The decision systems group: creating a framework for decision making.

The Decision Systems Group is pursuing a vision in which every available medical resource can be brought together at the point of need. The DSG focuses on the components and tools in specific areas as well as on the models, approaches, and infrastructure that make this type of integration possible. Its academic mission is to train individuals with dual expertise: those who understand and appreciate the issues involved in developing and validating a method or technique, plus the issues of deployment, operation, and interaction in practical environments. Ultimately, the application of this vision can only serve to enhance the current level of healthcare.     

An empirical study of information contribution to online feedback systems: A motivation perspective

Online feedback systems (OFSs) are increasingly available on online shopping websites; they allow consumers to post their ratings and consumption reviews for products. We employed motivation theory and a goal attainment perspective to model a set of motivating and inhibiting factors that could influence a consumer's intention to contribute to an OFS. Our experiment, which involved 168 university students, showed that a consumer's intention to contribute product reviews is influenced by perceived satisfaction gained in helping other consumers, perceived satisfaction gained in influencing the merchant, perceived probability of enhancing self-image, and perceived executional costs. In addition, the presence of an economic rewarding mechanism was found to promote a contribution when a consumer's perceived probability of enhancing self-image was relatively high or when perceived cognitive cost was relatively low. Implications of our findings are discussed.     

Mathematical modeling of decision making: a soft and fuzzy approach to capturing hard decisions

This research focuses on a modeling approach and set of mathematical tools that were derived from research on intelligence systems, namely fuzzy system modeling. This study systematically evaluates these tools as an approach for modeling human decision making, contrasting the approach with more traditional methods based on regression. The research was conducted using experts and a simulated task environment related to allocating rewards in the form of merit pay. The results indicate that fuzzy system models generally perform as well as or better than both linear and nonlinear regression methods in terms of model fit. These results are discussed in terms of issues regarding modeling precision versus parsimony, the value of adaptive modeling techniques, empirical versus subjective approaches to model building, and individual differences in judgment strategies. Potential applications of this research include using the modeling approach studied to build higher-fidelity models that yield new insights and a better understanding of decision-making strategies and environments.     

Evaluation of multi-attribute decision making systems applied during the concept design of new microplasma devices

Various multi-attribute decision making (MADM) systems can be implemented to narrow a field of new concept designs down to those with high likelihoods of surpassing state-of-the-art technologies. This research investigated the conceptual design phase of new microplasma devices in order to create metrics that evaluate the efficiency, effectiveness, and overall utility of representative MADM systems studied in previous engineering design applications. Device attributes and concept alternatives for the microplasma devices were identified from open-ended expert surveys. Efficiency metrics were defined based on the number of manual user inputs. Published device literature and testing were used to gauge how closely device concepts satisfied multi-attribute criteria, forming the basis of an effectiveness metric. A weighted average of the efficiency and effectiveness defined a MADM system’s overall utility. Varying the effectiveness weight provided further insight into the conditions under which particular MADM approaches exhibited higher utility values. The MADM systems found to possess the highest overall quantified utilities were based on Pugh’s controlled convergence, Utility Based Axiomatic Framework, and Grey Relational Analysis. The MADM method with the lowest overall utility was the analytical hierarchy process. These findings indicate that consensus building and utility-based MADM systems are especially helpful to engineering design teams during the early design phases of novel technologies when resources are constrained or historical data is limited.     

The effectiveness of office information systems: a social action perspective

Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to show that a number of basic issues have not been adequately addressed in existing office information systems research. Prominent among these are the nature and role of offices, the goals of office information systems development, and the nature of its organizational and managerial consequences. It is proposed that office information systems should be analysed as social action systems the behaviour of which is strongly affected by socially determined forces and constraints such as the behaviour-channelling influences of authority, norms, customs, habits and precedence. Four types of social action are discussed: instrumental, strategic, communicative and discursive. Three contexts for perceiving and analysing the effects of social action in offices are introduced: technology, language and organization. Office information systems changes affect elements and relationships in these three contexts in different ways. By cross-relating social action types and contexts, nine classes of object systems are identified. Each object system class implies a different category of effectiveness concerns which in turn implies different office information system design requirements. The paper notes that the existing research literature has primarily been concerned with only three of the nine object systems. For more effective office information systems development, however, the other systems also need to be considered. The paper concludes by exploring how this may be done.     

