Automating decision guidance: design and impacts in a group decision support environment

Many managerial decisions involve consideration of more than one single criterion. Despite the development of Multicriteria Decision Making (MCDM), Decision Support Systems (DSS), and Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) that are aimed at helping decision makers address these complex decisions, there is inadequate success in supporting MCDM. Problems hindering the success of these systems may be due to their undue complexity, over-reliance on quantitative modeling, and failure to accommodate the dynamic learning needs of the people who use them. This dissertation has explored the possibility of embedding decision guidance within MCDM GDSS, outlined specific guidelines for the design of such guidance, and demonstrated the potential benefits of enhancing MCDM with guidance for a resource-allocation task. Several theoretical views were integrated in order to generate a set of software design guidelines aimed at directing the implementation of decision guidance. A methodology for designing and implementing decision guidance was also suggested. The feasibility of the guidelines was demonstrated by embedding decision guidance into an existing MCDM GDSS. A research model was articulated in order to derive several hypotheses about the effects of decision guidance on group decision making outcomes. The general thrust of these hypotheses was to suggest that the addition of decision guidance to MCDM GDSS would improve the multicriteria decision making process, leading to an enhancement in learning and decision outcomes. A laboratory experiment was conducted to evaluate the impacts of decision guidance on learning and decision outcomes. Groups using a MCDM GDSS without decision guidance were compared to groups using the same decision model with embedded decision guidance. All groups performed a resource-allocation task. Overall, the findings suggest that the addition of guidance can bring significant advantages to group learning and consensus, as well as to group members' perceptions about their decision making processes and outcomes.