Using different ELECTRE methods in strategic planning in the presence of human behavioral resistance

In the multicriteria strategic planning of an organization, management should often be aware of employees’ resistance to change before making new decisions; otherwise, a chosen strategy, though technologically acceptable, may not be efficient in the long term. This paper, using a sample case study within an organization, shows how different versions of ELECTRE methods can be used in choosing efficient strategies that account for both human behavioral resistance and technical elements. The effect of resistance from each subsystem of the organization is studied to ensure the reliability of the chosen strategy. The comparison of results from a select number of compensatory and noncompensatory models (ELECTRE I, III, IV, IS; TOPSIS; SAW; MaxMin) suggests that when employee resistance is a decision factor in the multicriteria strategic planning problem, the models can yield low-resistance strategies; however, ELECTRE seems to show more reasonable sensitivity.