Patrick Humphreys

Problem Structuring Calculi and Levels of Knowledge Representation in Decision Making

Publisher Summary In any study of individual decision making, it is essential to take into account the social context in which the decision making activities take place and within which the decision maker conceptualizes the consequences of his or her actions. Analysis of the way the social context is taken into account in the process of decision making has largely been concerned with examining the way in which actions are chosen and inferences made by people involved in decision making tasks and compared with the prescriptions of the representation of the decision making task in a normative model of the situation. The social world in its many manifestations in the macrolevel and microlevel not only determines the terrain of definitions and the range of understanding an individual member can use and perform in his or her decision making activities but also provides the person with the arena in which his or her choices and actions will be tried out, justified, interpreted by others, and rewarded or sanctioned. Under such an understanding of the relationship of the individual to his or her environment, the individual is seen not as passive, acted upon by the environment, but as active, interpreting, acting upon, and changing that environment.

Implementing Systems for Supporting Management Decisions

This paper reports on experimentation with Organisation Analyser (OA), a prototype software aimed at supporting the identification and analysis of decision making networks in organisations. Previous research has identified that there was great benefit in adopting a network approach to the study of organisations. This research has viewed organisations as being composed of a variety of different types of networks: emergent networks, established networks, communication networks, grape vine etc. However, it is often difficult to operationalise such an approach when studying such complex phenomena as organisational decision making and implementation. To facilitate the application of network analysis to entire organisations, we have developed Organisation Analyser (OA), a Windows-based tool for the representation and analysis of all the relevant kinds of networks which we tested in one Irish organisation. Central focus on a sample of decisions currently being made and implemented in that organisation brought to light the very political and unstable nature of the objectives and the unfolding of the decisionmaking processes in organisations. With the help of a novel framework for the analysis of organisational decision making, this paper describes the organisation where the research is taking place and the decisions selected for the purpose of the study. It shows the support which OA provided the researcher in the analysis of the information collected and presents preliminary conclusions regarding the nature of the decision making effected by groups of top managers in organisations and the way in which these decisions are implemented. In particular, it provides new insights into the concepts of structural hole, centrality and decision ownership. It reveals how decision implementation can be just as difficult as choice. OA appears to have potential as a DSS tool to assist managers in structuring their organisational networks better.

Discourses Underpinning Decision Support

Textbook accounts and case studies of decision making in the social and organisational contexts of decision support typically concentrate on modelling the representation of the decision problem, and/or of information which may be relevant in its solution and/or the motivations of interested parties, etc. They employ the discourses of the participants in the decision making, and of decision analysts and/or DSS designers, as accessories, useful in contextualising the representations which are the focus of the account. This paper attempts to invert this process, focusing on the discourses employed in decision making, decision analysis and the design of decision support, fust, identifying the kind of discourse employed in negotiating and constructing decision problem representations, at five qualitatively different levels in determining prescriptions for action, and, then, investigating how these representations are employed as artefacts by those people who participate in the making of decisions and attempt to get them implemented in organisational contexts.

From measuring to learning? Probing the evolutionary path of IC research and practice

Purpose – In line with an emerging critical trend in the field of intellectual capital (IC), the aim of this paper is to probe the evolutionary path of IC research and practices. The paper aims to argue that IC research and practices need to shift from the measuring paradigm to a learning paradigm.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 15 interviews with experienced IC consultants were conducted while they were all working on a European Commission funded IC project across five European countries from 2005 to 2008. Altogether their voices constitute a critical line of thought.Findings – The findings showed that a learning paradigm does not take a stand against the measuring paradigm, however it does transform the measuring paradigm, as it takes it to a new level of understanding by engaging a firms attention to the socio‐psychological mechanism that generates and sustains IC flows. IC flows entail new knowledge flows, practice flows, and affect flows that elicit organizational change and innovation.Prac...

The Evolution of Group Decision Support Systems to Enable Collaborative Authoring of Outcomes.

Abstract This article draws on analysis of a variety of problems emerging from practical applications of Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) to propose a fundamental evolution of decision support models from the traditional single decision-spine model to the decision-hedgehog. It positions decision making through the construction of narratives making the rhizome that constitutes the body of the hedgehog with the fundamental aim of enriching understanding of the contexts of decision making. Localized processes constructing and exploring prescriptions for action within a plethora of decision spines are rooted in this rhizome. It identifies a synthesis of theories that influence decision making within organizations and proposes a comprehensive system of Group Decision Authoring and Communication Support (GDACS). In doing so it proposes that the iterative development of collective narrative within an organizing system engaged with complex decision making leads to active engagement with implementation—a process we call Collaborative Authoring of Outcomes. Throughout, the article outlines the implications for the organization of GDACS and proposes a comprehensive architecture that enables this approach.

