Department

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dept. of Psychology

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/

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Oct 26th, 1:05 PM Oct 26th, 1:50 PM

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.