Integrating the Analytic Hierarchy Process, the Preference Ranking Method, and Stakeholder Analysis: A Methodological Guide for Strategic Decision-Making in Organizations

Abstract

Contemporary organizational management entails a growing complexity in strategic decision-making processes, underscoring the need to have effective tools that support organizational sustainability in making complex decisions that consider multiple criteria. Said tools must follow a multidimensional approach that ensures a comprehensive evaluation of strategic options, considering criterion weighting, alternatives evaluation, and stakeholder influence. This work seeks to propose an integrated methodological guide for strategic decision-making in organizations, which combines the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), the Promethee II method, and stakeholder analysis, complemented by a PESTEL feasibility analysis to validate execution possibilities. The methodology described herein leverages the mathematical rigor of the AHP to determine the relative importance of the criteria, and it employs Promethee II for a detailed alternatives analysis. In addition, stakeholder analysis facilitates the alignment of strategic decisions with the expectations of all the relevant groups of interest, resulting in a robust and adaptable tool that facilitates a more informed and strategically aligned decision-making. The results obtained demonstrate that integrating these techniques significantly improves the clarity and objectivity of the decision-making process. It is concluded that our structured method can be adapted to a diversity of organizational contexts, which suggests its broad potential for application in strategic management processes, even in small and medium enterprises.