The impact of unreliable information on the management of softwareprojects: a dynamic decision perspective

The task of managing software projects is universally plagued by cost and schedule overruns. A fundamental problem in software projects is the presence of unreliable information. In initial information as well as in subsequent status reports. The authors report an experiment that investigates decision making in software projects as exemplars of complex, dynamic environments reactive to the actions of the decision maker. The experiment shows that in coping with unreliable information in such environments, decision makers are susceptible to self-fulfilling prophesies created by the environment, and are prone to demonstrate conservatism. A process tracing extension of the experiment shows that subjects demonstrate a low capacity for handling complexity. The implications of the results for managing software projects and for research in dynamic decision making are discussed     

Ethical decision making in technology development: a case study of participation in a large-scale information systems development project

Advanced systems engineering has traditionally paid little attention to ethical concerns relative to other technical and non-technical issues. This is particularly evident in systems analysis, design, and development methodologies. This paper asks if it is possible that the lack of emphasis upon ethical considerations in development methodologies can result in the failure of advanced technology development projects? In order to explore this contention, the paper sets out the findings of a case study of a large-scale advanced technology project in a multinational engineering company involving the implementation of an enterprise resource planning system. The research examined the extent to which ethical issues emerged in the project and assesses the impact of ethical considerations upon the technology development process and its outcomes. Evidence is presented which shows how ethical concerns clearly impacted upon the outcome of the project, supporting the contention that ethics was a success factor in the case presented. However, it was also clear that the kinds of ethical considerations that emerged were highly complex, and associated with an “ethics of care”. The findings suggested that researchers should examine the potential of an “ethics of care” as a way of complimenting the “ethics of rights” currently dominant within engineering ethics.     

The concept of mindfulness in information systems research: a multi-dimensional analysis

The concept of mindfulness has garnered increasing attention during the last decade. Initially proposed within the scope of information systems (IS) research as a means of creating a deeper knowledge foundation for decision making regarding information technology (IT) innovations, it soon became broadly applied throughout IS research. To gain a better understanding of the evolved diversity of this concept, this paper reviews and analyzes extant IS research by means of (a) the investigated IS themes, (b) the purpose of using the concept, (c) the level of application of the concept, and (d) the tendency to focus either on mindfulness, mindlessness, or both. By synthesizing research findings, we derive a high-level IS mindfulness theory. We then propose future research opportunities, such as the explanation of the relationships between different levels of mindfulness, applying mindfulness to bridge the different phases of the software development process, and the identification of guidelines for designing information systems that facilitate mindfulness. As the first review on the application of mindfulness in IS research, we contribute to the overall understanding of mindfulness and address the four abovementioned dimensions from which mindfulness emerges in order to demonstrate that mindfulness provides a meaningful platform for generating knowledge.     

The impact of data quality information on decision making: anexploratory analysis

This paper describes an experiment that explores the consequences of providing information regarding the quality of data used in decision making. The subjects in the study were given three types of information about the data's quality: none, two-point ordinal, and interval scale. This information was made available to the subjects, along with the actual data. Two decision strategies were explored: conjunctive and weighted linear additive. Two decision environments were used: a simple environment and a relatively complex environment. Various combinations of these factors were employed to explore several issues. These include complacency, consensus, and consistency. The paper provides preliminary insights into which type of data-quality information is most effective and the circumstances in which data-quality information is most effective. Such knowledge would be of value to those responsible for designing databases that support decision-makers. Overall, we find that in a situation where subjects are confronted with clearly differentiated alternatives, the inclusion of data-quality information impacted the selection of the preferred alternative while maintaining group consensus     

Modeling the concept of majority opinion in group decision making

In this paper the problem of group decision making is studied. One of the main issues in this context is to define a decision strategy which takes into account the individual opinions of the decision makers. The concept of majority plays in this context a key role: what is often needed is an overall opinion which synthesizes the opinions of the majority of the decision makers. The reduction of the individual values into a representative value (which we call the majority opinion) is usually performed through an aggregation process. Within fuzzy set theory the concept of majority can be expressed by a linguistic quantifier (such as most), which is formally defined as a fuzzy subset. In this paper we propose two distinct approaches to the definition of a majority opinion. We first consider the case where linguistic quantifiers are associated with aggregation operators which allow us to compute a majority opinion by aggregating the individual opinions. In this case the majority opinion corresponds to the aggregated value. To model this semantics of linguistic quantifiers the IOWA operators are used and a new proposal of definition of their weighting vector is presented. A second method is based on the consideration of the concept of majority as a vague concept. Based on this interpretation we propose a formalization of a fuzzy majority opinion as a fuzzy subset.     

