Identifying operative goals by modeling project selection decisions in research and development

In an R&D laboratory, behavioral decision theory was used to identify operative goals as a method of organizational analysis. Six goals were used as criteria in a decision-making exercise wherein 69 managers made decisions about hypothetical projects. Two goals accounted for 84 percent of the explainable variance and were deemed operative goals. Furthermore, a lack of consensus concerning these goals´ importance existed among the laboratory´s four divisions.