A Computational Model of Coordination for the Design of Organizational Decision Support Systems

Abstract

The Information Technology (IT) for realizing Organizational Decision Support Systems (ODSS) is in a nascent stage of development. This is particularly true in the area of coordination, which is a critical element of ODSS, and which distinguishes ODSS research from earlier research in Group DSS and individually oriented DSS. As a first step in ODSS coordination research, alternative representation schemes need to be examined in terms of both their match with the prevailing needs of organizations and of existing IT approaches that can be brought to bear. Matching ODSS needs with coordination representation requirements is examined by using several supporting reference disciplines including foundational DSS and recent ODSS research frameworks/architectures. Existing IT approaches are adapted from the reference disciplines of Active DSS, Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI), and MathematicaVComputational Organization Theory (MCOT) to operationalize a computational model of coordination that: (1) embodies the philosophies of Active DS~including the idea that automated intelligent agents can play a significant role in supporting decision makers by independently carrying out rudimentary tasks to support the various phases of a decision making process; (2) adapts DAI and IT approaches to reflect practical human organizational realities including what we refer to as the 'Open-Ended Knowledge World', and the evolutionary nature of organizations-whereby ODSS coordination representations will be subjected to almost constant revision due to both external environment disruptions and internal events that require adjustments to a preliminary plan; and (3) reflects the fact that organizational goals are often vague, which implies that a coordination representation should be sufficiently robust to reflect ad hoc analysis accommodating of strategy changes.

Managing the false alarms: A framework for assurance and verification of surveillance monitoring

“…Readers interested in recent research into organisational decision support are referred to, amongst others, Jin and Levitt's (1993) research on modeling organisational problem solving in multi-agent teams, and Howorka et al (1995) work on coordination for the design of organisational decision support.…”

An ODSS for hospital-based clinical decision making: conceptual design and analysis

“…This can be readily recognized in the emphasis that most researchers place on the role of sharing and coordinating activities in organizational decision making. Researchers believe that the primary purpose of ODSS is to allow data and model sharing (George, 1991;George et al, 1992) and to lend coherence to coordination in organizational decision making (Howorka et al, 1995). The communication network should serve the collection and dissemination of the output of executive information processing (Watson, 1990), vertical and horizontal dissemination of information (Howorka et a1 1995), inter-and intra-group communication (Weisband and Galegher 1990), and the inter-organizational nature of decision making (Illiaifair, Nilakanta and Prabhu 1995).…”