Question

Assume that alternatives A, B, C, and are considered. Alternative is better than each of the other 3 alternatives in all of the 10 attributes considered, except one, but in this one is by far the worst. Which of the decision making models below would be the most likely to result in choosing alternative C as the winner?! Select one: a disjunctive resolution b. satisficing c. dominance d. additive weighting

Answer 1

The correct answer is "D" : Additive weighting.

Reason : Additive weighting is the most often used decision making method which is based on weighted average. It assigns an importance value known as weights to all various criterias and multiplies the scaled values with weights to find out the best alternative.

Hence since C is better than other alternatives in 9 out of 10 attributes, it is almost definitive that C will be chosen as the winner using this method.

Why other methods will not choose C as a winner :

a. Disjunctive resolution : It is a method which chooses all the alternatives that are above a certain criteria. It does not choose a winner it is more of an elimination method.

b. Satisficing : It is similar to disjunctive resolution with the difference that it eliminates all the alternatives below a certain criteria. Hence in this case, C could get eliminated due to the one criteria in which it is worst.

c. Dominance : Since C is worst than other alternatives in one criteria, it will not be able to establish a dominant position and hence will not be chosen as the winner by this method.