An investigation of email processing from a risky decision making perspective

The prevalence of cyber crimes has threatened the business model enabled by email. Users have to evaluate email related risks before forming their attitude and read intention toward commercial emails. Drawing on a seminal theoretical framework in risky decision making, we propose a research model that incorporates computer risk taking propensity and email risk perception as influential in cultivating commercial email attitude and read intention. The research model is empirically validated using survey data and the results provide significant support. This study contributes to the literature on email use by exploring the process of risky decision making and influence sources.     

Extension of TOPSIS to determine weight of decision maker for group decision making problems with uncertain information

In traditional TOPSIS method, the ideal solutions for alternatives are expressed in vectors. An important step in the process of group decision making is to determine the relative importance of each decision maker. In this paper, the weights of decision makers derived from individual decision are determined by using an extended TOPSIS method with interval numbers. The ideal decisions for all individual decisions are expressed in matrices. The positive ideal decision is the intersection of all individual decisions; the negative ideal decision is the union of all individual decisions. Comparisons with other methods are also made. A numerical example is examined to show the potential applications of the proposed method.     

A complexity perspective on collaborative decision making in organizations: The ecology of group-performance

Networks of communication are essential when managing corporate work and performing information exchange; the systems must allow them to be dynamic and well-structured. They help provide high organizational performance and innovative capacity in today's knowledge intense corporations, and this means that organizations must manage the networks strategically. Despite the fact that practitioners are aware of the huge influence of informal communication on decision making, little is known about the underlying principles of efficient employee network collaboration, which is dynamic in nature, especially for complex environments resulting from steady innovation and high competitive pressure. We addressed this issue from a complexity perspective, using an agent based simulation to visualize the key elements of efficient, information-based, collaborative decision making. Our findings suggested that information and communication technologies (ICT) may not be able to leverage corporate performance of the increasingly complex adaptive organizations. There seem to be elementary natural constraints on the cognitive capacities of people dealing with and managing information. Rather than a better technical approach, a more ecologic one is therefore advocated as the best way to improve decision making.     

A structure of fuzzy systems for support of decision making

 The aim of this paper is to introduce the notions of operation and mapping between general fuzzy decision systems (GFDS) over some decision space (𝕍, ℂ), where 𝕍 is a set of variants and ℂ is a set of criteria. The operations between two decision systems make possible to combine several decision system of different experts and the mappings between two decision systems enable to study structural properties of such systems. Relations between utility function h:𝕍→[0,1] and operations, and further, mappings between GFDS are investigated, too.     

On the application of multiple criteria decision making to a problem in defence systems acquisition

Multiple criteria decision theory (MCDT) approaches to choice making are receiving increased attention due to the increasing importance society places on incorporating the non-commensurate and conflicting objectives of a situation into the choice making process. Process algorithms for multiple objective optimization theory (MOOT) and multiple attribute utility, theory (MAI5T) motivated a combined approach which utilizes, in an efficient manner, the complementary aspects of both processes. An appropriate application for the multiple criteria approach is a specific military equipment acquisition involving aircraft retrofit. The retrofit of a particular aircraft with equipment designed for a mission which the aircraft was not originally designed to fly typically requires a large systems effort. Specifically, the retrofit of an aircraft with sophisticated electronic warfare (EW) equipment has historically involved inefficiencies and inadequacies including schedule and budgetary overruns and a lack of initially specified final product performance. Development of a useful combined MOOT/MAUT process seems a logical choice to ameliorate the difficulties of current electronic warfare aircraft retrofit design (EWARD) processes. This paper generates a set of criteria for evaluation of alternative retrofit systems in the defence systems acquisition cycle and develops an efficient framework for EWARD through extension of a MCDT approach for this application.     

The role of GPS-enabled information in transforming operational decision making: an exploratory study

Although the impact of ICT-enabled information on firm performance has been well documented in the business value of IT literature, our understanding of how Global Positioning System (GPS) adoption can transform operational decision making and foster differential firm performance is limited. In response, we conduct an exploratory comparative case study of three transport firms that have implemented the same GPS during the same year in their operations. Our results highlight that increased use of GPS-enabled information can enhance information quality and make operational decision making more fact-based and collaborative. We also find that such transformations in operational decision making, driven by increased use of GPS-enabled information, can foster differential performance impacts. However, we warn scholars and practitioners that a firm’s information management capability (in terms of availability of quality information in decision making, software tools for connectivity and access to information, IT systems integration post-GPS adoption and adaptability of the infrastructure to emerging business needs) and organizational factors (such as top management support, project management of GPS implementation, financial support, end-user involvement, rewarding, training and employee resistance) can facilitate (or inhibit) effective use of GPS-enabled information in operational decision making, and thus moderate differential performance benefits of GPS adoption.