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A decision support system (DSS) is a flexible, interactive, computerized approach intended to support administrators in their decision making activities and which is capable of providing direct, personal support for complex, managerial decisions. This paper presents an overview of DSS's major characteristics which can integrate the intellectual resources of individuals with the capabilities of the computer to improve the quality of decisions. Following a discussion of its capabilities, the various components of a DSS (database, model base, hardware and user‐system interface) are examined as well as the development tools needed. Examples of the applications of DSSs in two universities provide insight into the benefits a DSS can bring to educational administration. Finally, the paper considers various development and implementation issues pertaining to a decision support system in academic administration.

This study investigates the changing intellectual structure of the decision support system (DSS) field by means of an empirical assessment of the DSS literature over two successive time periods, 1971‐1990 and 1991‐1995. A multivariate data analysis tool, cluster analysis, is applied to an author cocitation frequency matrix derived from a large database file of comprehensive DSS literature over the two consecutive periods. The study concludes that the core areas of DSS research have shifted to group decision support systems, model management, and design and implementation, while the study of foundations and individual differences has faded away. Moreover, DSS researchers have diversified their reference disciplines in an effort to improve their research. Influence of organization science has been diminished, while cognitive science and psychology have emerged as the most influential contributing disciplines.

The concept of teams and teamwork is increasingly becoming an important key to productivity and employee satisfaction in the contemporary workplace. This paper looks at the concept of teams and teamwork and several innovative ways of using teams. Among the innovative ways of using teams are globally networked teams, team‐based strategic planning, flexible‐jobbing, the horizontal corporation, and the virtual corporation. The use of computer‐mediated communication technologies and other groupware technologies provide a workable, reliable, and flexible base of systems for creating the platforms for virtual teams and virtual organizations. An overview of current information technology available for supporting teams and which types of information technology are most valuable in enhancing the new team applications is briefly addressed. Supporting technologies include groupware for facilitating communication, supporting information storage and retrieval, and supporting decision making. Lastly, the many competitive advantages to the use of virtual teaming in the global environment as well as its managerial implications and strategic recommendations for improving the performance of virtual teams are presented.

In the current global competitive environment, if an organization is to be successful, it has to be a learning organization. Organizations learn from their assertive and adaptive interaction with the environment and from their internal dynamics. Organizational learning needs to be supported as external environments and internal dynamics of organizations become more complex. Discusses different learning processes and the different intelligent systems which can support and enhance organizational learning. Finally, presents a conceptual framework of an integrated intelligent system for supporting organizational learning. Intends to be useful to both organizational theorists/ practitioners and IT managers, who are involved in the development and implementation of learning organizations.

In any organization there are main goals, with lots of projects designed to achieve these goals. It is important for any organization to determine how much these projects affect the achievement of these goals. The purpose of this paper is to develop a fuzzy multiple attribute-based group decision-support system (FMAGDSS) to evaluate projects’ performance in promoting the organization's goals utilizing simple additive weighting (SAW) algorithm and technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) algorithm. The proposed FMAGDSS deals with choosing the most appropriate fuzzy ranking algorithm for solving a given fuzzy multi attribute decision making (FMADM) problem with both qualitative and quantitative criteria (attributes), and uncertain judgments of decision makers.

In this paper, a FMAGDSS model is designed to determine scores and ranks of every project in promoting the organization's goals. In the first step of FMAGDSS model, all projects are assessed by experts based on evaluation criteria and the organization's goals. The proposed FMAGDSS model will then choose the most appropriate fuzzy ranking method to solve the given FMADM problem. Finally, a sensitivity analysis system is developed to assess the reliability of the decision-making process and provide an opportunity to analyze the impacts of “criteria weights” and “projects” performance’ on evaluating projects in achieving the organizations’ goals, and to assess the reliability of the decision-making process. In addition, a software prototype has been developed on the basis of FMAGDSS model that can be applied to solve every FMADM problem that needs to rank alternatives according to certain attributes.

