Search results for: consensus making
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 5400

Search results for: consensus making

5340 Development of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Proforma (E-ICP) to Improve Guideline Adherence in Emergency Department: Modified Delphi Study

Authors: Hancy Issac, Gerben Keijzers, Ian Yang, Clint Moloney, Jackie Lea, Melissa Taylor

Abstract:

Introduction: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease guideline non-adherence is associated with a reduction in health-related quality of life in patients (HRQoL). Improving guideline adherence has the potential to mitigate fragmented care thereby sustaining pulmonary function, preventing acute exacerbations, reducing economic health burdens, and enhancing HRQoL. The development of an electronic proforma stemming from expert consensus, including digital guideline resources and direct interdisciplinary referrals is hypothesised to improve guideline adherence and patient outcomes for emergency department (ED) patients with COPD. Aim: The aim of this study was to develop consensus among ED and respiratory staff for the correct composition of a COPD electronic proforma that aids in guideline adherence and management in the ED. Methods: This study adopted a mixed-method design to develop the most important indicators of care in the ED. The study involved three phases: (1) a systematic literature review and qualitative interdisciplinary staff interviews to assess barriers and solutions for guideline adherence and qualitative interdisciplinary staff interviews, (2) a modified Delphi panel to select interventions for the proforma, and (3) a consensus process through three rounds of scoring through a quantitative survey (ED and Respiratory consensus) and qualitative thematic analysis on each indicator. Results: The electronic proforma achieved acceptable and good internal consistency through all iterations from national emergency department and respiratory department interdisciplinary experts. Cronbach’s alpha score for internal consistency (α) in iteration 1 emergency department cohort (EDC) (α = 0.80 [CI = 0.89%]), respiratory department cohort (RDC) (α = 0.95 [CI = 0.98%]). Iteration 2 reported EDC (α = 0.85 [CI = 0.97%]) and RDC (α = 0.86 [CI = 0.97%]). Iteration 3 revealed EDC (α = 0.73 [CI = 0.91%]) and RDC (α = 0.86 [CI = 0.95%]), respectively. Conclusion: Electronic proformas have the potential to facilitate direct referrals from the ED leading to reduced hospital admissions, reduced length of hospital stays, holistic care, improved health care and quality of life and improved interdisciplinary guideline adherence.

Keywords: COPD, electronic proforma, modified delphi study, interdisciplinary, guideline adherence, COPD-X plan

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5339 A Social Decision Support Mechanism for Group Purchasing

Authors: Lien-Fa Lin, Yung-Ming Li, Fu-Shun Hsieh

Abstract:

With the advancement of information technology and development of group commerce, people have obviously changed in their lifestyle. However, group commerce faces some challenging problems. The products or services provided by vendors do not satisfactorily reflect customers’ opinions, so that the sale and revenue of group commerce gradually become lower. On the other hand, the process for a formed customer group to reach group-purchasing consensus is time-consuming and the final decision is not the best choice for each group members. In this paper, we design a social decision support mechanism, by using group discussion message to recommend suitable options for group members and we consider social influence and personal preference to generate option ranking list. The proposed mechanism can enhance the group purchasing decision making efficiently and effectively and venders can provide group products or services according to the group option ranking list.

Keywords: social network, group decision, text mining, group commerce

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5338 Setting Ground for Improvement of Knowledge Managament System in the Educational Organization

Authors: Mladen Djuric, Ivan Janicijevic, Sasa Lazarevic

Abstract:

One of the organizational issues is how to develop and shape decision making and knowledge management systems which will continually avoid traps of both paralyses by analyses“ and extinction by instinct“, the concepts that are a kind of tolerant limits anti-patterns which define what we can call decision making and knowledge management patterns control zone. This paper discusses potentials for development of a core base for recognizing, capturing, and analyzing anti-patterns in the educational organization, thus creating a space for improving decision making and knowledge management processes in education.

