Saaty's priority theory and the nomination of a senior professor in operations Research

Abstract

This paper briefly sketches Saaty's priority theory which has been developed to assign weights (priorities) to a multiple of decision criteria via pairwise comparison of the criteria. Next, there is an extensive treatment of an attempt to apply the ideas in the nomination procedure for the chair of a senior professor in operations research. The reasons why the operations-research specialists in the nomination committee ignored Saaty's priority theory (although they faced a crucial, long-term decision) is analyzed in depth, in order to clarify the experiences of operations-research specialists in industry. They frequently find that operations research is dismissed as inadequate for long-term industrial decisions, on the ground of similar reasons. The paper has therefore been written as a basis for discussion rather than to illustrate effective or ineffective handling of a nomination procedure.