The result of this study simplifies and accelerates the evaluation process. The proposed system not only helps organizations to choose the most efficient projects for sustainable development, but also helps them to assess the reliability of the decision-making process, and decrease the uncertainty in final decision caused by uncertain judgment of decision makers.

Future studies are suggested to expand this system to evaluate and rank the project proposals. To achieve this goal, the efficiency of the projects in line with organization's goals, should be predicted.

This study contributes to the relevant literature by proposing a FMAGDSS model to evaluate projects in promoting organization's goals. The proposed FMAGDSS has ability to choose the most appropriate fuzzy ranking algorithm to solve a given FMADM problem based on the type and the number of attributes and alternatives, considering the least computation and time consumption for ranking alternatives.

Group problem solving drives many initiatives that support innovative strategic management. Tools or methodologies that improve group processes—such as Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) or Electronic Meeting Systems (EMS)—deserve close inspection. However, companies considering installing EMS/GDSS should be aware that such facilities can be expensive, their benefits are not always clear, and as the following case shows, they can even have highly undesirable effects.

The emergence of the network society has major consequences for the role played by environmental scientists. They are assumed to be able to contribute to new institutional arrangements for collective action. Through deliberations and organised discourses, environmental scientists are expected to help stakeholders to define common ground for action and the sharing of individual problem solving capacities. This paper discusses the consequences of changes in the nature of decision‐making in the area of sustainability for the concepts and instruments to be used. As a new learning context the policy laboratory is introduced. Special attention is given to three major types of instruments: gaming, interactive methods and group decision support systems.

Looks at new communications technologies, such as videoconferencing systems, which have enabled the creation of “virtual organizations” and “virtual teams”. Investigates the hypotheses that both “social presence” and “media richness” associated with a communication medium used to support geographically‐dispersed software development teams, will have a significant impact on team productivity, perceived interaction quality, and group process satisfaction. Results supported the predicted superiority of the face‐to‐face setting over the videoconferencing setting with regard to team productivity. They also indicated that a communication medium characterized as high in both “media richness” and “social presence” can engender a greater sense of interaction quality. There were no significant differences between the face‐to‐face and videoconferencing settings for group process satisfaction.

The resourcing of policing activity is characterised by a level of complexity, particularly where evaluating alternative policy options is concerned. In this paper, a case study using multimethodological modelling to compare alterative policy choice in a group context is outlined with respect to response-patrol officer (RPO) deployment within a UK police force. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The application of a three phase modelling process is illustrated where scenario planning is used to generate the scope of the system elements to be modelled. This is followed by causal mapping to identify the barriers to improving officer resourcing, and system dynamics modelling is used to simulate the impacts of a range of policy options within this policing function. A group model building approach was applied throughout the modelling phases with an expert group to negotiate a shared view of the structure and dynamics of the resourcing policy challenges.

A fully validated system dynamics model emerged from the multi-phase modelling process which allowed a series of alternative future policy scenarios to be explored and evaluated. Useful policy insights were generated by the system dynamics simulation model which suggested more efficient rules for resource allocation in the police force’s RPO function.

The insights from this case study demonstrates that multi-phase modelling has potential application in policy exploration across a range of emergency service providers whose actions are governed by both variable demand and constrained supply of resource.

Face‐to‐face business meetings are a widely used method of group interaction, and a rich source of data on what actually happens in group discussions. Active participation in a meeting is usually perceived to be making an oral contribution of some kind to the discussion. This paper describes a field study of ten face‐to‐face business meetings which were videotaped and subsequently analysed. Participant contributions were coded, and the data summarized. The mean contribution was approximately 12 seconds and 18 words. The most common contribution type was information giving. The highest single contributor in each meeting captured, on average, about 30% of the available airtime, while the two highest, combined, captured over half of the airtime. These findings are discussed within the context of requirements for designers of collaborative technology systems to support group interpersonal communication through the use of computing and data communication technologies.