Introduction

Abstract

This book is based on the view-point that both public and private decision making, in practice, can often be improved upon by means of formal (normative) decision models and methods. To some extent, the validity of this statement can be measured by the impressive number of successes of disciplines as operations research and management science. However, as witnessed by the many discussions in the professional journals in these fields, many models and methods do not completely meet the requirements of decision making in practice. Of all possible origins of these clear shortcomings, we mainly focus on only one: the fact that most of these models and methods are unsuitable for decision situations in which multiple and possibly conflicting objectives play a role, because they are concentrated on the (optimal) fulfilment of only one objective.