The multiple functions of formal aids to decision making in public agencies

This article examines how the value to a decision maker of formal, quantitative decision aids changes as the setting shifts from the program level to senior executives and, ultimately, to external groups to which the decision maker is accountable. Examples drawn from the use of research end development project selection models in the U.S. Department of Energy are used to illustrate the various meanings that “use” of such models can have in a public agency, and how a public agency's accountability to OMB and the Congress affects the ways its program managers use formal project selection models. The article concludes with a discussion of how changes in the administration in power and differences in the technical competence among agency oversight groups might affect the use of formal decision aids.