Top management perspectives on decision support systems

Abstract In an increasingly turbulent business environment, Decision Support Systems (DSS) are receiving growing attention in the literature, particularly at top management level. Since the decision making milieu of senior management is extraordinarily difficult to define clearly, the question arises as to how far DSS are addressing the real problems of assisting with such decisions. Two hundred and eighty-five senior managers from a stratified sample completed a questionnaire designed to test their perceptions on this issue. In general, the respondents were reasonably aware of DSS; about a third of them have information systems that seem to fulfil the functions of a DSS to a degree, and the majority believe that decision aids such as DSS can, at least to some extent, be useful in addressing what they perceive to be their major difficulties in decision making. Of the ninety-eight managers who already have computer-based assistance, ninety-one consider them to be DSS.

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