Tools for Collaborative Decision-Making

Decision-making has evolved recently thanks to the introduction of information and communication technologies in many organizations, which has led to new kinds of decision-making processes, called ?collaborative decision-making?, at the organizational and cognitive levels. This book looks at the development of the decision-making process in organizations. Decision-aiding and its paradigm of problem solving are defined, showing how decision-makers now need to work in a cooperative way. Definitions of cooperation and associated concepts such as collaboration and coordination are given and a framework of cooperative decision support systems is presented, including intelligent DSS, cooperative knowledge-based systems, workflow, group support systems, collaborative engineering, integrating with a collaborative decision-making model in part or being part of global projects. Several models and experimental studies are also included showing that these new processes have to be supported by new types of tools, several of which are described in order to calculate or simulate solutions or global solutions for decision-making modification. Definitions and new trends for these models are given, along with types of systems.

Contents

1. Alteration of Decision-Making Processes in Organizations.
2. New Decision-Making Processes.
3. The Need to Cooperate.
4. Cooperative Decision-Making.
5. Activity Support Systems.
6. Cooperative Decision Support Systems: CDSSS.

About the Authors

Pascale Zaraté is Professor at Toulouse 1 Capitole University, France. She conducts her research at the IRIT Laboratory and is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Decision Support Systems Technologies. She is co-chair of the European Working Group on DSS and has published several studies and books.

LIST OF FIGURES ix

LIST OF TABLES xi

INTRODUCTION xiii

CHAPTER 1. ALTERATION OF DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES IN ORGANIZATIONS 1

1.1. Decisional processes 1

1.2. Introduction of ICT in organizations 5

1.3. The decision-making process revisited 7

1.4. Conclusion 9

CHAPTER 2. NEW DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES 11

2.1. Examination of the context of such decision-making 11

2.2. Context and decision-making 14

2.3. Experiment 15

2.4. Conclusion 18

CHAPTER 3. THE NEED TO COOPERATE 21

3.1. Cooperation: definitions 21

3.2. Types of cooperation 27

3.2.1. Complementary cooperation 27

3.2.2. Interdependent cooperation 28

3.2.3. Negotiated cooperation 28

CHAPTER 4. COOPERATIVE DECISION-MAKING 31

4.1. Process of collaborative decision-making 34

4.2. Model of the process of collaborative decision-making 36

CHAPTER 5. ACTIVITY SUPPORT SYSTEMS 39

5.1. Interactive decision support systems 39

5.2. Business intelligence 42

5.3. Intelligent or knowledge-based DSSs 43

5.4. Cooperative knowledge-based systems 46

5.5. Group Decision Support Systems (GDSSs) 49

5.6. Facilitation of group decision-making 51

5.7. Collaborative engineering 55

5.8. Cooperative design approach 56

5.9. Cooperative systems 57

5.10. Workflow 60

5.11. Cooperative multi-agent systems 62

CHAPTER 6. COOPERATIVE DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS: CDSSS  65

6.1. Distributed DSSs 65

6.2. Proposal of an architecture 66

6.2.1. Interpersonal communication tool 69

6.2.2. Task management tool 69

6.2.2.1. Support for management of non-nominal situations 70

6.2.2.2. Planning support tool in the context of distance learning 73

6.2.2.3. Conclusion 75

6.2.3. Knowledge capitalization tool 75

6.2.3.1. Knowledge capitalization: a process-oriented model 76

6.2.4. Dynamic human/computer interaction tool 80

6.3. Process of group decision-making 81

6.4. Conclusion 88

GENERAL CONCLUSION 91

BIBLIOGRAPHY 95

INDEX 105

Pascale Zaraté is a Professor at Toulouse 1 Capitole University, France.