Managers are increasingly faced with making complex decisions in turbulent organisational environments. This has led to greater information processing demands. Increasingly organisations try to deal with this in such a way that many of these decisions are now made in a group environment. The increase in group decision making has generated a corresponding intensification in the interest in options available to support such decision making. One such approach is a Group Decision Support System (GDSS) referred to as Decision Conferencing. However, Decision Conferencing rests on the unsupported key premise that the computer modeling, which forms an intrinsic part of the process, leads to shared understanding and commitment - the stated goals of the process. The application of Decision Conferencing to important organizational issues continues, yet prior to this study its fundamental premise was both empirically unsupported and potentially under-theorised. This theory-building research demonstrates that the interface between these concepts is more complex than the literature suggests and that the concepts themselves are problematic. Shared understanding is essentially a dependent variable, with factors such as comprehension of the modeling process impacting on the degree to which this is developed. In addition, many aspects of commitment fall outside of the domain of the Decision Conference workshop e.g. the individual’s sense of responsibility and degree of commitment to their profession. The idea of commitment appears to fall more into the arena of managerial responsibility and change management and it is partly how the outcomes are managed after the Decision Conference which will be crucial to their implementation. / Within this study it appears that the most a Decision Conference can offer is the ‘buy-in’ or constructive involvement of the individual participant; the assurance of an unassailable case to which all participants have contributed, for the adoption of the outcomes; and the confidence in the outcomes that this brings. All of this suggests that a higher order goal which subsumes these factors should be considered when re-conceptualising the Decision Conferencing experience. It is suggested here that Decision Quality is a more appropriate goal for the Decision Conferencing process. In essence this is an expansion of the existing ‘best bet’ concept already endorsed in the Decision Conferencing literature. The thesis presents a number of conditions for assuring decision quality e.g. a democratic environment for decision making; mutual respect and an encouragement of diversity. It is also argued that it falls to the facilitator to encompass all of these factors. Given the above, it is also suggested that it is appropriate to consider an alternative conceptualization of Decision Conferencing which facilitators of public sector groups might adopt. This revised conceptualization is drawn from complexity theory. Incorporating the findings from this study a more strongly theorised facilitation approach, entitled Quality Facilitation Practice (QFP) has been developed. Taking into account all of the above a revised model for Decision Conferencing in the public sector is presented, incorporating both QFP and the higher order goal of Decision Quality.

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The purpose of this thesis is to illustrate how the role of knowledge may be the missing link in economics and to argue that the assumption of unbounded rationality, which underpinned neoclassical economics, should be replaced by bounded rationality and that bounded rationality should be redefined as people are rational, but are constrained by asymmetric and imperfect knowledge. This decomposition of bounded rationality makes it possible for us to operationalize bounded rationality, which was founded by Herbert Simon in the 1950s, but has not been widely adopted in economics because the concept was considered too difficult to formalize. The inclusion of asymmetric and imperfect knowledge considerations in microeconomics provides new insights into the existence and boundaries of firms, the role and nature of institutions, financial market inefficiency and political choices. The inclusion of asymmetric knowledge considerations in macroeconomics can help explain the unequal distribution of wealth between individuals, firms and nations. A lack of knowledge, and the difficulties in overcoming a lack of knowledge, can help to explain aspects of economic fluctuations, prices rigidities, monetary non-neutrality and unemployment. Most importantly, when the role of knowledge is considered, it provides better explanations to various anomalies in economics, helps reconciles differences between various theories and may opens up the possibility of unifying various schools of economic thought.

One explanation for the increased use of interactive groups in organisations is that benefits are obtained from pooling individuals?? differing knowledge and abilities. However, prior experimental research has established that groups often do not discuss and use information effectively, exhibiting a bias toward information that is commonly known by all group members, rather than information that is unique to individual group members (common information bias). This dissertation investigated whether the provision of quantitative information resulted in improved group performance in two respects. First, it investigated whether quantitative information was discussed and used more than qualitative information. Second, it examined whether the quantification of information reduced the common information bias. This is important because a basic purpose of managerial accounting is to provide information that improves employees?? abilities to make optimal decisions. This dissertation utilised an experimental task known as a ??hidden profile?? to achieve the research objectives. In a hidden profile experiment, each group member receives some information that is common to everyone in the group, and some information that is unique to them. The group must discuss and use members?? unique information in order to uncover the optimal task solution. This dissertation examined the effect of information availability (common or unique) and information type (quantitative or qualitative) on information discussion and use. There were two stages to the experiment. First, individual group members had to make a capital investment decision, and write down their reasons for that decision. Second, groups had to discuss the information, come to a group decision, and write down their reasons for that decision. The results confirmed a common information bias at the group decision level, with groups significantly favouring common information over unique information, for all measures of discussion and information use. In contrast, while a preference for quantitative information was found at the individual decision level, at a group decision level there were no significant differences in the discussion or use of quantitative and qualitative information, with only one exception: significantly more statements were made about quantitative information.

