ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the search for structuring the decision-making process by delineating common features between problems encountered in business, so that a common array of models and common methods for solving them can be outlined. Managers are concerned with steering and controlling industrial and business systems in order to achieve certain ends, usually defined in terms of characteristic behaviour or a series of performance criteria. The behaviour and performance of the systems, whether their purpose is the production of physical goods or the provision of services, depend on numerous variables. The result is a highly volatile mass of system attributes with various behavioural characteristics that often appear to be obscure and unpredictable. The foregoing discussion explains why management theorists and management consultants argue that further research needs to be done to refine and elaborate the proposed classification of decision-making processes.