Keywords: anti-patterns, decision making, education, knowledge management

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5337 An Exploration of the Dimensions of Place-Making: A South African Case Study

Authors: W. J. Strydom, K. Puren

Abstract:

Place-making is viewed here as an empowering process in which people represent, improve and maintain their spatial (natural or built) environment. With the above-mentioned in mind, place-making is multi-dimensional and include a spatial dimension (including visual properties or the end product/plan), a procedural dimension during which (negotiation/discussion of ideas with all relevant stakeholders in terms of end product/plan) and a psychological dimension (inclusion of intrinsic values and meanings related to a place in the end product/plan). These three represent dimensions of place-making. The purpose of this paper is to explore these dimensions of place-making in a case study of a local community in Ikageng, Potchefstroom, North-West Province, South Africa. This case study represents an inclusive process that strives to empower a local community (forcefully relocated due to Apartheid legislation in South Africa). This case study focussed on the inclusion of participants in the decision-making process regarding their daily environment. By means of focus group discussions and a collaborative design workshop, data is generated and ultimately creates a linkage with the theoretical dimensions of place-making. This paper contributes to the field of spatial planning due to the exploration of the dimensions of place-making and the relevancy of this process on spatial planning (especially in a South African setting).

Keywords: community engagement, place-making, planning theory, spatial planning

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5336 Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Based on Ignatian Discernment Process

Authors: Pathinathan Theresanathan, Ajay Minj

Abstract:

Ignatian Discernment Process (IDP) is an intense decision-making tool to decide on life-issues. Decisions are influenced by various factors outside of the decision maker and inclination within. This paper develops IDP in the context of Fuzzy Multi-criteria Decision Making (FMCDM) process. Extended VIKOR method is a decision-making method which encompasses even conflict situations and accommodates weightage to various issues. Various aspects of IDP, namely three ways of decision making and tactics of inner desires, are observed, analyzed and articulated within the frame work of fuzzy rules. The decision-making situations are broadly categorized into two types. The issues outside of the decision maker influence the person. The inner feeling also plays vital role in coming to a conclusion. IDP integrates both the categories using Extended VIKOR method. Case studies are carried out and analyzed with FMCDM process. Finally, IDP is verified with an illustrative case study and results are interpreted. A confused person who could not come to a conclusion is able to take decision on a concrete way of life through IDP. The proposed IDP model recommends an integrated and committed approach to value-based decision making.

Keywords: AHP, FMCDM, IDP, ignatian discernment, MCDM, VIKOR

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5335 Team Cognitive Heterogeneity and Strategic Decision-Making Flexibility: The Role of Transactive Memory System and Task Complexity

Authors: Rui Xing, Baolin Ye, Nan Zhou, Guohong Wang

Abstract:

Drawing upon a perspective of cognitive interaction, this study explores the relationship between team cognitive heterogeneity and team strategic decision-making flexibility, treating the transactive memory system as a mediator and task complexity as a moderator. The hypotheses were tested in linear regression models by using data gathered from 67 strategic decision-making teams in the new-energy vehicle industry. It is found that team cognitive heterogeneity has a positive impact on strategic decision-making flexibility through the mediation of specialization and coordination of the transactive memory system, which is positively moderated by task complexity.

Keywords: strategic decision-making flexibility, team cognitive heterogeneity, transactive memory system, task complexity

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5334 Understanding the Importance of Participation in the City Planning Process and Its Influencing Factors

Authors: Louis Nwachi

Abstract:

Urban planning systems in most countries still rely on expert-driven, top-down technocratic plan-making processes rather than a public and people-led process. This paper set out to evaluate the need for public participation in the plan-making process and to highlight the factors that affect public participation in the plan-making process. In doing this, it adopted a qualitative approach based on document review and interviews taken from real-world phenomena. A case study strategy using the Metropolitan Area of Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, as the study sample was used in carrying out the research. The research finds that participation is an important tool in the plan-making process and that public engagement in the process contributes to the identification of key urban issues that are unique to the specific local areas, thereby contributing to the establishment of priorities and, in turn, to the mobilization of resources to meet the identified needs. It also finds that the development of a participation model by city authorities encourages public engagement and helps to develop trust between those in authority and the different key stakeholder groups involved in the plan-making process.