This research is possibly the first study investigating the impact of cognitive biases on information searching and decision making. Set in the context of making health-related decisions, this research tests the hypotheses that (i) people experience cognitive biases during information searching; (ii) cognitive biases can be corrected during information searching; and (iii) correcting for biases during information searching improves decision making. Using a retrospective data analysis, a Bayesian model and a series of prospective empirical experiments, the cognitive biases investigated are anchoring effect, order effects, exposure effect and reinforcement effect. People may experience anchoring effect, exposure effect and order effects while searching for information. A person???s prior belief (anchoring effect) has a significant impact on decision outcome (P &lt 0.001). Documents accessed at different positions in a search journey (order effects) and documents processed for different lengths of time (exposure effect) have different degrees of influence on decision making (order: P = 0.026; exposure: P = 0.0081). To remedy the impact of cognitive biases, a series of interventions were designed and trialled to test for their ability to modify the impact of biases during search. A search engine interface was modified to allow for a document-level intervention, which attempts to debias order effects, exposure effect and reinforcement effect; a decision-focussed intervention for debiasing the anchoring effect; and an education-based intervention to inform users about the biases investigated in this research. Evaluation of these alterations to the search interface showed that some of the interventions can reduce or exacerbate cognitive biases during search. Order effects are no longer apparent amongst subjects using a keep document tool (i.e. order debiasing intervention) (P = 0.34); however, it is not associated with any significant improvement in decision accuracy (P = 0.23). Although the anchoring effect remains robust amongst subjects using a for/against document tool (i.e. anchor debiasing intervention) (P &lt 0.001), the intervention is marginally associated with a 10.3% increased proportion of subjects who answered incorrectly pre-search to answer correctly post-search (P = 0.10). Overall, this research concludes with evidence that using a debiasing intervention can alter search behaviour and influence the accuracy and confidence in decision making.

The French and Dutch refusal to ratify the European Constitution in 2005 and the collapse of many East German businesses post-reunification; are just some examples of the hurdles integrating nations face. Integration of nations affects many economic factors such as public good allocation, trade, production, labour, consumption and even macro-economic policy instruments. Therefore, it is important to understand what motivates integration. Few scholars have broached the subject of the integration of nations (see Goyal and Staal (2004)), where size asymmetry and historical dependence are considered. Starting with Alesina and Spolaore (2003)'s Size of Nations symmetric framework, we attempt to do this with a two nation (asymmetric in size) location model. The key findings are that size differentials and the constitutional design (the identity of the decision maker) matters. In this thesis, we consider the social planner (government) and voters. The social planner maximizes social welfare for his own nation. Voting outcomes become non-trivial as it depends on the number of alternatives and the voting system. We categorize integration into two main forms. Full Integration is when the two nations fully integrate to form a new one, only one capital remains. Federated Integration is where the nations integrate but retain some form of sovereignty; this is represented by the retention of both capitals. Size difference matters when two nations chose to integrate. As the size difference between the two nations increase it becomes harder for integration to occur; nations would integrate if there is no size difference. The identity of the decision maker will affect the threshold on size.

Decision-making in the arts sector is sometimes seen as problematical as many of the 'primary' decisions are made away from the 'primary' creative practice. The criteria for decision-making may be perceived as based on organisational or financial need, rather than creative output or social need. It is my view that the perceptions need testing. To do this I needed a way of understanding how decisions are reached in a variety of different contexts within the arts and cultural sector. Most would concede that decision-making is not a precise science. My quest thus became finding an appropriate research methodology for these explorations. Action research emerged as a useful framework for adding understanding within dynamic situations. This thesis reports on the usefulness of participatory action research as a tool for the exploration of decision-making processes by a range of people working within the arts and cultural sectors. Incremental view research has attracted extensive research in recent years. View maintenance techniques have been developed for the relational model, the temporal model, the object-oriented model, and the semistructured model. However, research into view maintenance in the non relational model is not complete and, in particular, the issue of view maintenance in nested relational databases and in object- relational (OR) databases has not been investigated. this motivates our research in this thesis. / thesis (MBus(Arts,CulturalManagement))--University of South Australia, 2003.

