Challenging Group Support Systems Research: The Case for Strategic Decision Making

Strategic decision making (SDM) often occurs in groups that can benefit from the use of group support systems (GSS). However, no comprehensive review of this logical intersection has been made. We explore this intersection by viewing GSS research through the lens of SDM. First, SDM is broadly characterized and a model of GSS-mediated SDM is produced. Second, we review empirical GSS research linking these findings to the characteristics of SDM. We conclude that GSS research has not produced sufficient knowledge about group history, heterogeneity, member experience, task type, time pressure, technology or tool effects, and decision consensus for a favorable evaluation of SDM in GSS groups. SDM in GSS groups challenges researchers to study the effects of group processes such as those just mentioned in a context that involves ongoing and established groups, political activity, and a multiplicity of tasks.     

Applying Multiattribute-Based Group Decision Making Techniques in Complex Equipment Selection Tasks

A practicing industrial engineer, even an experienced decision maker, needs help in the sense that there is a necessity to use more logical or analytical decision support tools, especially when dealing with control and instrumentation projects which are often worth millions of dollars. In this article we propose an algorithm which can support the process of group decision making relating to industrial automation, especially involving the selection of control and instrumentation equipment. The aim of this article is to look only at the algorithm's application and how it is applied. To this end, two test cases are used as examples: (1) selecting a local area network for installation in an academic environment; and (2) selecting an integrated control system for a real-world pulp and paper mill. Obtained results show that the algorithm leads to a satisfactory solution. A software form of the algorithm is being programmed for use as a decision support tool.     

Ethical Decision Making and the Employed Lawyer

This article addresses one of the more disturbing questions raised by the major financial failures of the recent past; namely, how it could be that professionals, highly trained both in ethics and technical disciplines, should apparently collude with management in corporate misbehaviour. The article builds on evidence suggesting that professionals in employment contexts find ways of adapting in order to minimise perceived or actual conflict between their professional and organizational obligations and that this, in turn, may affect the way in which they exercise professional judgment. It uses identity theory to propose that professionals may adopt modified identities when employed and that these identities may be expressed, in part, in the way in which they resolve ethical dilemmas. The article reports on the results of a qualitative study in which corporate counsel showed evidence of adopting these identities. The findings suggest that this line of research offers insight into a far more complex world of employed professionals than that traditionally hypothesised and that the popular approach of regulators and others to monitoring corporate governance by appointing professionals as gate-keepers within the organization is perhaps problematic.     

A Model of Ethical Decision Making: The Integration of Process and Content

We develop a model of ethical decision making that integrates the decision-making process and the content variables considered by individuals facing ethical dilemmas. The process described in the model is drawn from Janis and Mann’s [1977, Decision Making: A Psychological Analysis of Conflict Choice and Commitment (The Free Press, New York)] work describing the decision process in an environment of conflict, choice and commitment. The model is enhanced by the inclusion of content variables derived from the ethics literature. The resulting integrated model aids in understanding the complexity of the decision process used by individuals facing ethical dilemmas and suggests variable interactions that could be field-tested. A better understanding of the process will help managers develop policies that enhance the likelihood of ethical behavior in their organizations. Roselie McDevitt Sc.D. is Assistant Professor of Accounting at␣the Charles F. Dolan School of Business at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. Dr. McDevitt teaches financial and managerial accounting. Her Primary areas of research are accounting education and accounting ethics. Catherine Giapponi is an Assistant Professor of Management at the Charles F. Dolan School of Business at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. Dr. Giapponi teaches courses in management, organizational behavior, and strategy. Her primary areas of research are corporate governance and business ethics. Cheryl Tromley, Ph.D., is a Professor of Management at␣Fairfield University where she has taught management, organizational behavior, organizational communication, organizational␣culture, organization development, and diversity for 19 years. She has co-authored two editions of the text ``Developing Managerial Skills in Organizational Behavior'␣as well authored or co-authored a significant number of professional articles and presentations related to management and management education.     

