Career and Life Planning Guidebook for Medical Residents

We are now ready to build the fundamental objective hierarchy by following the steps given below. It is important to note that there is not one correct FOH. Decision making is personal, and the construction detailed below allows the decision maker the freedom to fully express his or her individuality. Step 1: Organize Into Categories Organize the objectives into broad subject categories, such as compensation, job type (academic vs clinical medicine), location, etc. Step 2: Choose Overall Fundamental Objective Write down the overall fundamental objective. Usually this is clearly known, for it is the essential reason the decision maker is interested in the decision problem. Step 3: Generate the Lower Level Objectives Determine which of the objectives are important to the higher-level objective or which further define the higher-level objective. What aspects of the higher-level are important? This will result in a list of potential lower-level objectives. In essence, determine how the higher-level objective is operationalized. During this step it is common for the decision maker to identify new objectives. This is because the problem is presented in a new setting. Like working through a complex differential diagnosis, you sometimes identify less obvious but crucial pieces of a patient’s history that make or break your treatment plan. Note that when moving downward in the FOH, you are answering the question: What exactly do you mean by this? When moving upward in the FOH, you are answering the question: Of what more- general objective is this a component? Step 4: Check If Lower Level Objectives Are Mutually Exclusive Are the objectives in this list of potential lower-level objectives mutually exclusive? If so, proceed to the next step. If not, then determine the overlap and adjust. Either you can redefine the given objectives so there will be no overlap or you can bring in new objectives. The problemwith overlap is that you will be double counting. Step 5: Check If Lower Level Objectives Are Collectively Exhaustive Are theobjectives in this list of lower-level objectives collectively exhaustive? If so, proceed to the next step. If not, then determine what is missing and add an objective. The problem here is that you are forgetting to include something. Step 6: Repeat Choose a lower-level objective from the list just constructed. This now becomes a higher-level objective. Cycle through Step 3-5 until the decision maker feels they have sufficient clarity. Usually, people go down three to four levels. Decision Analysis Applied to Job Selection 275 WWW.PHYSICIANCAREERPLANNING.COM