Impact Of Decision Support Systems Research Articles

The Impact of Decision Support Systems on Organizational Innovation: Field Study in Industrial Companies in Dhofar Governorate: أثر نظم دعم القرارات على الإبداع التنظيمي: دراسة ميدانية في الشركات الصناعية بمحافظة ظفار

The aim of the research is to identify the impact of decision support systems on organizational creativity in industrial companies in Dhofar Governorate. The research relied on the questionnaire in collecting information. The research population consisted of employees in the top and middle management of three industrial companies in Dhofar Governorate (Raysut Cement, Dhofar Energy, and Salalah Methanol Company) and they (97) employees. Questionnaires were distributed to all members of the study community in the three companies, and the researcher retrieved (93) a valid questionnaire for statistical analysis. The researcher used the descriptive analytical method in collecting data, analyzing it, answering research questions and testing their hypotheses. The most important results of the research: the presence of a statistically significant effect to support senior management and the type of support systems used on organizational creativity at the level of statistical significance (0.05) Dhofar Governorate industrial companies. And the absence of a statistically significant effect of the available capabilities of decision support systems on organizational creativity at the level of statistical significance (0.05). Among the most important recommendations: Raising the levels of creativity of workers in industrial companies through holding workshops and developing them to the best practical practices in the field of benefiting from the outputs of decision support systems. And enhancing the inputs of decision support systems in industrial companies to make new and modern contributions to the decision-making process.

The Impact of the Dimensions of the Administrative Decision Support Systems on the Re-engineering of the Systems of the Palestinian universities in Gaza Strip from the Employees’ Perspective

This study aimed to identify the impact of the dimensions of the administrative decision support systems on the re-engineering of the systems of the Palestinian universities in Gaza Strip from the standpoint of employees. A descriptive approach was used through which a questionnaire was developed and distributed to a stratified random sample. (500) questionnaires were distributed and (449) were returned, with (89.8%) response rate. The study revealed these results: There was an effect for the potentials (physical, human, technical, and organizational design) available for the decision support systems and re-engineering of the systems in the Palestinian higher education institutions in Gaza Strip.There were significant differences between the assessment means of the study sample about the impact of decision support systems to re-engineer the systems in the Palestinian higher education institutions in Gaza Strip due to the gender variable in favor of males. There also differences due to the name of the university variable in favor of the Islamic University, Al Azhar University, Al Aqsa University, respectively. It was recommended that Palestinian higher education institutions which intend to start re-engineering the systems should be encouraged immediately start the process. These institutions should also develop the infrastructure of the decisions support systems when re-engineering their operations.
 Keywords: Decision support systems, Re-engineering, Palestinian higher education institutions.

Perceptions of Risk, Risk Aversion, and Barriers to Adoption of Decision Support Systems and Integrated Pest Management: An Introduction

Rational management of plant diseases, both economically and environmentally, involves assessing risks and the costs associated with both correct and incorrect tactical management decisions to determine when control measures are warranted. Decision support systems can help to inform users of plant disease risk and thus assist in accurately targeting events critical for management. However, in many instances adoption of these systems for use in routine disease management has been perceived as slow. The under-utilization of some decision support systems is likely due to both technical and perception constraints that have not been addressed adequately during development and implementation phases. Growers' perceptions of risk and their aversion to these perceived risks can be reasons for the "slow" uptake of decision support systems and, more broadly, integrated pest management (IPM). Decision theory provides some tools that may assist in quantifying and incorporating subjective and/or measured probabilities of disease occurrence or crop loss into decision support systems. Incorporation of subjective probabilities into IPM recommendations may be one means to reduce grower uncertainty and improve trust of these systems because management recommendations could be explicitly informed by growers' perceptions of risk and economic utility. Ultimately though, we suggest that an appropriate measure of the value and impact of decision support systems is grower education that enables more skillful and informed management decisions independent of consultation of the support tool outputs.

Comparative impact of guidelines, clinical data, and decision support on prescribing decisions: an interactive web experiment with simulated cases

