The purpose of this research is to provide an overview the use of quantitative analysis in managerial decision making. In this overview, the approaches to the use of quantitative analysis in managerial decision making are examined in somewhat greater detail. These approaches are project control decision making, and linear programming.
SCIENTIFIC DECISION MAKING
In the early 1970s, scientific approaches to decision making were introduced, as tools with which organizational leaders could (1) minimize the effects of risk and uncertainty in the development and implementation of strategy, and (2) optimize outcomes in the conduct of operations (Clark, 1987, p. 28). While not yet commonplace as managerial tools in the mid to late 1980s, the various manifestations of scientific decision making are well established (Clark, 1987, p. 28).
Decision making in organizations has been described as a process of behavior with the economic model (or total rationality) at one extreme, and with the social model (or complete irrationality) at the other extreme (Kimberly & Rottman, 1987, pp. 596-619). This description implies that only irrational decision making accords human values precedence over economic values. In the organizational environments of the mid to late 1980s, leaders must find some middle ground between these extremes, for it is evident that neither set of values can be ignored.
Scientific decision making theory is manifested in several procedures, which are relatively widely applied in the mid to late 1980s. Two of these procedures are examined in the following discussions.
In the mid 1950s, the concept of a construction project as a network of interrelated and coordinated activities began to emerge. The four specific characteristics which a construction project must possess to effectively employ the network concept in scheduling and control are (1) a clearly recognizable en...