Accuracy and Timeliness in Decision-making Organizations

Two measures of performance, accuracy and timeliness of response, are introduced for information processing and decision-making organizations. Accuracy is computed by comparing the actual response of an organization to a given task to the desired response and assigning a cost to the discrepancy. Timeliness reflects the ability of the organization to produce a response within an allotted time determined by the task requirements. Delays in completing a task are due both to the time required for processing information and making decisions and to the time required to effect communications among decisionmakers. A simple model is introduced that models transmission delays. The method is applied to two organizational structures. The accuracy vs. expected response time locus is constructed and the accuracy-timeliness trade-off is investigated. The workload constraints on decisionmakers are considered in evaluating the two designs. * This work was carried out at the MIT Laboratory for Information and decision Systems with support provided by the U.S. Office of Naval Research under contract No. N00014-84-K-0519 (NR 649-003). ** The authors are with the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139