The role of decision support systems in an indeterminate world

Decision making involves processing or applying information and knowledge, and the appropriate information/knowledge mix depends on the characteristics of the decision making context. Information (or its absence) is central to decision making situations involving uncertainty and complexity, while knowledge (or its absence) is associated with problems of ambiguity and equivocality. This paper proposes that computer-based decision support technologies are appropriate to supporting decision making under conditions of uncertainty and complexity, while human-centric approaches may be more appropriate under conditions of ambiguity or equivocality. Both approaches, however, must be tightly integrated for organizational learning to occur. The framework is illustrated with a case study of the implementation of a decision support system used for price quoting in a leasing company.