Keywords: plan-making, participation, urban planning, city

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5333 Management Information System to Help Managers for Providing Decision Making in an Organization

Authors: Ajayi Oluwasola Felix

Abstract:

Management information system (MIS) provides information for the managerial activities in an organization. The main purpose of this research is, MIS provides accurate and timely information necessary to facilitate the decision-making process and enable the organizations planning control and operational functions to be carried out effectively. Management information system (MIS) is basically concerned with processing data into information and is then communicated to the various departments in an organization for appropriate decision-making. MIS is a subset of the overall planning and control activities covering the application of humans technologies, and procedures of the organization. The information system is the mechanism to ensure that information is available to the managers in the form they want it and when they need it.

Keywords: Management Information Systems (MIS), information technology, decision-making, MIS in Organizations

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5332 Business Intelligence Proposal to Improve Decision Making in Companies Using Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Power BI

Authors: Joel Vilca Tarazona, Igor Aguilar-Alonso

Abstract:

The problem of this research related to business intelligence is the lack of a tool that supports automated and efficient financial analysis for decision-making and allows an evaluation of the financial statements, which is why the availability of the information is difficult. Relevant information to managers and users as an instrument in decision making financial, and administrative. For them, a business intelligence solution is proposed that will reduce information access time, personnel costs, and process automation, proposing a 4-layer architecture based on what was reviewed by the research methodology.

Keywords: decision making, business intelligence, Google Cloud, Microsoft Power BI

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5331 The Quotation-Based Algorithm for Distributed Decision Making

Authors: Gennady P. Ginkul, Sergey Yu. Soloviov

Abstract:

The article proposes to use so-called "quotation-based algorithm" for simulation of decision making process in distributed expert systems and multi-agent systems. The idea was adopted from the techniques for group decision-making. It is based on the assumption that one expert system to perform its logical inference may use rules from another expert system. The application of the algorithm was demonstrated on the example in which the consolidated decision is the decision that requires minimal quotation.

Keywords: backward chaining inference, distributed expert systems, group decision making, multi-agent systems

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5330 Factors Affecting Employee Decision Making in an AI Environment

Authors: Yogesh C. Sharma, A. Seetharaman

Abstract:

The decision-making process in humans is a complicated system influenced by a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Human decisions have a ripple effect on subsequent decisions. In this study, the scope of human decision making is limited to employees. In an organisation, a person makes a variety of decisions from the time they are hired to the time they retire. The goal of this research is to identify various elements that influence decision-making. In addition, the environment in which a decision is made is a significant aspect of the decision-making process. Employees in today's workplace use artificial intelligence (AI) systems for automation and decision augmentation. The impact of AI systems on the decision-making process is examined in this study. This research is designed based on a systematic literature review. Based on gaps in the literature, limitations and the scope of future research have been identified. Based on these findings, a research framework has been designed to identify various factors affecting employee decision making. Employee decision making is influenced by technological advancement, data-driven culture, human trust, decision automation-augmentation, and workplace motivation. Hybrid human-AI systems require the development of new skill sets and organisational design. Employee psychological safety and supportive leadership influences overall job satisfaction.

Keywords: employee decision making, artificial intelligence (AI) environment, human trust, technology innovation, psychological safety

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5329 Youth Intelligent Personal Decision Aid

Authors: Norfiza Ibrahim, Norshuhada Shiratuddin, Siti Mahfuzah Sarif

Abstract:

Decision-making system is used to facilitate people in making the right choice for their important daily activities. For the youth, proper guidance in making important decisions is needed. Their skills in decision-making aid decisions will indirectly affect their future. For that reason, this study focuses on the intelligent aspects in the development of intelligent decision support application. The aid apparently integrates Personality Traits (PT) and Multiple Intelligence (MI) data in development of a computerized personal decision aid for youth named as Youth Personal Decision Aid (Youth PDA). This study is concerned with the aid’s helpfulness based on the hybrid intelligent process. There are four main items involved which are reliability, decision making effort, confidence, as well as decision process awareness. Survey method was applied to the actual user of this system, namely the school and the Institute of Higher Education (IPT)’s students. An establish instrument was used to evaluate the study. The results of the analysis and findings in the assessment indicates a high mean value of the four dimensions in helping Youth PDA to be accepted as a useful tool for the youth in decision-making.

