Airline Buyout: Evolutionary Systems Design and Problem Restructuring in Group Decision and Negotiation

We discuss problem restructuring involving evolution of the problem representation in group decision and negotiation support systems. We develop the evolutionary systems design (ESD) approach to restructuring involving a heuristic controls/goals/values referral process and other domain-independent methodological knowledge, such as constraint relaxation, contingency planning, coalition formation and flexible goal target. These ideas are applied to multiple problem restructuring in a scenario motivated by labor-management negotiations and buyout in the airline industry, in particular, a composite of negotiations at Eastern Airlines, TWA and UAL.