ORGAN IZ AT IONAL DSS

8.9 ORGAN IZ AT IONAL DSS

O r g a n i z a t i o n a l d e c i s i o n s u p p o r t w a s first d e f i n e d b y H a c k a t h o r n a n d K e e n ( 1 9 8 1 ) , w h o distinguished three types of decision support: individual, group, and organizational. T h e y m a i n t a i n that c o m p u t e r - b a s e d s y s t e m s c a n b e d e v e l o p e d t o p r o v i d e d e c i s i o n sup- port for e a c h o f t h e s e levels. T h e y p e r c e i v e o r g a n i z a t i o n a l d e c i s i o n s u p p o r t a s f o c u s i n g

457 P A R T 111 ' COLLABORATION, COMMUNICATION, ENTERPRISE DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS, AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

they believe, e a c h individual's activities m u s t m e s h c l o s e l y with o t h e r p e o p l e ' s work.

C o m p u t e r support was s e e n primarily as a vehicle for improving c o m m u n i c a t i o n , coor- dination, and p r o b l e m - s o l v i n g . A visualization of an organizational d e c i s i o n support system f r o m a research d i m e n s i o n is provided by Konsynski and Stohr (1992).

There are several definitions of organizational decision support system (ODSS): • W a t s o n (1990) d e f i n e d an O D S S as "a c o m b i n a t i o n of c o m p u t e r and c o m m u n i c a -

tion t e c h n o l o g y d e s i g n e d to c o o r d i n a t e and d i s s e m i n a t e d e c i s i o n - m a k i n g across functional areas and hierarchical layers in order that d e c i s i o n s are congruent with organizational goals and m a n a g e m e n t ' s shared interpretation of t h e c o m p e t i t i v e

environment." • Carter et al. (1992) d e f i n e d O D S S as " a . D S S that is u s e d by individuals or groups at several workstations in m o r e than o n e organizational unit w h o m a k e varied (interrelated but a u t o n o m o u s ) decisions using a c o m m o n set of tools."

• S w a n s o n ( S w a n s o n and Z m u d , 1990) called O D S S a distributed d e c i s i o n support s y s t e m ( D D S S ) . H e stated that a n organizational D S S s h o u l d not b e thought o f a s

a manager's D S S . Rather, it s h o u l d be v i e w e d as supporting t h e organization's division of labor in decision-making. He d e f i n e d a D D S S as a D S S that supports distributed decision-making.

• K i n g and Star (1990) p r o v i d e d a different perspective. T h e y b e l i e v e that the c o n - cept of O D S S is f u n d a m e n t a l l y simple: A p p l y the t e c h n o l o g i e s of c o m p u t e r s and

c o m m u n i c a t i o n s to e n h a n c e the organizational d e c i s i o n - m a k i n g process. In prin- ciple, O D S S takes the vision of technological support for g r o u p p r o c e s s e s to the higher level o f organizations i n m u c h t h e s a m e w a y that g r o u p D S S e x t e n d s the

vision of technological support for individual action to the g r o u p process. This is

d o n e today on an intranet ( s e e Ba et al., 1997).

B a s e d o n the a b o v e definitions, G e o r g e (1991/1992) f o u n d that all O D S S h a v e cer- tain c o m m o n characteristics:

• T h e f o c u s of an O D S S is an organizational task, activity, or d e c i s i o n that affects several organizational units or corporate problems. • An O D S S cuts across organizational functions or hierarchical layers. • A n O D S S almost necessarily i n v o l v e s c o m p u t e r - b a s e d t e c h n o l o g i e s and m a y also

i n v o l v e c o m m u n i c a t i o n technologies. For i m p l e m e n t a t i o n issues of O D S S , s e e Kivijarvi (1997).