L'aide à la décision comme support à la construction du sens dans l'organisation

The enterprises' investments for consultancy to support decision making are substantial and should remain so in the foreseeable future. It is therefore important to insure their effectiveness through, among other things, studies aimed at reaching a better integration of the consultancy activity with the management process. Such an attempt is proposed here from three distinct avenues joined in a triptych : first, a study of recent critiques of the decision-making process ; second, an examination of the concept of "problem", and third, an exploration of the notion of "stakeholders". The scrutiny of these three avenues yields a view of decision aid as an activity aimed essentially at supporting the sense making process in organizations, an activity within which the notion of "stakeholders" becomes central when the time comes to actualize it in the context of complex problems. Sixteen propositions are offered as a means to mark the different steps of this examination of decision aid.