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to compare the clinical impact of computerized decision support with and without electronic access to clinical guidelines and laboratory data on antibiotic prescribing decisions. DesignA crossover trial was conducted of four levels of computerized decision support—no support, antibiotic guidelines, laboratory reports, and laboratory reports plus a decision support system (DSS), randomly allocated to eight simulated clinical cases accessed by the Web. MeasurementsRate of intervention adoption was measured by frequency of accessing information support, cost of use was measured by time taken to complete each case, and effectiveness of decision was measured by correctness of and self-reported confidence in individual prescribing decisions. Clinical impact score was measured by adoption rate and decision effectiveness. ResultsThirty-one intensive care and infectious disease specialist physicians (ICPs and IDPs) participated in the study. Ventilator-associated pneumonia treatment guidelines were used in 24 (39%) of the 62 case scenarios for which they were available, microbiology reports in 36 (58%), and the DSS in 37 (60%). The use of all forms of information support did not affect clinicians' confidence in their decisions. Their use of the DSS plus microbiology report improved the agreement of decisions with those of an expert panel from 65% to 97% (p=0.0002), or to 67% (p=0.002) when antibiotic guidelines only were accessed. Significantly fewer IDPs than ICPs accessed information support in making treatment decisions. On average, it took 245 seconds to make a decision using the DSS compared with 113 seconds for unaided prescribing (p<0.001). The DSS plus microbiology reports had the highest clinical impact score (0.58), greater than that of electronic guidelines (0.26) and electronic laboratory reports (0.45). ConclusionWhen used, computer-based decision support significantly improved decision quality. In measuring the impact of decision support systems, both their effectiveness in improving decisions and their likely rate of adoption in the clinical environment need to be considered. Clinicians chose to use antibiotic guidelines for one third and microbiology reports or the DSS for about two thirds of cases when they were available to assist their prescribing decisions.

Measuring the quality of diagnostic hypothesis sets for studies of decision support.

Within medical informatics there is widespread interest in computer-based decision support and the evaluation of its impact. It is widely recognized that the measurement of dependent variables, or outcomes, represents the most challenging aspect of this work. This paper describes and reports the reliability and validity of an outcome metric for studies of diagnostic decision support. The results of this study will guide the analytic methods used in our ongoing multi-site study of the effects of decision support on diagnostic reasoning. Our measurement approach conceptualizes the quality of a diagnostic hypothesis set as having two components summed to generate a composite index: a Plausibility Component derived from ratings of each hypothesis in the set, whether correct or incorrect; and a Location Component derived from the location of the correct diagnosis if it appears in the set. The reliability of this metric is determined by the extent of interrater agreement on the plausibility of diagnostic hypotheses. Validity is determined by the extent to which the index generates scores that make sense on inspection (face validity), as well as the extent to which the component scores are non-redundant and discriminate the performance of novices and experts (construct validity). Using data from the pilot and main phases of our ongoing study (n = 124 subjects working 1116 cases), the reliability of our diagnostic quality metric was found to be 0.85-0.88. The metric was found to generate, on inspection, no clearly counterintuitive scores. Using data from the pilot phase of our study (n = 12 subjects working 108 cases), the component scores were moderately correlated (r = 0.68). The composite index, computed by equally weighting both components, was found to discriminate the hypotheses of medical students and attending physicians by 0.97 standard deviation units. Based on these findings, we have adopted this metric for use in our further research exploring the impact of decision support systems on diagnostic reasoning and will make it available to the informatics research community.

Acoustic neurinoma diagnostic model evaluation using decision support systems.

Three acoustic neurinoma (hereafter called acoustic neuroma) diagnostic models (Jenkins, Le Liever, Kaseff) were implemented as rule-based decision support systems and evaluated from the perspective of sensitivity, specificity, and US dollar cost, using a data base of 95 case histories suggestive of acoustic neuroma. The specificities of the models were equivalent (.97). The Jenkins model had the highest sensitivity (.96) and the highest average cost ($1470.99). The sensitivities and average costs of the Le Liever and Kaseff models were comparable (.84 vs. .82, and $1092.38 vs $1114.17, respectively). We observed that omitting brain-stem evoked response and electronystagmography testing from the Le Liever model subjected four (4.2%) more patients without acoustic neuroma to air contrast computed tomography, increased sensitivity to .89, and decreased the average cost to $774.75, without affecting specificity. We discuss the reasons for the slightly improved sensitivity and the impact of decision support systems on the clinician.

The impact of DSS on organizational communication

There is some controversy in the MIS literature concerning the potential impact of computer systems on interpersonal communication in organizations. Generally, MIS researchers have found that effective communication between users and designers is an important factor in determining user satisfaction and MIS success. Recently, however, Naylor [8] has argued that decision support systems (DSS) may isolate managers from interaction with others. This is in marked contrast to the contentions of Wagner [16] and Huber [6] that DSS may lead to more effective managerial communication. We would argue that DSS encourage communication for several reasons: adaptive DSS development requires continued manager-analyst interaction; DSS-based decisions often require groups of managers; and there is a greater need for human information processing in a DSS environment. This paper reports the results of a study of the relationships between DSS usage and organizational communications. It was found that users in three different categories (managers, financial or planning analysts (FPAs), and “others”) felt that DSS usage encouraged communication. Also, significant positive relationships were found between increased communication and overall satisfaction with the DSS for all three groups. Finally, for managers and FPAs, significant positive relationships were found between increased communication and satisfaction with the DSS in decision-making activities.