The Encyclopedia
of World Problems
& Human Potential

Fragmented decision-making

Visualization of narrower problems

Claim

Decision-makers conceive of their task as dealing with a sequence of problems that have to be solved one at a time. They do not take into account the side effects and repercussions of certain measures. They deal with the entire system, not as a system but as a bundle of independent mini-systems. And dealing with systems this way breeds trouble. If we do not concern ourselves with the problems we do not have, we soon have them.

Broader

Unshared mutual responsibility

Inefficient public administration

Ineffective decision-making processes

Fragmented planning of community life

Narrower

Legal inconsistency

Lack of brainstorming

Limited decision-making context

Non-inclusive management decisions

Inadequate environmental impact assessment

Simplistic family decision-making structures

Incomplete implementation of community decisions

Isolation of individual decision-making from context

Short-sighted decisions about intersocial interaction

Inadequacy of the committee system of decision making

Exclusion of dissenters from decision making processes

Aggravates

Frustration ^{[in 4 loops]}

Administrative delays ^{[in 9 loops]}

Unintended consequences

Undemocratic policy-making ^{[in 15 loops]}

Institutional fragmentation ^{[in 23 loops]}

Uninformed community decision making

Incomplete utilization of external relations ^{[in 2 loops]}

Aggravated by

Over-specialization

Fragmentation of evidence

Imposed official decisions

Obscure decision mechanisms

Inaccessible decision makers

Avoidance of decision-making

Multiple considerations in decision making

Short range planning for long-term development

Lack of systems for achieving grassroots agreement

Limited and fragmented outlook of civic minded groups

Lack of meaningful educational context for ethical decisions

Strategy(ies)

Integrating decision-making

Value(s)

Fragmentation

Indecision

Reference(s)

Dorner, Dietrich: The Logic of Failure: recognizing and avoiding error in complex situations

Type

(F) Fuzzy exceptional problems

About the Encyclopedia

The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential is a unique, experimental research work of the Union of International Associations. It is currently published as a searchable online platform with profiles of world problems, action strategies, and human values that are interlinked in novel and innovative ways. These connections are based on a range of relationships such as broader and narrower scope, aggravation, relatedness and more. By concentrating on these links and relationships, the Encyclopedia is uniquely positioned to bring focus to the complex and expansive sphere of global issues and their interconnected nature.

The initial content for the Encyclopedia was seeded from UIA’s Yearbook of International Organizations. UIA’s decades of collected data on the enormous variety of association life provided a broad initial perspective on the myriad problems of humanity. Recognizing that international associations are generally confronting world problems and developing action strategies based on particular values, the initial content was based on the descriptions, aims, titles and profiles of international associations.

About UIA

The Union of International Associations (UIA) is a research institute and documentation centre, based in Brussels. It was established in 1907, by Henri la Fontaine (Nobel Peace Prize laureate of 1913), and Paul Otlet, a founding father of what is now called information science.

Non-profit, apolitical, independent, and non-governmental in nature, the UIA has been a pioneer in the research, monitoring and provision of information on international organizations, international associations and their global challenges since 1907.

www.uia.org

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Fragmented decision-making

About the Encyclopedia

About UIA