During the last two decades there has been wide application of goal programming. Despite this popularity, goal programming theories have been extensively criticized. Although some criticism may originate from the valid assessment of goal programming, large portions of the criticism seem to stem from confusions and misconceptions in underlying goal programming theories. In this paper, the origin of critical views on goal programming is uncovered and synthesized, to set the stage for a balanced discussion of the pros and cons of goal programming. Through such a discussion, the critical points are validated and, if necessary, some possible remedies for the weakness of goal programming are sought. Hence, the major intent of this paper is to provide a variety of future research ideas which, it is hoped, lend themselves to the further development and application of goal programming rather than provoking any controversies surrounding goal programming.

On the Origin and Persistence of Misconceptions in Goal Programming

Comparative studies in interactive multiple objective mathematical programming

A comparison of interactive multiple-objective decision making procedures

The purpose of this research was to develop a multicriteria decision making tool which could take into account the cognitive limitations of human information processing. Specifically, an interactive goal programming methodology was devised which sought to minimize the difficulty of prioritizing goals and of restructuring problems to find improved solutions. This methodology employs a priority elicitation procedure which can accept a variety of ill to well-defined priority structures. It provides feedback after each solution is generated. This feedback describes the tradeoff inherent in improving the achievement of any unsatisfied goals. Goal attainment probabilities and possible goal level revisions are also presented to users of the model to assist them in evaluating alternative restructures of the model. These modifications have been incorporated into a generalizable decision support system which has been tested in an academic decision making environment.

A Goal Programming Based Interactive Decision Support System

(1982). Bibliographic zur Vektoroptimierung -Theorie und Anwendungen (l. Fortsetzung) Mathematische Operationsforschung und Statistik. Series Optimization: Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 593-625.

Lorraine Sharp Franz

Papers

Elicitation of decision maker preference structure for multicriteria optimization through interactive goal programming