DATA INFLUENCES THE RESULT MORE THAN PREFERENCES - SOME LESSONS FROM IMPLEMENTATION OF MULTIATTRIBUTE TECHNIQUES IN A REAL DECISION TASK

A multiattribute selection task requiring identification of a subset o f the best fifteen or so applicants for a faculty position is analyzed with two techniques-SMART and ZAPROS. SMART provides a cardinal measu re of each alternative that is easily used to identify the top candida tes. ZAPROS relies on ordinal, verbal input from the decision makers, but provides only partial order of alternatives, meaning that the spec ific number of applicants identified is not guaranteed to be the numbe r desired. Four decision makers took part in the selection task. Essen tial differences between results across these SMART and ZAPROS were fo und for all four subjects engaged in this task. Further analysis showe d that alternative scores on attributes were found to influence the re sults more than attribute weights. Verbal scales and judgment used in ZAPROS were considered by the participants to be of more meaning and b etter enabled understanding of the similarities and differences in pre ferences and positions, ZAPROS was considered useful in the first stag e of the task, as the basis of elaborating group policy in establishin g relative importance of attributes and for establishing relative perf ormance of alternatives on attributes, (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.