Decision Support in Organizational Transformation

Computer and communication technology has been used extensively in organisations to enhance the management process but experts and users report dissatisfaction with the design process and the support provided by technological systems. Increasing their effectiveness is not a question of more or better technology but one of re-interpretation of action and the managers activity. According to developments in cognitive biology, human beings do not act based on a representation of the world and this contradicts the current foundation of the concern for providing information as an accurate representation of relevant reality. 1berefore human understanding as an observer in language opens a new perspective of management. Language as the recursive flow of consensual coordinations of behaviour that constitutes a manner of living together, allows for the generation of the complexities that managers must cope with to take care of the viability of the Human Activity Systems under their responsibility. This continuous criss-crossing of consensual coordinations of consensual coordinations of behaviour follows the changing complexities of living together in a changing world; learning and acquiring new and more powerful languages to observe and coordinate in the domains of action that characterize the identity of the Human Activity System is a practice concerning viability. We understand conversation as the braiding between language and emotions, but emotions are changed in language, changing the disposition for action. Computer and communication technology can be reinterpreted as a conversational device that triggers the language and emotional processes of the community sharing the concerns of the manager.

Creative Support for Innovative Decisions

This paper examines requirements and possibilities for decision support situations where conventional decision analysis would indicate that the decision-makers have little chance of centralising the control of decision making about their own futures, thus offering only social exclusion. It describes how creative support for innovative decision making can be generated and communicated through the interplay of modes of composing in multimedia (textual, audio-visual) and modes of language (observation, action). This provided extended language opportunities which empowered local decision-makers in fifteen Peruvian communities to discover new resources and implement new pathways, realising satisfying lives in situations where conventional methods of decision analysis and decision support are constrained, by the kinds of knowledge they manage, to signal “no way, no hope”.

Support for the Synthesis and Analysis of Organisational Systems in Deciding on Change

Abstract This paper describes SASOS, an interactive computer-based system supporting analysts in embedding knowledge about an organisation (as is, as might be) in decision making on change, where knowledge generation, elicitation and synthesis, decision making and implementation of changes all comprise processes distributed throughout the organisation involving participants with differing roles and responsibilities. SASOS can guide the investigation and model building process within practical, systems-based analyses of organisational situations, problems and change option implementation. It offers a knowledge representation schema unifying hypertext, entity-relationship modelling and Petri-net theory. It has the ability to present a desired view on this schema in a language (visual and textual) with which the user is familiar. It provides views which are always in accordance with the users immediate needs in the model generation and problem solving process. SASOS can help organisational analysts in their work by (i) providing structured information about the organisation which can be created, updated, and reviewed by the analyst and organisational personnel alike; (ii) providing modelling facilities in using this structured information to present views of the organisational reality bringing together diverse aspects of what is known about the organisation which may be relevant in handling a particular problem or exploring the basis of a complaint about organisational functioning; (iii) providing simulation facilities for the analyst to try out various changes in the structure of this reality and discover their side-effects, thus enabling informed decisions to be taken concerning the implementation of these changes.

Intellectual Capital and Support for Collaborative Decision Making in Small and Medium Enterprises

This paper explores how collaborative decision-making can be improved through expanding decision makers’ ability to access and process information related to intellectual capital. We describe the ICS (Intellectual Capital Statement) Process, and supporting ICS toolkit developed by Partners in the InCaS EU project. We describe how they were validated in practice to provide an open, semi-structured methodology designed to help Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) decide on their strengths and weaknesses regarding intellectual capital and its use within the firm. We also describe the creation and emergence of InCapedia, an interactive encyclopaedia for authoring, representing, accessing and communicating anything and everything to do with intellectual capital. We show how, together, InCapedia and the ICS toolkit support both the enhancement of contextual knowledge and the development of proceduralised contexts, and thus have the potential to nurture all aspects of collaborative decision processes in SMEs.

The decision hedgehog for creative decision making

This article introduces a fundamental evolution of the group decision support model from the single “decision-spine” which focuses on a single proceduralized context, to provide comprehensive Group Communication and Decision Support (GDACS). We show how GDACS can support creative decision-making through collaborative authoring of outcomes, within a plethora of decision-spines, and also within the rhizome that constitutes the body-without-organs of the decision hedgehog in which these spines are rooted. We position decision making through the construction of narratives with the fundamental aim of enriching contextual knowledge for decision-making. Localized processes developing proceduralized contexts for constructing and exploring specific prescriptions for action (“pricking the real” at the tip of a decision spine) are rooted in this rhizome. We identify the variety of contexts that are involved in-group decision making and include a case study that provides a comprehensive account of process design for GDACS.