Author(s): Mehvish Bhat, Ankur Agrawal, Michail Barmpas
This work aimed to show that cause and effect cognitive mapping methodologies such as influence diagrams can improve decisions in the online entertainment industry. In the first part of the paper, the authors reviewed decision-making and problem-solving techniques such as Strategic Options Development and Analysis (SODA) and Soft System Methodology (SSM), and asserted their role for being the foundations for the development of the Influence Diagram methodology used in this paper. The work argued that by using Influence Diagrams managers can improve problem situations and lead to better decisions when one deals with causality over time. The writers maintained that influence diagrams employed under conditions of causality have the capacity to turn a problem situation from chaos into order through a real-world example from Google’s YouTube Customer Service Department in India presently faced with staff turnover. The reader will be able to perceive graphically how the flow of work had gone wrong at Google’s YouTube due to limiting worker autonomy. The researchers intervened by introducing specific policies recommended of Influence Diagrams, that, apparently, smoothed the various relationships among decision agents, controlled the problem situation, and improved work flow. The authors deemed that these diagrammatical loops and the dynamic linkages amid variables, had the advantage of presenting visibly a problem situation and therefore helped decision makers understand the problem situation and find a way out of harried decision-making complications