Publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Place of Publication
Chattanooga (Tenn.)
Abstract
Understanding the formation of preferences as they relate to decision making is a crucial task in identifying aspects of major projects; however, current literature has a deficit of this focus in regards to large-scale projects and large communities. This study aims to bolster the understanding of these large community preferences as they relate to large-scale projects. The study was conducted at two American Astronomical Society (AAS) conferences to gain information from the astrophysics community regarding NASA Decadal missions. Community preferences for Decadal missions are assessed through the Decadal Survey to summarize the opinions of the astronomical community regarding which missions should be prioritized in the next decade of NASA research. Data were collected using an online survey intended to measure community preferences. Researchers hypothesized that community preferences for engineering attributes of large-scale projects would differ, such as preferences for attributes such as the profitability of the mission, efficiency, reliability, resilience, etc. Conditions were derived from actual responses, and participants were sorted into four existing conditions: industry, academia, undergraduate/graduate students, and other communities. Most results were insignificant, but support was found that community preferences differed, particularly preferences of industry and academia versus students. Implications of this research suggest that project leaders of Decadal missions should take into consideration the preferences of each community separately. When predicting the decisions that agencies and communities will made, understanding the differences in the type of preferences formed will provide a valuable tool.
Date
October 2019
Subject
Industrial and organizational psychology
Document Type
posters
Language
English
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Included in
Preferences and decision making in large-scale communities
Understanding the formation of preferences as they relate to decision making is a crucial task in identifying aspects of major projects; however, current literature has a deficit of this focus in regards to large-scale projects and large communities. This study aims to bolster the understanding of these large community preferences as they relate to large-scale projects. The study was conducted at two American Astronomical Society (AAS) conferences to gain information from the astrophysics community regarding NASA Decadal missions. Community preferences for Decadal missions are assessed through the Decadal Survey to summarize the opinions of the astronomical community regarding which missions should be prioritized in the next decade of NASA research. Data were collected using an online survey intended to measure community preferences. Researchers hypothesized that community preferences for engineering attributes of large-scale projects would differ, such as preferences for attributes such as the profitability of the mission, efficiency, reliability, resilience, etc. Conditions were derived from actual responses, and participants were sorted into four existing conditions: industry, academia, undergraduate/graduate students, and other communities. Most results were insignificant, but support was found that community preferences differed, particularly preferences of industry and academia versus students. Implications of this research suggest that project leaders of Decadal missions should take into consideration the preferences of each community separately. When predicting the decisions that agencies and communities will made, understanding the differences in the type of preferences formed will provide a valuable tool.
Department
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dept. of Psychology