlement (of question, etc.), conclusion, formal judgement; making up one’s mind, resolve; resoluteness, decided character’, which effectively boils down to a simpler and more straightforward definition: ‘The process of choosing one action from a number of alternatives.’ However, the act of reaching a decision (decision taking), no matter how the act
itself is defined, is only the final stage in the more dynamic process of decision making. When definitions of the whole process are examined, a common theme can be extracted of a dynamic process which starts by the identification of need and culminates in the act of making a choice between alternative means of satisfying such need(s). The examination of decision-making that now follows is therefore carried out by
looking at the process in its entirety rather than just the final act of reaching a decision.
12.2 Theoretical decision-making and choice
