About the course

Decision Making and Problem Solving in Extension Organisations is a course of the Post Graduate Diploma in Agricultural Extension Management (PGDAEM). It equips extension professionals to make sound decisions and to solve the complex, people-centred problems that arise in agricultural extension work.

Class schedule

The correspondence between the chapters of this book and the classes of the course is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Correspondence between course classes and chapters

Part	Classes	Chapter
I. Decision making — introduction	1–3	1  Decision making in agriculture and extension organisations Decision making in agriculture and extension organisations
	4–6	2  Cognition and decision making under certainty, risk and uncertainty Cognition and decision making under certainty, risk and uncertainty
	7–10	3  Group decision making and theories of decision making Group decision making and theories of decision making
II. Methodologies for decision making	11–16	4  Methodologies for decision making in extension organisations Methodologies for decision making in extension organisations
III. Problem solving	27–30	5  Problem solving in agriculture and extension organisations Problem solving in agriculture and extension organisations
	31–34	6  Theories, models and techniques for problem solving Theories, models and techniques for problem solving
	35–36	7  Statistical and graphical methods and the E5 framework for problem solving Statistical and graphical methods and the E5 framework

How the book is organised

Part I (Decision Making) begins with what a decision is and how decisions are classified on farms and in extension organisations (1  Decision making in agriculture and extension organisations). It then turns to the mental processes behind decisions and to the rules that apply when outcomes are certain, risky or uncertain (2  Cognition and decision making under certainty, risk and uncertainty), and closes with group decision making and the major theories that explain how farmers and organisations actually decide (3  Group decision making and theories of decision making).

Part II (Methodologies for Decision Making) describes the practical methods used to structure decisions: decision trees, the Delphi technique, brainstorming, the fishbone diagram, data-driven decision making and decision support systems (4  Methodologies for decision making in extension organisations).

Part III (Problem Solving) defines a problem and examines the problems extension workers face (5  Problem solving in agriculture and extension organisations), presents classic models and organisational and creative techniques for solving them (6  Theories, models and techniques for problem solving), and ends with the statistical and graphical tools of quality improvement and the E5 framework for organisational problem solving (7  Statistical and graphical methods and the E5 framework for problem solving).

Several tools, notably brainstorming and the fishbone diagram, appear in both the decision-making and the problem-solving parts. The cross-references in the text point to the section where each is treated in full.