Foresight in Organizations ─ Methods and Tools

The main objective of this book is to acquaint the reader with various foresight methods, to show the reader how these methods are used, what the pitfalls are and how the methods relate to each other.Foresight for Organizations; Methods and Tools offers the reader the ability to carry out a study of the future by him- or herself and apply the results in a decision-making or any other type of strategy process. If someone has good reasons to conduct a study of the future not by him- or herself, this research book offers sufficient knowledge to evaluate the outsourced work on its quality and usability.

Foresight for Organizations; Methods and Tools addresses the following methods: scenarios, trend analysis, the Delphi method, quantitative trend extrapolation, technology assessment, backcasting and roadmapping; the most relevant and popular methods that also cover the range of approaches from predictive, via normative to explorative. Every chapter also contains references to additional literature about the methods being discussed.

Furthermore, Foresight for Organizations; Methods and Tools is not only about the foresight methods, but it also describes various tools that can be used in applying the methods; this book is essential reading for researchers, academics and students in the areas of Community Development, Sociology of organizations, Change management, Social entrepreneurship, Sustainable development and participative planning

Patrick van der Duin is an assistant professor at Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management.