Clinical decision-making (CDM) research has focused on diagnostic reasoning, CDM models, factors influencing CDM and the development of expertise. The research approaches used, including phenomenology, have not addressed the question of how CDM is perceived and approached by nurses. This study describes perceptions of CDM in relation to patients in pain using a phenomenographic methodology. At semi-structured interviews, participants were asked to recall their responses to a situation involving a patient in pain. The responses fell into four categories: (1) the effect of the clinical environment; (2) the role of other health professionals; (3) the place of the patient; and (4) the role of experience. Examples of differences in perceptions that were likely to impact on the nurses� approach to CDM include: the ongoing effects of time and workload demands on CDM; nurses are initially dependent but were eventually able to make decisions autonomously; the patient who may be peripheral or central to CDM; and the nurses� move from the use of theoretical principles to experiential knowledge as reflection-on-practice is employed. Perceptions in all categories are strongly implicated in the nurses� sense of confidence and independence. Implications for nursing practice and nursing education suggested by the findings relate to the number of areas in which graduates work in the first year of practice, the size of new graduate workloads, graduate transition programs, the place of reflection-on-practice and undergraduate (UG) program clinical experience patterns. Among issues for further research arising from the study are: replication of the study; detailed examination of the development of CDM in the first year of nursing practice and during UG nursing education programs; the role of other health professionals in the development of CDM behaviour; the links between CDM and clinical knowledge development; and the type of clinical environments that foster confidence and independence. A conclusion of the study is that the way CDM is approached is influenced by the amount, quality, relevancy and recency of clinical experience. In this study, phenomenography was shown to be an appropriate approach to the description of nurses� perceptions of CDM in relation to patients in pain. In addition, nurses� changing perceptions over two years and the subsequent effect on CDM behaviour were described.

Doctor of Philosophy / Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common neurological disease affecting young adults. MS affects approximately 1 in 1000 people and, like other autoimmune diseases, women are more likely to be affected than men. The illness typically onsets between the ages of 20 and 40, and hence usually affects women of child-bearing age. The course of the MS is often unclear for years after diagnosis and since most women are diagnosed in their child-bearing years, they often have to make reproductive choices before their prognosis is clear and while the future remains uncertain. For women with MS, starting a family is an individual choice that needs to balance the importance of motherhood for the woman and her partner against the risks that she will be unable to care for the infant or child as a result of increasing disability. In other areas of medicine where finely balanced decisions are required, there has been a recent proliferation of decision aids that aim to inform people of the benefits and risks of opposing courses of action. In addition, decision aids help patients to weigh their values against the risks and benefits to make an informed decision. Despite the existence of over 200 decision aids to help patients consider decisions related to their medical conditions, not one exists that deals with the decision of whether or not to have a family for women with a chronic disability, such as MS. This thesis developed and evaluated a decision aid for women with MS to help them decide whether to start, forego or enlarge their families. The study utilised the criteria set out for the development of decision aids, according to the Cochrane Systematic Review of Patient Decision Aids (O'Connor et al., 2003). The first aim was to determine the proportion of women who are undecided about the motherhood choice and for whom a decision aid may be relevant. Results found that the motherhood choice was relevant to 46% of the women who responded to an initial mail-out. The second study aimed to establish women’s current concerns and thoughts regarding pregnancy and motherhood, and their response to the pilot decision aid. Twenty women participated in qualitative interviews and results supported previous findings that the mother’s health concerns, coping with parenting and societal attitudes are significant concerns when considering this decision. This study further identified concerns from different groups that had a direct impact on the decision to have children, including the experience of parenting, the child’s well-being and the timing and pressure of the decision. The main study was a randomised controlled trial of the decision aid aiming to determine whether the decision aid facilitated decision-making in women with MS. The study confirmed that the decision aid presented a balanced view to women, increased knowledge, reduced decisional conflict, increased decisional self-efficacy and certainty of the decision, and was free from adverse effects on psychopathology. The final component of the study was a 12 month follow-up which aimed to explore the long-term effectiveness of the decision aid and what aspects were valued by the women who received it. It was found that over time, women in the intervention group did maintain their certainty, but women in the control group also became more certain of their choice. At follow-up, the difference in certainty was no longer significant between the two groups. However, women did report that the intervention was useful in (a) providing access to information previously unavailable or difficult to obtain, (b) facilitating communication between women, their partners and health care professionals, (c) aiding them in considering and utilising their networks of support, and (d) preparing them for potential difficulties. In summary, this thesis developed and evaluated a decision aid for women with MS who are considering motherhood. The results showed that many women were undecided and, in the absence of good information on the topic, many women had concerns about pregnancy and parenthood. The decision aid was shown to be effective across a range of measures and free from adverse psychological effects. Hence, this is evidence-based resource can now be recommended for those women with MS who are currently contemplating motherhood.

The act of making challenges ideas through fabrication and the laws of reality that are part of becoming. This research explores the making of physical models as a design process where that act of making 'models for'1 design intention is itself a rich field of speculation. These models for design intention are different to the models of design intention as they are less a finished and singular object, and more an instrument for thinking. The aim of this research is to explore the qualities of models for design intention through an engagement with the landscape in order to understand making as a transformative and emergent process of space, time, material, technique, and the role of the observer. Making for design, the model as idea, seeks to both test and provide opportunities for the convergence of forces and relationships to be created and emergent. Fundamental to this notion is an understanding that the act of making is itself a continual re-making process. The reciprocity invoked by this action engages a rich field of criteria which are potent because of their schizophrenic nature. This paper will discuss my research through a number of projects and esquisses that have been explored during the course of this research which demonstrate the development of my position of making as a continual re-making of space.