USING VALUE-FOCUSED THINKING IN AN INTEGRATED PROCESS TO SUPPORT DECISIONS

Vieira, Gustavo Barbi; Souza, Ygor Logullo de; Simões, Amanda; de Almeida, Jônatas Araújo; Belderrain, Mischel Carmen Neyra

doi:10.1590/0101-7438.2023.043.00276110

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ARTICLES • Pesqui. Oper. 44 • 2024 • https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-7438.2023.043.00276110 copy

USING VALUE-FOCUSED THINKING IN AN INTEGRATED PROCESS TO SUPPORT DECISIONS

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

ABSTRACT

This work presents an integrated decision support process based on Value-Focused Thinking (VFT) applicable to personal and organizational decisions. There are three main goals of this research: (i) present a methodological discussion on Value-Focused Thinking (VFT) and depict how it can contribute to support decision processes; (ii) present an integrated guide for a decision-support process based on VFT to help analysts and decision-makers in conducting decision processes; (iii) present applications of the proposed approach in a personal and a public management problem. This work delivers two main contributions: (a) a unified process that integrates different approaches based on VFT with a consistent structure for sequencing the stages of the decision-making process; and (b) examples that demonstrate the use of the proposed process in real problems and different contexts, presenting insights not thoroughly explored in the literature.

Keywords:
value-focused thinking; decision analysis; mcda; air traffic management (ATM)

Value	Stated as	Value restated as an Objective
Woodworking	Activity	Have access to a woodworking shop
Account for respiratory condition	Circunstance	Avoid aggravating the respiratory condition
Not need a car	Concern	Have necessary goods and services nearby
Affordable	Criterion	Minimize living costs
Near my daughter	Desire	Minimize travel time from daughter’s home
Distance to major medical center	Metric	Have good access to medical care

Fundamental Objectives Candidates	Maximize company’s profit	Expand customer base
1-Will this objective contribute to my strategic objective(s)?	Yes, because it contributes to increasing the company’s profit (purpose) and satisfies the company’s president and financial manager (perspective)	Yes, because the essential goal of this decision is to expand the customer base (purpose), and it satisfies the president and the financial manager of the company, who want to increase the number of customers.
2-Is there any way to influence the achievement of this objective through alternatives from outside of my decision context?	One can maximize the company’s profit by reducing the cost of manufacturing products (without reducing sales revenue), reducing payroll expenses, investing exceeding capital in profitable financial operations, etc.	Yes. Other ways to influence achievement: Conduct marketing campaigns to attract new customers; expand services in physical stores, among others.
Control of Consequences:	Refinement of objective definition: *Maximize the company’s profit by adopting a new computational platform for the online sales service* .	Refinement of objective definition: *Expand customer base by adopting a new computational platform for the online sales service* .

Questions	Answers
What are we going to do?	Manufacture product efficiently (minimizing cost)
Why are we doing this?	Ensure successful product launch in the market in the upcoming year
How will we know that we have succeeded?	All participants (decision makers, subject matter experts, and stakeholders) are satisfied with the solution
Vision Statement	We will decide how to manufacture the product in the most cost-efficient way. We need to do this to ensure a successful product launch next year. We’ll know that we have succeeded if all participants are satisfied that we’ve chosen the best path forward

Type	Description	Goal
Decisions	Issues suggesting choices that can be made as part of a decision	Scope (it is the raw material for creating alternatives)
Uncertainties	Issues suggesting uncertainties that should be considered during the decision-making process	Checklist to be used in the analytical framework for evaluating alternatives
Values	Issues that refer to the measures that will be used to compare alternatives.	Checklist for defining the measures (criteria) for evaluating the alternatives
Other	Issues that do not fit into the other categories, such as those related to the decision process itself	Adjustments in the decision process

Level in the Hierarchy	Level Description	Allocation example
Upper Level	Done deals; predefined decisions and established policies.	Organization’s mission; Need to increase the capacity of data centers; Locate new datacenter outside the metropolitan area of the Capital; At least 50 MW of electrical power available.
Middle Level	Current Decision Focus; Strategic decisions to be made	Datacenter location, Datacenter facility security, floor space available (for operations and for administrative tasks), communications, power supply (primary and backup), and cooling (primary and backup).
Lower Level	Subsequent decisions. Tactical or implementation decisions postponed to the future.	Datacenter implementation, acquisition of land/facilities, missions assigned to the datacenter, acquisition of equipment, and continuity of operations.

Stakeholders	Interests regarding the decision
Father	The father is concerned about the difficulties faced by his wife and daughter regarding their access to online professional platforms (wife) and online educational platforms (wife and daughter); Also concerned about the family budget (cost of the solution);
Mother	The mother lacks an individual device to develop her professional activity (requires working with data sheets and presentations) and to use online educational platforms; On the other hand, she considers the acquisition of a new device as an investment (rather than an additional cost for the family);
Daughter	The daughter has been struggling to keep up with online school classes on her smartphone because the screen is too small and makes it difficult to view content and interact. In her opinion, the new device is an opportunity for better performance in virtual learning.

Classes of Problems	Tame problems	Messes	Wicked Problems	Wicked Messes
Mission Characteristics	Ends or goals are prescribed or apparent	Ends and means are unknown at the outset, to a lesser or greater degree	End is never fixed, means always invoke qualitative judgements; variable methodology and epistemology	End is non-existent, variable epistemology and ontology.
Mission Characteristics	Ends or goals are prescribed or apparent			Plausible alternative solutions can always be found
Solution Features	Analytical or algorithmic solution	Iterative, pan-system and evolutionary	Trial and error; no final strategies; discipline from constant testing.	Holistic (structural and mental); revolutionary
Problem examples	Lexical ordering; Analytical geometry	Architecture; Epidemic control; Lean production; Migration patterns	Diversity policy; Psychometric testing	Urban design; Ecological management
Characteristics of the dialogue between stakeholders	Linear, self-referential	Explorative, non-linear, systems analysis	Explorative, non-linear, risk disposition analysis	Imaginative, often chaotic and rhetorical

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