Disarming defences

Accounts of ‘soft’ Operational Research methods tend to give a single method that is used for the whole of a problem. The case study presented here, by contrast, includes a number of different ‘soft’ Operational Research OR methods. Using more than one method means that all the stages of a decision (from problem orientation, elicitation of options to evaluation) can be addressed. The relative effectiveness of two soft Operational Research OR approaches, cognitive maps and repertory grid, were compared for the early stages of the problem-hence the match referred to in the title of this article. A third method, Strategic Choice, was used to take the results of the initial analysis and produce a package of recommended responses. The results illustrate what can be achieved by using a combination of soft methods.