MCDM and ssm in the public crisis management: From the systemic point of view

Abstract

From the perspective of system science, this paper analyzes the system mechanism of public crisis formation and argues that the essence of public crisis is a variety of bifurcations of the social system. Accordingly, the main characteristic of public crisis is shown as an ill- structured problem situation. In the public crisis management, MCDM, as a hard system approach, is strong in coping with the managerial problem which has clear objectives and well structure. When encountered ill- structured problem situations, SSM can be a supplementary methodology to MCDM. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.