Multiple Criteria Decision Making Models in Group Decision Support

Use of multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) models to aid the group decision process was tested. Two multiple criteria group decision support systems (MCGDSS) were studied, one using the AHP/Tchebycheff method of Iz and the other using Kersten's NEGO system. These systems were compared with a commercial GDSS, VisionQuest. VisionQuest does not include multiple criteria tools. To make the study comparable, VisionQuest was augmented with an ad hoc linear programming model that could generate solutions with specified characteristics requested by the using group. The three systems were compared on the dimensions of solution quality and decision support effectiveness.One of the hypotheses was that MCDM models would force participants to examine criteria, preferences, and aspirations more thoroughly, thus leading to decisions of better quality. Subjects using the MCGDSSs were expected to have higher mean quality and effectiveness values. However, the quality and effectiveness values of the VisionQuest/ad hoc system were found to be better on the dimension of effectiveness. Explanations for this result are included in the paper.Another hypothesis was that the AHP/Tchebycheff method of Iz, a value-oriented system, would yield more effective group support than the goal-oriented NEGO system. However, the NEGO system was found to yield solutions with better quality measures than the solutions obtained with the AHP/Tchebycheff system.Observation of the groups using the MCDM systems indicate that both the AHP/Tchebycheff and NEGO methods can be revised to enhance their effectiveness. The primary difficulty encountered with the AHP/Tchebycheff method was in the large number of pairwise comparisons required by AHP. The NEGO method can be enhanced by including specification of desired attainment levels in the first stage of the method. Both MCDM techniques have potential to benefit group decision support by giving using groups a means to design better solutions.     

Determinants of Ethical Decision Making: The Relationship of the Perceived Organizational Environment

This study attempts to help explain the ethical decision making of individual employees by determining how the perceived organizational environment is related to that decision. A self- administered questionnaire design was used for gathering data in this study with a sample size of 245 full-time employees. Perceived supervisor expectation, formal policies, and informal policies were used to assess the expressed ethical decision of the respondents. The findings indicate that the perceived organizational environment is significantly related to the ethical decision of the respondent.     

论关系营销中的道德决策

本文在分析亨特和维特尔营销道德理论模型，探讨其在关系营销应用中出现的缺陷的基础上，试图构建一个关系营销中的道德决策模型作为补充，并结合现实环境对企业营销道德决策过程进行了分析。     

Personal Values’ Influence on the Ethical Dimension of Decision Making

Personal values have long been associated with individual decision behavior. The role played by personal values in decision making within an organization is less clear. Past research has found that managers tend to respond to ethical dilemmas situationally. This study examines the relationship between personal values and the ethical dimension of decision making using Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis. The study examines personal values as they relate to five types of ethical dilemmas. We found a significant positive contribution of altruistic values to ethical decision making and a significant negative contribution of self-enhancement values to ethical decision making. Dr. David J. Fritzsche is a retired Professor of Management and Organization at The Pennsylvania State University, Great Valley. Among the numerous journals in which he published are Journal of Business Ethics, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Macromarketing, and Simulation & Games. He is the co-author of the Business Policy Game: A Strategic Management Simulation. He authoured the book Business Ethics: A Global and Managerial Perspective (McGraw-Hill, 1997). Dr. Effy Oz is a Professor of Management Science and Information Systems at The Pennsylvania State University, Great Valley, where he teaches courses on IT management, ethical issues in IT, and business-stakeholder relations. He has authored several textbooks including five editions of Management Information Systems (Course Technology Inc., 1998–2006), Foundations of E-Commerce (Prentice-Hall, 2002) and, Ethics for the Information Age (McGraw-Hill, 1994), and a practitioner’s book (The Manager’s Bible, Ivy League Publishing, 1998). He has also published research articles in academic and professional journals, among which are MIS Quarterly, Communications of the ACM, Information & Management, Decisions Sciences, OMEGA, Journal of Business Ethics, and Journal of Computer Information Systems. Dr. Oz is a member of the editorial boards of Encyclopaedia of Information Systems, Information & Management, and Journal of Global Information Technology Management. He is a frequent speaker at IT conferences, has conducted research on a number of IT topics, and has been quoted in numerous media including Computerworld, MSNBC, and the Los Angeles Times. He was awarded the 1997 Notable Contribution to the Information Systems Literature Award by the Information Systems Section of the American Accounting Association, the 1999-2000 Distinguished Faculty Research Award at Penn State Great Valley, and Best Paper Award at the Annual Global Information Technology Conference of 2004.     

A Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making Model for IS Student Group Project Assessment

To accommodate the criterion-referenced student group project assessment approach, this paper proposes a fuzzy group Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) model. The proposed model can be used to solve student group project assessment problem in particular and generic MCDM problems in general, where the criteria used are often different and can be scored with multiple preference formats. The proposed fuzzy group MCDM model supports seven different preference formats, including preference ordering, utility vector, linguistic term vector, selected subset, fuzzy selected subset, fuzzy preference relation, and normal preference relation. It has been firstly used in the context of Information Systems (IS) student group project assessment.     

A Practical Procedure for Group Decision Making under Incomplete Multiplicative Linguistic Preference Relations

The aim of this paper is to investigate a group decision making problem with incomplete multiplicative linguistic preference relations. We first define the concept of an incomplete multiplicative linguistic preference relation, and then develop a simple algorithm to extend each incomplete multiplicative linguistic preference relation to a complete multiplicative linguistic preference relation. Finally, we develop a practical procedure for group decision making under incomplete multiplicative linguistic preference relations, and give a numerical example to illustrate the developed procedure.     

Decisional Power in Group Decision Making: A Note on the Allocation of Group Members' Weights in the Multiplicative AHP and SMART

Many complex decisions are made in a group environment, where the decision is made jointly by a committee or group structure. The individual group members are often not equally qualified to contribute equitably to the decision process, or may have different saliences (desires) to influence the decision. A quantitative knowledge of the players' decisional power is useful for better understanding of the group decision process, and could even be used in weighted voting within the group structure. We adapt the REMBRANDT suite of decision models (multiplicative AHP and SMART) to measure decisional power in groups, and we generalise this to cater for the case where power itself is deemed to be multidimensional in nature, and the case of uncertain subjective judgements of power amongst group members.     

The Impact of Role Training in a User-Driven Group Support System Environment

We tested the proposition that training groups to use roles would improve performance in a user-driven, GSS-supported meeting. Two methods of role training, fixed and rotated roles, were compared against a control procedure in which no formal role training was provided. In a repeated measures experiment, half of the groups completed four generate-creative tasks, while the remaining groups completed three generate-creative tasks followed by one choice-intellective task. Both role training methods were successful in reducing the time spent by groups orienting themselves to the technology, particularly in the choice-intellective task context; however, decision quality or quantity did not improve with role training.     

Teasing Ethical Decision Making Dilemmas: A Case Study of Land Rights Issues

The purpose of this paper is to highlightthe complexities in making decisions in an ethical wayevidenced by the current dispute over native landrights in contemporary Australia. The caseillustrates an example of a moral issue that involvesmaking a management choice. One approach which givespractice in four questions that the managementpractitioner can ask when faced with a moral dilemmais described. The case involves an on-going situationin which the Australian Government was faced withsupporting the land claims of either indigenousgroups or land holding pastoralists. TheGovernment, therefore, was on the horns of a classicdilemma, having to decide between two groups eachseeking `justice' and `fairness'.The paper refers to contemporary authorities such asRawls, De George, Paine and Badaracco (Jnr). In thecontext of ethical decision making, the main eventsleading to the present dilemma are presented. Thecase study includes a summary outlining the AustralianGovernment's Ten Point Plan response to thedilemma and a summary of the perceived problems forbusiness development where native title is recognised. These can be used to provide students in businessethics classes with an opportunity to recognise anddebate the rights, wrongs and complexities of moralissues as well as appropriate managerial decisionmaking.     

Framing Effects Within the Ethical Decision Making Process of Consumers

There has been neglect of systematic conceptual development and empirical investigation within consumer ethics. Scenarios have been a long-standing tool yet their development has been haphazard with little theory guiding their development. This research answers four questions relative to this gap: Do different scenario decision frames encourage different moral reasoning styles? Does the way in which framing effects are measured make a difference in the measurement of the relationship between moral reasoning and judgment by gender? Are true framing effects likely to vary with the situation? and Are true framing effects likely to vary by gender? The conclusions reached were that (1) different scenario frames encourage both types of reasoning, but rule based moral reasoning is dominant regardless of frame, (2) accounting for formal equivalency in the measurement of true framing effects is likely to enhance the interpretation of studies in moral reasoning and judgment, (3) True framing effects are more likely to occur in situations with low to moderate perceived ethicality, and (4) true framing effects are not likely to vary by gender. Explanations as to why these results occurred are discussed.     

