Certainty Versus Uncertainty in Decision Making: An Annotated Bibliography

This annotated bibliography explores the concept of certainty versus uncertainty in decision making in various fields such as healthcare and business. It includes scholarly research articles and their analysis on the topic.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
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Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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PART1
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: Certainty Versus Uncertainty (Known-Knowns Verses
Unknown-Unknowns) in decision making
REFERENCE Levy, D., Dhillon, H. M., Lomax, A., Marthick, M., McNeil, C., Kao, S., & Lacey, J.
(2018). Certainty within uncertainty: a qualitative study of the experience of
metastatic melanoma patients undergoing pembrolizumab immunotherapy.
Supportive Care in Cancer, 1-8.
AIM/PURPOSE
Certainty versus uncertainty is one of the major aspect taking places in each every
professional and personal scenario. The objective is to find out how uncertainty can affect
the treatment of patients.
ARTICLE TYPE
Literature analysis and experience
APPROACH OR
ARGUMENT
Twenty-eight participants with metastatic melanoma were recruited across two
cohorts, all receiving 3-weekly immunotherapy treatment. Semi-structured interviews
were conducted with 26 participants once at 9 weeks. This article mainly talks about the
sufferings of the patients who are living within the uncertain places. Often the doctors and
the patients are not sure about the treatments that are taking place. Thus, they often suffer
from a lack of certainty and decision making process.
CONCLUSION
This article concludes that though the treatments are carried on properly with the
anticipation of proper outcomes, there is a kind of uncertainty about the exact
RELATIONSHIP

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TO TOPIC/SUB-
TOPIC & OTHER
ANNOTATED
ARTICLES
This article has a strong relationship to the topic. This is because the broad topic of
certainty versus uncertainty is one of the common phenomena existing in many different
fields. Thus this is one of the aspects also sen in the field of medical science. Often
patients suffer from the feeling of uncertainty.
STRENGTHS
The strength of this article is that its reliable method and instruments used. It is
quite relevant for the students who would be taking up the business management courses
in the future. This will help them in dealing with uncertain situations.
WEAKNESSES
The weakness is that the aim is somewhat implicit. The focus on the literature is a bit
limited. Some of the references that have been used are old.

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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: Certainty Versus Uncertainty (Known-Knowns Verses
Unknown-Unknowns) in decision making
REFERENCE Chaudhury, S. H. (2016). Specific Emotions and Altruistic Decision
Making-A Study in Relational Perspective (Doctoral dissertation).
AIM/PURPOSE The purpose of this article was mainly to find out the usage of the Multi-
Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) in case of decision making.
ARTICLE
TYPE&
PARADIGM
Scholarly research article – empirical quantitative research – positivist
paradigm
METHOD
Sample:
150 UG students were taken as the respondents or the participants. The
sample was diverse with 29.3% non-Hispanic White or Caucasian
individuals (N= 44), 28.7% Asians (N= 43), 24.7% Hispanics (N
46= 37), 14.7% African-American (N= 22), 0.7% Native American (N= 1).
The remaining 2% of the sample identified themselves as being of another
race (N= 3).
Instruments and Data Collection:
Self-Affirmation is the material that was mainly used for this purpose.

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Data Analysis:
PANAS and ANCOVA were used for this purpose.
The data collection system was mainly done by distributing the
questionnaires to the employees working within an organization. This has
helped in getting the opinion and feedback from all the different types of
people.
FINDINGS The findings of this article mainly say that as there are so many different
stakeholders involved in one particular project, the decision-making
process might often become very confusing and time-consuming.
RELATIONSHI
P TO
TOPIC/SUB-
TOPIC &
OTHER
ARTICLES
This article bears strong relations with the topics as it talks about the
certainty and the uncertainty that is often caused among people due to the
different kinds of emotions.
STRENGTHS The article has dealt with the aspects of Multi-Criteria Decision Making

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(MCDM) in a detailed manner. It has also talked about the pros and the
cons of the decisions that are often taken under uncertain conditions.
WEAKNESSES The weakness that is found is that the research mainly focused on the
college students. The study must appeal to people belonging from different
age groups for the future references.

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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: Certainty Versus Uncertainty (Known-Knowns Verses
Unknown-Unknowns) in decision making
REFERENCE Melnyk, O., Sroka, W., Adamiv, M., & Shpak, Y. (2017). Information Diagnostic
Support of Enterprise Under the Conditions of Uncertainty. Acta Universitatis
Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 65(4), 1403-1414.
AIM/PURPOSE
To discover the dynamics and uncertainty of the business environment that greatly
complicates the decision-making processes.
ARTICLE TYPE
This article can be termed as a scholarly research article – empirical quantitative research
– a positivist paradigm. This is a scholarly empirical quantitative research article in the
positivist paradigm.
METHOD
Sample:
As the research was mainly conducted based on the thematic aspects that I by reviewing
the literature no such sample sizes were found.
Instruments and Data Collection:
The study was mainly carried on by using the review and analysis of relevant literature.
Monte Carlo method was used for finding out the probabilistic assessment of the impact.
Data Analysis:
Secondary data analysis has been done.
The findings of this article mainly showed the fact that time is a basic factor that plays a