Keywords: decision support, multiple intelligent, personality traits, youth personal decision aid

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5328 Employing Operations Research at Universities to Build Management Systems

Authors: Abdallah A. Hlayel

Abstract:

Operations research science (OR) deals with good success in developing and applying scientific methods for problem solving and decision-making. However, by using OR techniques, we can enhance the use of computer decision support systems to achieve optimal management for institutions. OR applies comprehensive analysis including all factors that affect on it and builds mathematical modeling to solve business or organizational problems. In addition, it improves decision-making and uses available resources efficiently. The adoption of OR by universities would definitely contributes to the development and enhancement of the performance of OR techniques. This paper provides an understanding of the structures, approaches and models of OR in problem solving and decision-making.

Keywords: best candidates' method, decision making, decision support system, operations research

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5327 Pakistan’s Counterinsurgency Operations: A Case Study of Swat

Authors: Arshad Ali

Abstract:

The Taliban insurgency in Swat which started apparently as a social movement in 2004 transformed into an anti-Pakistan Islamist insurgency by joining hands with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) upon its formation in 2007. It quickly spread beyond Swat by 2009 making Swat the second stronghold of TTP after FATA. It prompted the Pakistan military to launch a full-scale counterinsurgency military operation code named Rah-i-Rast to regain the control of Swat. Operation Rah-i-Rast was successful not only in restoring the writ of the State but more importantly in creating a consensus against the spread of Taliban insurgency in Pakistan at political, social and military levels. This operation became a test case for civilian government and military to seek for a sustainable solution combating the TTP insurgency in the north-west of Pakistan. This study analyzes why the counterinsurgency operation Rah-i-Rast was successful and why the previous ones came into failure. The study also explores factors which created consensus against the Taliban insurgency at political and social level as well as reasons which hindered such a consensual approach in the past. The study argues that the previous initiatives failed due to various factors including Pakistan army’s lack of comprehensive counterinsurgency model, weak political will and public support, and states negligence. Also, the initial counterinsurgency policies were ad-hoc in nature fluctuating between military operations and peace deals. After continuous failure, the military revisited its approach to counterinsurgency in the operation Rah-i-Rast. The security forces learnt from their past experiences and developed a pragmatic counterinsurgency model: ‘clear, hold, build, and transfer.’ The military also adopted the population-centric approach to provide security to the local people. This case Study of Swat evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the Pakistan's counterinsurgency operations as well as peace agreements. It will analyze operation Rah-i-Rast in the light of David Galula’s model of counterinsurgency. Unlike existing literature, the study underscores the bottom up approach adopted by the Pakistan’s military and government by engaging the local population to sustain the post-operation stability in Swat. More specifically, the study emphasizes on the hybrid counterinsurgency model “clear, hold, and build and Transfer” in Swat.

Keywords: Insurgency, Counterinsurgency, clear, hold, build, transfer

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5326 Decision Making System for Clinical Datasets

Authors: P. Bharathiraja

Abstract:

Computer Aided decision making system is used to enhance diagnosis and prognosis of diseases and also to assist clinicians and junior doctors in clinical decision making. Medical Data used for decision making should be definite and consistent. Data Mining and soft computing techniques are used for cleaning the data and for incorporating human reasoning in decision making systems. Fuzzy rule based inference technique can be used for classification in order to incorporate human reasoning in the decision making process. In this work, missing values are imputed using the mean or mode of the attribute. The data are normalized using min-ma normalization to improve the design and efficiency of the fuzzy inference system. The fuzzy inference system is used to handle the uncertainties that exist in the medical data. Equal-width-partitioning is used to partition the attribute values into appropriate fuzzy intervals. Fuzzy rules are generated using Class Based Associative rule mining algorithm. The system is trained and tested using heart disease data set from the University of California at Irvine (UCI) Machine Learning Repository. The data was split using a hold out approach into training and testing data. From the experimental results it can be inferred that classification using fuzzy inference system performs better than trivial IF-THEN rule based classification approaches. Furthermore it is observed that the use of fuzzy logic and fuzzy inference mechanism handles uncertainty and also resembles human decision making. The system can be used in the absence of a clinical expert to assist junior doctors and clinicians in clinical decision making.

Keywords: decision making, data mining, normalization, fuzzy rule, classification

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5325 Decision Making, Reward Processing and Response Selection

Authors: Benmansour Nassima, Benmansour Souheyla

Abstract:

The appropriate integration of reward processing and decision making provided by the environment is vital for behavioural success and individuals’ well being in everyday life. Functional neurological investigation has already provided an inclusive image on affective and emotional (motivational) processing in the healthy human brain and has recently focused its interest also on the assessment of brain function in anxious and depressed individuals. This article offers an overview on the theoretical approaches that relate emotion and decision-making, and spotlights investigation with anxious or depressed individuals to reveal how emotions can interfere with decision-making. This research aims at incorporating the emotional structure based on response and stimulation with a Bayesian approach to decision-making in terms of probability and value processing. It seeks to show how studies of individuals with emotional dysfunctions bear out that alterations of decision-making can be considered in terms of altered probability and value subtraction. The utmost objective is to critically determine if the probabilistic representation of belief affords could be a critical approach to scrutinize alterations in probability and value representation in subjective with anxiety and depression, and draw round the general implications of this approach.

Keywords: decision-making, motivation, alteration, reward processing, response selection

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5324 A Pedagogical Case Study on Consumer Decision Making Models: A Selection of Smart Phone Apps

Authors: Yong Bum Shin

Abstract:

This case focuses on Weighted additive difference, Conjunctive, Disjunctive, and Elimination by aspects methodologies in consumer decision-making models and the Simple additive weighting (SAW) approach in the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) area. Most decision-making models illustrate that the rank reversal phenomenon is unpreventable. This paper presents that rank reversal occurs in popular managerial methods such as Weighted Additive Difference (WAD), Conjunctive Method, Disjunctive Method, Elimination by Aspects (EBA) and MCDM methods as well as such as the Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) and finally Unified Commensurate Multiple (UCM) models which successfully addresses these rank reversal problems in most popular MCDM methods in decision-making area.

Keywords: multiple criteria decision making, rank inconsistency, unified commensurate multiple, analytic hierarchy process

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5323 The Aspect of the Human Bias in Decision Making within Quality Management Systems and LEAN Theory

Authors: Adriana Avila Zuniga Nordfjeld

Abstract:

This paper provides a literature review to document the state of the art with respect to handling 'human bias' in decision making within the established quality management systems (QMS) and LEAN theory, in the context of shipbuilding. Previous research shows that in shipbuilding there is a huge deviation from the planned man-hours under the project management to the actual man-hours used because of errors in planning and reworks caused by human bias in the information flows among others. This reduces the efficiency and increases operational costs. Thus, the research question is how QMS and LEAN handle biases. The findings show the gap in studying the integration of methods to handle human bias in decision making into QMS and lean, not only within shipbuilding but also in general. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed for researchers and practitioners in the areas of decision making QMS, LEAN, and future research is suggested.

Keywords: human bias, decision making, LEAN shipbuilding, quality management systems

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5322 Decision-Making using Fuzzy Linguistic Hypersoft Set Topology

Authors: Muhammad Saqlain, Poom Kumam

Abstract:

Language being an abstract system and creative act, is quite complicated as its meaning varies depending on the context. The context is determined by the empirical knowledge of a person, which is derived from observation and experience. About further subdivided attributes, the decision-making challenges may entail quantitative and qualitative factors. However, because there is no norm for putting a numerical value on language, existing approaches cannot carry out the operations of linguistic knowledge. The assigning of mathematical values (fuzzy, intuitionistic, and neutrosophic) to any decision-making problem; without considering any rule of linguistic knowledge is ambiguous and inaccurate. Thus, this paper aims to provide a generic model for these issues. This paper provides the linguistic set structure of the fuzzy hypersoft set (FLHSS) to solve decision-making issues. We have proposed the definition some basic operations like AND, NOT, OR, AND, compliment, negation, etc., along with Topology and examples, and properties. Secondly, the operational laws for the fuzzy linguistic hypersoft set have been proposed to deal with the decision-making issues. Implementing proposed aggregate operators and operational laws can be used to convert linguistic quantifiers into numerical values. This will increase the accuracy and precision of the fuzzy hypersoft set structure to deal with decision-making issues.

Keywords: linguistic quantifiers, aggregate operators, multi-criteria decision making (mcdm)., fuzzy topology

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5321 Personality as a Determinant of Career Decision-Making Difficulties in a Higher Educational Institution in Ghana

Authors: Gladys Maame Akua Setordzie

Abstract:

Decision on one’s future career is said to have both beneficial and detrimental effects on one’s mental health, social and economic standing later in life, making it an important developmental problem for young people. In this light, the study’s overarching goal was to assess how different personality traits serve as a determinant of career decision-making difficulties experienced by university students in Ghana. Specifically, for the purpose of shaping the future of individualized career counselling support, the study investigated whether the “Big Five” personality traits influenced the difficulties students at the University of Ghana encounter while making career decisions. Cross-sectional survey design using a stratified random sampling technique, sampled 494 undergraduate students from the University of Ghana, who completed the Big Five Questionnaire and the Career Decision-making Difficulties Questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that neuroticism, consciousness, and openness, accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in career decision-making difficulties. This study provides empirical evidence to support the idea that neuroticism is not necessarily a negative emotion when it comes to career decisionmaking, as has been suggested in previous studies, but rather it allows students to perform better in career decision-making. These results suggests that personality traits play a significant role in the career decision-making process of students of the University of Ghana. Therefore, a better understanding of how different personal and interpersonal factors impact career indecision in students could help career counsellors develop more focused vocational and career guidance interventions.

Keywords: career decision-making difficulties, dysfunctional career beliefs, personality traits, young people

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5320 Possibilistic Aggregations in the Investment Decision Making

Authors: I. Khutsishvili, G. Sirbiladze, B. Ghvaberidze

Abstract:

This work proposes a fuzzy methodology to support the investment decisions. While choosing among competitive investment projects, the methodology makes ranking of projects using the new aggregation OWA operator – AsPOWA, presented in the environment of possibility uncertainty. For numerical evaluation of the weighting vector associated with the AsPOWA operator the mathematical programming problem is constructed. On the basis of the AsPOWA operator the projects’ group ranking maximum criteria is constructed. The methodology also allows making the most profitable investments into several of the project using the method developed by the authors for discrete possibilistic bicriteria problems. The article provides an example of the investment decision-making that explains the work of the proposed methodology.

Keywords: expert evaluations, investment decision making, OWA operator, possibility uncertainty

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5319 Attachment and Decision-Making in Infertility

Authors: Anisa Luli, Alessandra Santona

Abstract:

Wanting a child and experiencing the impossibility to conceive is a painful condition that often is linked to infertility and often leads infertile individuals to experience psychological, relational and social problems. In this situation, infertile couples have to review their choices and take into consideration new ones. Few studies have focused on the decision-making style used by infertile individuals to solve their problem and on the factors that influences it. The aim of this paper is to define the style of decision-making used by infertile persons to give a solution to the “problem” and the predictive role of the attachment, of the representations of the relationship with parents in childhood and of the dyadic adjustment. The total sample is composed by 251 participants, divided in two groups: the experimental group composed by 114 participants, 62 males and 52 females, age between 25 and 59 years, and the control group composed by 137 participants, 65 males and 72 females, age between 22 and 49 years. The battery of instruments comprises: General Decision Making Style (GDMS), Experiences in Close Relationships Questionnaire Revised (ECR-R), Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R). The results from the analysis of the samples showed a prevalence of the rational decision-making style for both males and females, experimental and control group. There have been founded significant statistical relationships between the attachment scales, the representations of the parenting style, the dyadic adjustment and the decision-making styles. These results contribute to enrich the literature on the subject of decision-making in infertile people and show the relationship between the attachment and decision-making styles, confirming the few results in literature.

Keywords: attachment, decision-making style, infertility, dyadic adjustment

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5318 Delay Studies in Construction: Synthesis, Critical Evaluation, and the Way Forward

Authors: Abdullah Alsehaimi

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Over decades, there have been many studies of delay in construction, and this type of study continues to be popular in construction management research. A synthesis and critical evaluation of delay studies in developing countries reveals that poor project management is cited as one of the main causes of delay. However, despite such consensus, most of the previous studies fall short in providing clear recommendations demonstrating how project management practice could be improved. Moreover, the majority of recommendations are general and not devoted to solving the difficulties associated with particular delay causes. This paper aims to demonstrate that the root cause of this state of affairs is that typical research into delay tends to be descriptive and explanatory, making it inadequate for solving persistent managerial problems in construction. It is contended that many problems in construction could be mitigated via alternative research approaches, i.e. action and constructive research. Such prescriptive research methods can assist in the development and implementation of innovative tools tackling managerial problems of construction, including that of delay. In so doing, those methods will better connect research and practice, and thus strengthen the relevance of academic construction management.

Keywords: construction delay, action research, constructive research, industrial engineering

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5317 Public Values in Service Innovation Management: Case Study in Elderly Care in Danish Municipality

Authors: Christian T. Lystbaek

Abstract:

Background: The importance of innovation management has traditionally been ascribed to private production companies, however, there is an increasing interest in public services innovation management. One of the major theoretical challenges arising from this situation is to understand public values justifying public services innovation management. However, there is not single and stable definition of public value in the literature. The research question guiding this paper is: What is the supposed added value operating in the public sphere? Methodology: The study takes an action research strategy. This is highly contextualized methodology, which is enacted within a particular set of social relations into which on expects to integrate the results. As such, this research strategy is particularly well suited for its potential to generate results that can be applied by managers. The aim of action research is to produce proposals with a creative dimension capable of compelling actors to act in a new and pertinent way in relation to the situations they encounter. The context of the study is a workshop on public services innovation within elderly care. The workshop brought together different actors, such as managers, personnel and two groups of users-citizens (elderly clients and their relatives). The process was designed as an extension of the co-construction methods inherent in action research. Scenario methods and focus groups were applied to generate dialogue. The main strength of these techniques is to gather and exploit as much data as possible by exposing the discourse of justification used by the actors to explain or justify their points of view when interacting with others on a given subject. The approach does not directly interrogate the actors on their values, but allows their values to emerge through debate and dialogue. Findings: The public values related to public services innovation management in elderly care were identified in two steps. In the first step, identification of values, values were identified in the discussions. Through continuous analysis of the data, a network of interrelated values was developed. In the second step, tracking group consensus, we then ascertained the degree to which the meaning attributed to the value was common to the participants, classifying the degree of consensus as high, intermediate or low. High consensus corresponds to strong convergence in meaning, intermediate to generally shared meanings between participants, and low to divergences regarding the meaning between participants. Only values with high or intermediate degree of consensus were retained in the analysis. Conclusion: The study shows that the fundamental criterion for justifying public services innovation management is the capacity for actors to enact public values in their work. In the workshop, we identified two categories of public values, intrinsic value and behavioural values, and a list of more specific values.

Keywords: public services innovation management, public value, co-creation, action research

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5316 A Review of Serious Games Characteristics: Common and Specific Aspects

Authors: B. Ben Amara, H. Mhiri Sellami

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Serious games adoption is increasing in multiple fields, including health, education, and business. In the same way, many research studied serious games (SGs) for various purposes such as classification, positive impacts, or learning outcomes. Although most of these research examine SG characteristics (SGCs) for conducting their studies, to author’s best knowledge, there is no consensus about features neither in number not in the description. In this paper, we conduct a literature review to collect essential game attributes regardless of the application areas and the study objectives. Firstly, we aimed to define Common SGCs (CSGCs) that characterize the game aspect, by gathering features having the same meanings. Secondly, we tried to identify specific features related to the application area or to the study purpose as a serious aspect. The findings suggest that any type of SG can be defined by a number of CSGCs depicting the gaming side, such as adaptability and rules. In addition, we outlined a number of specific SGCs describing the 'serious' aspect, including specific needs of the domain and indented outcomes. In conclusion, our review showed that it is possible to bridge the research gap due to the lack of consensus by using CSGCs. Moreover, these features facilitate the design and development of successful serious games in any domain and provide a foundation for further research in this area.

Keywords: serious game characteristics, serious games common aspects, serious games features, serious games outcomes

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5315 Review of Models of Consumer Behaviour and Influence of Emotions in the Decision Making

Authors: Mikel Alonso López

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In order to begin the process of studying the task of making consumer decisions, the main decision models must be analyzed. The objective of this task is to see if there is a presence of emotions in those models, and analyze how authors that have created them consider their impact in consumer choices. In this paper, the most important models of consumer behavior are analysed. This review is useful to consider an unproblematic background knowledge in the literature. The order that has been established for this study is chronological.

