La facilitation est un élément central dans une prise de décision de groupe surtout en faisant l'usage des outils de nouvelle technologie. Le facilitateur, pour rendre sa tâche facile, a besoin des solutions de vote pour départager les décideurs afin d'arriver à des conclusions dans une prise de décision. Une procédure de vote consiste à déterminer à partir d’une méthode le vainqueur ou le gagnant d’un vote. Il y a plusieurs procédures de vote dont certaines sont difficiles à expliquer et qui peuvent élire différents candidats/options/alternatives proposées. Le meilleur choix est celui dont son élection est acceptée facilement par le groupe. Le vote dans la théorie du choix social est une discipline largement étudiée dont les principes sont souvent complexes et difficiles à expliquer lors d’une réunion de prise de décision. Les systèmes de recommandation sont de plus en plus populaires dans tous les domaines de science. Ils peuvent aider les utilisateurs qui n’ont pas suffisamment d’expérience ou de compétence nécessaires pour évaluer un nombre élevé de procédures de vote existantes. Un système de recommandation peut alléger le travail du facilitateur dans la recherche d’une procédure vote adéquate en fonction du contexte de prise de décisions. Le sujet de ce travail de recherche s’inscrit dans le champ de l’aide à la décision de groupe. La problématique consiste à contribuer au développement d’un système d’aide à la décision de groupe (Group Decision Support System : GDSS). La solution devra s’intégrer dans la plateforme logicielle actuellement développée à l’IRIT GRUS : GRoUp Support. / Facilitation is a central element in decision-making, especially when using new technology tools. The facilitator, to make his task easy, needs voting solutions to decide between decision-makers in order to reach conclusions in a decision-making process. A voting procedure consists of determining from a method the winner of a vote. There are several voting procedures, some of which are difficult to explain and which may elect different candidate/options/alternatives proposed. The best choice is the one whose election is easily accepted by the group. Voting in social choice theory is a widely studied discipline whose principles are often complex and difficult to explain at a decision-making meeting. Recommendation systems are becoming more and more popular in all fields of science. They can help users who do not have sufficient experience or competence to evaluate large numbers of existing voting procedures. A recommendation system can lighten the facilitator's workload in finding an appropriate voting procedure based on the decision-making context. The objective of this research work is to design such recommendation system. This work is in the field of group decision support. The issue is to contribute to the development of a Group Decision Support System (GDSS). The solution will have to be integrated into the software platform currently being developed at IRITGRUS: GRoUp Support.

The recent downturn in world sugar prices has placed even greater demands upon the Australian sugar industry to reduce the costs of sugar manufacture and increase the consistency of producing high quality sugar. One of the proposed approaches in increasing the consistency of very high quality sugar production and leveraging further avenues for cost saving is in the development of a computer based advisory system. This system is able to provide expert knowledge in the area of pan stage management and best practices in the absence of human experts. This thesis explores the design, key features and outcomes of a knowledge based supervisory support system (KBSSS) framework proposed specifically for providing cooperative decision support in the area of pan stage operations within a sugar mill. To demonstrate the viability of the proposed KBSSS framework a prototype system was developed in accordance with the proposed framework. The KBSSS utilises three core innovative system technologies that form the core components of the proposed KBSSS framework. These technologies are: 1) Dynamic industrial pan stage process models for identifying the dynamic relationships between sections of pan stage operations to allow for future forecasting of pan stage operating conditions, 2) Integration techniques for the merging of the developed pan stage process models into the hybrid fuzzy logic expert system rule base to provide localisation adjustment to match with local real world factory operational conditions, and 3) Explanatory capabilities to provide justification and support of system advice and recommendations. As a result of research and development carried out in this thesis, the KBSSS's test results demonstrated in the thesis indicate the viability of the proposed KBSSS framework and highlight the forecasting capabilities of the developed system resulting in favourable outcomes compared to data from pan stage operations. As a result of the research undertaken in the thesis a prototype KBSSS, for pan stage operations, based upon the three core supporting intelligent system technologies reported in the thesis has been developed.

This study examines the impact of organisational culture and GSS (Group Support Systems) on small group decision-making as measured by group decision outcomes. Laboratory experiments were designed to investigate how two types of groups selected on the basis of having apparently different organisational cultures make decisions on a preference task, in situations where they were given one of two different means of support (face-to-face GSS support or manually structured support) to aid their decision-making. Organisational culture and GSS are the independent variables, whilst the dependent outcome variables were perceived decision quality, decision process satisfaction, decision satisfaction, unified commitment, collaborative climate, and group cohesiveness. The research results showed that manually-supported groups, those who were given simple physical decision-support aids and worked face-to-face, had higher perceived decision quality and decision process satisfaction but no significant differences in unified commitment, decision satisfaction, collaborative climate, and group cohesiveness were found when compared to face-to-face GSS???supported groups who were given electronic aids. One of the two groups drawn from environments where organisational culture was expected to be quite different, that is the Kensington Campus group had higher perceived decision quality, decision process satisfaction, unified commitment, and group cohesiveness but no significant differences in decision satisfaction and collaborative climate when compared with groups drawn from a campus of the same university, ADFA (Australian Defence Force Academy) Campus, one which is attended only by military students. Whilst compared with those of manually structured support on group outcomes, the impacts of GSS on group outcomes weakened when they performed a preference task, organisational culture was found to have a significant impact on group outcomes when both face-to-face GSS and manual settings were considered.