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major role in the decision-making process. In other words, the managers and the
employees have to be given enough time before they are actually reaching any final
conclusions. Any decisions that are taken in a hasty manner will not be able to have any
proper desired or any fruitful result. As a result of this, the decision makers often suggest
that proper time and understanding are needed for taking a proper decision.
RELATIONSHIP
TO TOPIC/SUB-
TOPIC & OTHER
ARTICLES
This article mainly talks about the complications that might arise in the business
environment due to uncertainty of many aspects. This article tried to show that the patients
often suffer from the feelings of uncertainty even after they are being given proper
treatment.
STRENGTHS The strengths of this article are that there has been a detailed and thorough review of the
literature including argumentation. It has also deal with the obstructions faced in the path
of business decisions and how one can actually overcome them.
WEAKNESSES The few weakness that has been found in the article are references used are old. The
literature must be given a bit more importance.

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PART 2
Levy, D., Dhillon, H. M., Lomax, A., Marthick, M., McNeil, C., Kao, S., & Lacey, J. (2018).
Certainty within uncertainty: a qualitative study of the experience of metastatic melanoma
patients undergoing pembrolizumab immunotherapy. Supportive Care in Cancer, 1-8.
This article introduces the fight between the certainty and the uncertainty levels that is
faced by the people in the health care industry. Patients with the melanoma often suffer from
feelings of uncertainty even after getting the treatment. They are not sure regarding the outcomes
of their treatment.
This article gave a good insight into the domain of certainty and uncertainty that often
goes on around in the health care department. Patients with the melanoma often suffer due to the
uncertain conditions that might arise. There is always a kind of confusion that remains within the
patients even if they are getting the right kind of treatment. They mainly face the uncertainty due
to the immunotherapy treatment that they are getting. Though there is a sign of certainty there is
also a kind of unknown or uncertain feelings. This uncertainty might arise due to the tensions in
the family relationships, the disease and other such related factors. Though there are considerable
improvements taking place in the field of this disease but still the patients suffer from certain
levels of uncertainty.
Thus it can be concluded that there is always a midway existing between the certainty
and the uncertainty in all the fields. Thus, in this case the doctors have to support then patients so
that they can actually cope up with the same.

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Melnyk, O., Sroka, W., Adamiv, M., & Shpak, Y. (2017). Information Diagnostic Support
of Enterprise Under the Conditions of Uncertainty. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et
Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 65(4), 1403-1414.
This article introduces the uncertainties that are often prevalent within the business
contexts. This is because there are many unforeseen situations that might arise. The managers
have to take quick decision to solve the problems. In such cases they do not have any certainty
regarding the success of these decisions. This article has given us detailed information regarding
the uncertain or the unknown environment that is often prevalent in the business environment.
There are many problems that often arise in the business environment which needs very quick
decision. In the act of taking these decisions, there can be many doubts regarding the outcome or
the result. Though the managers have to take many quick and apt actions, they often remain in
huge doubts regarding the probable outcomes.
Thus it can be concluded that the managers will have to work in an uncertain
environment. They must use proper time management skills and delegations in order to work
properly even in midst of such uncertainty.
Chaudhury, S. H. (2016). Specific Emotions and Altruistic Decision Making-A Study in
Relational Perspective (Doctoral dissertation).
This article gives an introduction about the detailed account of the relationships that exist
between the emotions of human beings and the moods that they suffer through. Though emotions
are just a day to day part of human life, it is these emotions that give rise to known and unknown

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feelings within the individuals. Often it is seen that the people who are in a state of happiness
and positive mood often emote a feeling of certainty. However if people are suffering from a sad
mood they often suffer through then feelings of uncertainty. Thus, it can be concluded that there
are different kinds of moods and emotions exhibited by people. Often there are feelings of
unsuity or uncertainty among people. This makes them express some violent, sad and negative
emotions.

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References
Chaudhury, S. H. (2016). Specific Emotions and Altruistic Decision Making-A Study in
Relational Perspective (Doctoral dissertation).
Levy, D., Dhillon, H. M., Lomax, A., Marthick, M., McNeil, C., Kao, S., & Lacey, J. (2018).
Certainty within uncertainty: a qualitative study of the experience of metastatic
melanoma patients undergoing pembrolizumab immunotherapy. Supportive Care in
Cancer, 1-8.
Melnyk, O., Sroka, W., Adamiv, M., & Shpak, Y. (2017). Information Diagnostic Support of
Enterprise Under the Conditions of Uncertainty. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et
Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 65(4), 1403-1414.