Keywords: consumer behaviour, emotions, decision making, consumer psychology

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5314 An Integreated Intuitionistic Fuzzy ELECTRE Model for Multi-Criteria Decision-Making

Authors: Babek Erdebilli

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The aim of this study is to develop and describe a new methodology for the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) problem using IFE (Elimination Et Choix Traduisant La Realite (ELECTRE) model. The proposed models enable Decision-Makers (DMs) on the assessment and use Intuitionistic Fuzzy Numbers (IFN). A numerical example is provided to demonstrate and clarify the proposed analysis procedure. Also, an empirical experiment is conducted to validation the effectiveness.

Keywords: multi-criteria decision-making, IFE, DM’s, fuzzy electre model

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5313 Strategic Management Methods in Non-Profit Making Organization

Authors: P. Řehoř, D. Holátová, V. Doležalová

Abstract:

Paper deals with analysis of strategic management methods in non-profit making organization in the Czech Republic. Strategic management represents an aggregate of methods and approaches that can be applied for managing organizations - in this article the organizations which associate owners and keepers of non-state forest properties. Authors use these methods of strategic management: analysis of stakeholders, SWOT analysis and questionnaire inquiries. The questionnaire was distributed electronically via e-mail. In October 2013 we obtained data from a total of 84 questionnaires. Based on the results the authors recommend the using of confrontation strategy which improves the competitiveness of non-profit making organizations.

Keywords: strategic management, non-profit making organization, strategy analysis, SWOT analysis, strategy, competitiveness

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5312 Importance of Risk Assessment in Managers´ Decision-Making Process

Authors: Mária Hudáková, Vladimír Míka, Katarína Hollá

Abstract:

Making decisions is the core of management and a result of conscious activities which is under way in a particular environment and concrete conditions. The managers decide about the goals, procedures and about the methods how to respond to the changes and to the problems which developed. Their decisions affect the effectiveness, quality, economy and the overall successfulness in every organisation. In spite of this fact, they do not pay sufficient attention to the individual steps of the decision-making process. They emphasise more how to cope with the individual methods and techniques of making decisions and forget about the way how to cope with analysing the problem or assessing the individual solution variants. In many cases, the underestimating of the analytical phase can lead to an incorrect assessment of the problem and this can then negatively influence its further solution. Based on our analysis of the theoretical solutions by individual authors who are dealing with this area and the realised research in Slovakia and also abroad we can recognise an insufficient interest of the managers to assess the risks in the decision-making process. The goal of this paper is to assess the risks in the managers´ decision-making process relating to the conditions of the environment, to the subject’s activity (the manager’s personality), to the insufficient assessment of individual variants for solving the problems but also to situations when the arisen problem is not solved. The benefit of this paper is the effort to increase the need of the managers to deal with the risks during the decision-making process. It is important for every manager to assess the risks in his/her decision-making process and to make efforts to take such decisions which reflect the basic conditions, states and development of the environment in the best way and especially for the managers´ decisions to contribute to achieving the determined goals of the organisation as effectively as possible.

Keywords: risk, decision-making, manager, process, analysis, source of risk

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5311 Group Decision Making through Interval-Valued Intuitionistic Fuzzy Soft Set TOPSIS Method Using New Hybrid Score Function

Authors: Syed Talib Abbas Raza, Tahseen Ahmed Jilani, Saleem Abdullah

Abstract:

This paper presents interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy soft sets based TOPSIS method for group decision making. The interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy soft set is a mutation of an interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy set and soft set. In group decision making problems IVIFSS makes the process much more algebraically elegant. We have used weighted arithmetic averaging operator for aggregating the information and define a new Hybrid Score Function as metric tool for comparison between interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy values. In an illustrative example we have applied the developed method to a criminological problem. We have developed a group decision making model for integrating the imprecise and hesitant evaluations of multiple law enforcement agencies working on target killing cases in the country.

Keywords: group decision making, interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy soft set, TOPSIS, score function, criminology

Procedia PDF Downloads 559