Fuzzy structural modeling: A case study

This paper discusses a case study of the method for fuzzy structural modeling (FSM) that has been introduced by Tazaki in 1979, which is used for obtaining the structuring hierarchy of several complex problems. The authors deal with a problem of decision making that when Japanese companies employ university students as fresh men for the next year, what kind of factors do they take into consideration? For this study, they sent out a questionnaire to about one hundred companies for collecting fuzzy data. It is shown from the analysis of structuring hierarchy that consciousness structure of a company’s personnel managers can be drawn graphically. As a practical application, graphical presentations provide a useful expression for structuring of the present case study by using the method of fuzzy structural modelling. Consequently, it is shown that the FSM provides a good approach for analyzing societal problems. [In Japanese.]