Goal Programming to Assist in Decision Making

Goal programming is a systematic method of decision making with potential for assisting fishery managers and administrators achieve a practical decision when there are multiple or conflicting goals. The technique involves formulating the decision problem by identifying and establishing goals, setting priorities for achieving the goals, and determining what constraints exist on the availabilities of monetary and nonmonetary resources. A model of the problem, formulated as a modification of the simplex method of linear programming, can be solved by hand or with a computer program. The resulting solution gives recommended levels of each choice variable that best achieve stated goals. We describe the construction of a model for goal programming with an example of a fish stocking problem, and perform a sensitivity analysis of goal priorities to demonstrate how the effects on the solution to the problem can be determined. Goal programming supplements, but does not replace, the judgment of good managers and administrators. The goal‐programming procedure improves consistency in decision making, and tends to encourage the decision maker to understand more fully the problem.