Towards a Design Science of Ethical Decision Support

Ethical decision making involves complex emotional, cognitive, social, and philosophical challenges. Even if someone wants to be ethical, he or she may not have clearly articulated what that means, or know how to go about making a decision consistent with his or her values. Information technology may be able to help. A decision support system could offer individuals and groups some guidance, assisting them in making a decision that reflects their underlying values. The first step towards a design science of ethical decision support is to develop a theoretical base on which first-generation systems can be built. This paper brings together work in cognitive, social and moral psychology, information systems, and philosophy relevant to ethical decision making. Attributes of a system that would support ethical decision making are described.     

Reinforcing Ethical Decision Making Through Organizational Structure

In this paper I examine how the constituent elements of a firm's organizational structure affect the ethical behavior of workers. The formal features of organizations I examine are the compensation practices, performance and evaluation systems, and decision-making assignments. I argue that the formal organizational structure, which is distinguished from corporate culture, is necessary, though not sufficient, in solving ethical problems within firms. At best the formal structure should not undermine the ethical actions of workers. When combined with a strong culture, however, the organizational structure may be sufficient in promoting ethical conduct. While helpful, ethics training and corporate codes are neither necessary nor sufficient in promoting ethical behavior within firms.     

Distributed Decision Making: A Proposal of Support Through Cooperative Systems

In this paper we show that decision making processes evolve to be more and more distributed and asynchronous. In order to support decision-makers who are not at the same place at the same time we define cooperation processes and a set of models models able to support designers of Cooperative decision support framework. These models come from a more general architecture of a Cooperative Knowledge Based System and are based on the knowledge acquisition field. A definition of cooperative decision support framework is also given.     

AHP-Group Decision Making: A Bayesian Approach Based on Mixtures for Group Pattern Identification

This paper proposes a Bayesian estimation procedure to determine the priorities of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in group decision making when there are a large number of actors and a prior consensus among them is not required. Using a hierarchical Bayesian approach based on mixtures to describe the prior distribution of the priorities in the multiplicative model traditionally used in the stochastic AHP, this methodology allows us to identify homogeneous groups of actors with different patterns of behaviour for the rankings of priorities. The proposed procedure consists of a two-step estimation algorithm: the first step carries out a global exploration of the model space by using birth and death processes, the second concerns a local exploration by means of Gibbs sampling. The methodology has been illustrated by the analysis of a case study adapted from a real experiment on e-democracy developed for the City Council of Zaragoza (Spain). Partially funded under the research project Electronic Government. Internet-based Complex Decision Making: e-democracy and e-cognocracy (Ref. PM2004-052) approved by the Regional Government of Aragon (Spain) as part of the multi-disciplinary projects programme.     

A conceptual framework of anonymity in Group Support Systems

As the development and use of automated systems for collaborative work grows, the need for a better understanding of these systems becomes more important. Our focus is on one type of system, a Group Support System (GSS) and, in particular, on one important aspect of a GSS—anonymity. A conceptual framework for the study of anonymity in a GSS is presented, which describes the general classes of variables and their relationships. These variables include the factors that influence anonymity in a GSS, types of anonymity, and the effects of anonymity on a message sender, receiver, group process, and outcome. Each of these variables is discussed with working propositions presented for important group process and outcome measures. The objectives of this article are to highlight the importance and complexity of anonymity, to act as a guide for empirical investigations of anonymity, and to influence future GSS development and use.     

模糊群决策方法在中间商选择中的应用研究

企业在选择中间商时往往面临着候选伙伴评价指标信息获取的困难,为了使决策科学合理,采用群决策方法集成各领域不同专家的信息,通过语言变量把专家的主观判断转化为对应模糊数,建立相应的数学模型,并计算出用模糊数表示的候选者综合评价值。