The Forum LAN Systems: Organizational Issues

This chapter reviews forum LAN systems. To begin with, because of the utility of LAN implementation of the Forum Information System (FIS) and its input structure, four distinct yet related forums are formed prior to employment of the LAN, in the sense that owners, employees, regulators, and managers may play a role in decision making. Once the relevant parties know what changes are going to occur in their information practices, the LAN system can be physically implemented. Once it is in place, the day-to-day use of the FIS is a tutor on the ongoing life of the corporation. The implementation of the FIS involves the organizational development work involved in translating the prototype into a specific corporation setting. This is a translation of existing accounting, maintenance, operations, and strategic planning practices into FIS procedures. The utilization of the FIS is intended to promote organizational learning. The FIS differs from group decision support systems in that it attempts to address the decision information needs of the total corporation and to examine the effectiveness of the forum decision support system from the vantage point of the evaluation of decisions and their real-world consequences.