Australian agriculture is one area in which a number of intelligent support systems have been developed. It appears, however, that comparatively few of these systems are widely used or have the impact the developers might have wished. In this study a possible explanation for this state of affairs was investigated. The development process for 66 systems was examined. Particular attention was paid to the nature of user involvement, if any, during development and the relationship to system success. The issue is not only whether there was user involvement but rather the nature of the involvement, that is, the degree of influence users had during development. The patterns identified in the analysis suggest user influence is an important contributor to the success of a system. These results have theoretical significance in that they add to knowledge of the role of the user in the development of intelligent support systems. The study has drawn together work from three areas: Rogers’ diffusion theory, the technology acceptance model, and theories relating to user involvement in the development of information systems. Most prior research in the information systems area has investigated one or two of the above three areas in any one study. The study synthesizes this knowledge through applying it to the field of intelligent support systems in Australian agriculture. The results have considerable practical significance, as apparently developers of intelligent support systems in Australian agriculture do not recognize the importance of user participation, and continue to develop systems with less than optimum impact.

Thesis (M.A. (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Introduction Organizations are exposed to a rapidly changing business environment with never ending challenges. Investments in information technology (IT) have been one common approach to support organizations. Business Intelligence (BI), an off-spring from IT, is a system that assists many organizations in taking more accurate and timely decisions, improving process monitoring and providing better support for decision making. Recently organizations have started to realize the value of investing in BI, by discovering its analytical methods and capabilities to create business value. Problem Investments in BI have increased substantially over the past years and one reason for this might be due to vendors praise about BI’s ability to deliver business value. Significantly increased business value, better decision making, and high returns on investments are only a few benefits that have been claimed for. When considering the fact that it is very difficult to measure any direct benefits from IT investments in general, and BI as a consequence, an interest for analyzing the arguments used for selling BI emerged. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to identify what arguments vendors and suppliers use when selling BI solutions, and explore their value by analyzing them through the use of existing theories from literature. Method A qualitative approach has been adopted, where unstructured interviews with BI vendors and suppliers were conducted. An inductive approach has been applied to gather arguments and then shifted to a deductive, in order to finalize the study and analyze arguments with appropriate theory. The research has been performed from without the Swedish market with well-known organizations. Conclusions A single version of the truth, control, and time savings are credible arguments for investing in BI. Furthermore, cost savings and improved analytical capabilities are fairly credible, whereas increased efficiency has least credibility when analyzed against theories. In general, we believe that the ability to gain from these positive effects from BI, organizations have to take an active role in realizing these.

The role of information and communication technologies in the development of modern societies has continuously increased over the past several decades. In particular, recent unprecedented growth in use of the Internet in many developing countries has been accompanied by greater information access and use. Along with this increased use, there have been significant advances in the development of technologies that can support the management and decision-making functions of decentralized government. However, the amount of data available to administrators and planners is increasing at a faster rate than their ability to use these resources effectively. A key issue in this context is the storage and retrieval of spatial and temporal data. With static data, a planner or analyst is limited to studying cross-sectional snapshots and has little capability to understand trends or assess the impacts of policies. Education, which is a vital part of the human experience and one of the most important aspects of development, is a spatio-temporal process that demands the capacities to store and analyze spatial distributions and temporal sequences simultaneously. Local planners must not only be able to identify problem areas, but also know if a problem is recent or on-going. They must also be able to identify factors which are causing problems for remediation and, most importantly, to assess the impact of remedial interventions. Internet-based tools that allow for fast and easy on-line exploration of spatio-temporal data will better equip planners for doing all of the above. This thesis presents a spatio-temporal on-line data model using the concept or paradigm of space-time. The thesis demonstrates how such a model can be of use in the development of customized software that addresses the evaluation of early childhood education quality in Peru.

The role of information and communication technologies in the development of modern societies has continuously increased over the past several decades. In particular, recent unprecedented growth in use of the Internet in many developing countries has been accompanied by greater information access and use. Along with this increased use, there have been significant advances in the development of technologies that can support the management and decision-making functions of decentralized government. However, the amount of data available to administrators and planners is increasing at a faster rate than their ability to use these resources effectively. A key issue in this context is the storage and retrieval of spatial and temporal data. With static data, a planner or analyst is limited to studying cross-sectional snapshots and has little capability to understand trends or assess the impacts of policies. Education, which is a vital part of the human experience and one of the most important aspects of development, is a spatio-temporal process that demands the capacities to store and analyze spatial distributions and temporal sequences simultaneously. Local planners must not only be able to identify problem areas, but also know if a problem is recent or on-going. They must also be able to identify factors which are causing problems for remediation and, most importantly, to assess the impact of remedial interventions. Internet-based tools that allow for fast and easy on-line exploration of spatio-temporal data will better equip planners for doing all of the above. This thesis presents a spatio-temporal on-line data model using the concept or paradigm of space-time. The thesis demonstrates how such a model can be of use in the development of customized software that addresses the evaluation of early childhood education quality in Peru.

No description available.

Documents are records of activities and related knowledge generated from organizational operations. With the trend of more and more documents being stored in the digital form, how to manage this knowledge has become an important issue. The first step is to manage knowledge is to activate the content of knowledge. These documents stored in an organization can not only be retrieved for future reference but also be analyzed to assist managers in making the right decision. Therefore, it is important for a organization to develop document-driven DSS that can discover useful knowledge from a large amount of documents in an organization. Most previous research on document management are focused on the indexing, retrieval and mining of documents, few applications have investigate how this technology can be used to construct knowledge for decision support. The purpose of this research is to propose an approach for developing document-driven DSS. In particular, the research proposes a methodology that combines ontology, indexing, and information retrieval technology to develop event scheme that can be used as a basis for the document-driven DSS. A prototype system has been designed to analyze documents collected from a journal ranking exercise to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach.