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MULTIDISCIPLINARY
PERSPECTIVES
Carlos Romero
In
today's complex organizations (big companies, state agencies, trade
unions, etc.), the decisional context is defined by incomplete information,
limited resources, conflict of interests, etc. Within this kind
of context, the decision maker does not try to maximize anything,
much less a well-defined objective function. On the contrary, as
Herbert Simon conjectured, in such type of decisional context the
decision maker attempts to achieve a set of relevant goals as close
as possible with respect to a set of targets. This type of Simonian
"satisficing" philosophy is a key element if we want to enhance
the productivity of modern organizations.
The
emergence of global, competitive markets has dramatically augmented
the growth of the productivity. However, this enormous increase
of productivity implies at least two crucial challenges:
- How
to allocate the wealth derived from the growth of productivity
between different social groups (i.e., workers, stakeholders,
etc.).
- How
to find a balance between a continuous growth of productivity
and the sustainability of the natural system.
I
believe that only with a multidisciplinary perspective this type
of crucial problems for mankind can be successfully solved in a
relatively short period of time.
Influential
Readings
- Baumol,
W. J., Oates, W. E. (1988). The Theory of Environmental Policy.
Cambridge University Press.
- Smith,
A. (1970, first version 1776). The Wealth of Nations. Pelican
- Charnes,
A., Cooper, W. W. (1961). Management Models and Industrial Applications
of Linear Programming. John Wiley and Sons.
- Daly,
H. (1977). Steady-state Economics: The Economics of Biophysical
Equilibrium and Moral Growth. Freeman
- Feyerabend,
P. (1975). Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of
Knowledge. New Left Books.
- Jevons,
W. S. (1957, first version 1871). Theory of Political Economy.
Kellay and Millman.
- Popper,
K. (1959). The Logic of Scientific Discovery. Hutchinson Group.
· Simon, H. (1957). Models of Man. John Wiley and Sons.
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Carlos
is a Professor of Economics at the Forestry School of the Technical
University of Madrid where he was Associate Dean. He was formerly
Professor of Agricultural Economics at the Faculty of Agriculture
and Food of the Córdoba University and Visiting Professor at
Reading University. He is chiefly interested in the development
and application of Decision Analysis methods to enhance the
effectiveness of the industry and the public sector. He has
published extensively on this topic (twelve books plus around
seventy papers in international refereed journals). He has been
Guest Editor of Agricultural Systems and Annals of Operations
Research.
e-mail: auggiegp@montes.upm.es. |
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