Group Decision Making: Drawing Out and Reconciling Differences

Thomas L. Saaty · Kirti Peniwati

Nov 2013 · RWS Publications

About this ebook

 When a group makes a decision, that decision carries a lot more weight than when just one person does it. Think of the founding fathers of the American constitution and how much power and influence their ideas have had in the entire world for more than two hundred years. Also think of gravity, a universal force brought about by an enormous number of minute particles that band together to make a universal law. Together, they create a massive force, a law of nature; alone they can barely be noticed. That is how our minds work by deciding together to create a power that transcends our individuality. Group decision making is a gift and an opportunity to create greater influence through the working together of many minds. This book shows how to use the Analytic Hierarchy Process for hierarchical decision making and the Analytic Network Process for decision making in networks with dependence and feedback in group decision making. Part I discusses the group and the decision and shows the importance of using a structured process, particularly for those high value decisions involving many powerful parties with different interests. It discusses how to facilitate a group decision, combine individual judgments and smooth differences to arrive at a decision that everyone can live with and get behind. Part II discusses the group in planning and how to draw out differences. Part III is about conflict resolution and Part IV is about how to address significant issues that come up in group decision making and shows that it is possible to construct an overall group preference.

About the author

Thomas L. Saaty is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, before that was a professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania for 10 years and before that was for seven years in the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency at the U.S. State Department. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and serves on the Board of Advisors to Decision Lens, a company based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). He is the architect of the decision theory, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and its generalization to complex decisions with dependence and feedback, the Analytic Network Process (ANP).

In 2000 he received the Gold Medal for his work on decision making from the International Society for Multi-criteria Decision Making. In 2007 he received the Akao prize given by the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) society. In 2008 he received the Impact Prize from INFORMS (the society for Operations Research) for his seminal work on the Analytic Hierarchy Process and for his contribution to its deployment and its extraordinary impact. In 2009 he received the Chancellor's Distinguished Research Award at the University of Pittsburgh.

The International Symposium on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (ISAHP) that takes place every two years was established in 1988. Recent meetings have been in Bern, Switzerland, 2001 (Sixth ISAHP); in Bali, Indonesia, 2003 (Seventh ISAHP); in Hawaii, 2005 (Eighth ISAHP); in Viña del Mar, Chile, 2007 (Ninth ISAHP); in Pittsburgh, United States, 2009 (Tenth ISAHP).

He has published numerous articles and more than 12 books on the AHP/ANP and decision making and the workings of the brain. His nontechnical book on the AHP, Decision Making for Leaders, has been translated to more than 10 languages. He is also the author of numerous other books on mathematics and mathematical modeling.