On Linking Approaches to Decision-Aiding: Issues and Prospects

Abstract

This paper arises from some current attempts to being together several approaches designed to help decision-makers faced with complex, ‘messy’ problems. These include, inter alia, the strategic choice methodology, hypergame analysis and other game-based approaches, and methods making use of cognitive mapping.Some general issues pertinent to ‘linkage’ are discussed: differences in theoretical background between the approaches are noted, and some implications of these explored. With these in mind, a number of possible forms of linkage are suggested. Within this general framework, the paper discusses some specific pieces of work already done, and considers the prospects for further progress. Though it concentrates on work involving certain specific approaches, the issues raised are relevant to the linkage and/or classification of other decision-aiding methods.