IT project decisions: conclusions and recommendations for corporate practice

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1030-1060
Author(s):  
Boris David Idler ◽  
Konrad Spang
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Portfolio Management ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Decision Processes ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Decision Variables ◽  
It Project ◽  
Industry Comparison ◽  
Corporate Practice ◽  
Project Decision

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relevant determinants of IT project decision making and their relevance in corporate practice. Design/methodology/approach The empiric analysis used in-depth expert interviews (n=18) as method for data collection and qualitative content analysis using evaluative categories for analysis. Findings Corporate practice is strongly influenced by descriptive decision making. There is only little use of normative decision models in decision making. In corporate practice little use is made of evaluations to analyze achieved project outputs and impacts to improve decision-making practice. This is the result of several evaluation barriers in organizations. Research limitations/implications The sample is restricted to IT projects as the experts are responsible for IT project portfolio management. Also, an industry comparison is not included in the study. Practical implications The analysis shows that IT project decision making in corporate practice should include results from descriptive decision theory into project decision processes in corporate practice. More effort should be made in challenging project input data which is relevant for project decision making. By systematically including evaluations for relevant projects, the deviations between planned and achieved project impacts offer valuable feedback for estimators and decision makers. Originality/value The paper presents detailed analysis on decision variables and their relevance for IT project decision making in corporate practice. Critical aspects of decision making become clear, such as the aspects of evaluation barriers and the need to incorporate descriptive decision-making aspects into corporate decision processes.

Who’s making the decisions? How managers can harness artificial intelligence and remain in charge

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pooya Tabesh
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Machine Learning ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Digital Transformation ◽  
Decision Processes ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose While it is evident that the introduction of machine learning and the availability of big data have revolutionized various organizational operations and processes, existing academic and practitioner research within decision process literature has mostly ignored the nuances of these influences on human decision-making. Building on existing research in this area, this paper aims to define these concepts from a decision-making perspective and elaborates on the influences of these emerging technologies on human analytical and intuitive decision-making processes. Design/methodology/approach The authors first provide a holistic understanding of important drivers of digital transformation. The authors then conceptualize the impact that analytics tools built on artificial intelligence (AI) and big data have on intuitive and analytical human decision processes in organizations. Findings The authors discuss similarities and differences between machine learning and two human decision processes, namely, analysis and intuition. While it is difficult to jump to any conclusions about the future of machine learning, human decision-makers seem to continue to monopolize the majority of intuitive decision tasks, which will help them keep the upper hand (vis-à-vis machines), at least in the near future. Research limitations/implications The work contributes to research on rational (analytical) and intuitive processes of decision-making at the individual, group and organization levels by theorizing about the way these processes are influenced by advanced AI algorithms such as machine learning. Practical implications Decisions are building blocks of organizational success. Therefore, a better understanding of the way human decision processes can be impacted by advanced technologies will prepare managers to better use these technologies and make better decisions. By clarifying the boundaries/overlaps among concepts such as AI, machine learning and big data, the authors contribute to their successful adoption by business practitioners. Social implications The work suggests that human decision-makers will not be replaced by machines if they continue to invest in what they do best: critical thinking, intuitive analysis and creative problem-solving. Originality/value The work elaborates on important drivers of digital transformation from a decision-making perspective and discusses their practical implications for managers.

Patient involvement in consultation for atrial fibrillation – the cardiologists’ perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 765-776 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulla Hellström Muhli ◽  
Jan Trost ◽  
Eleni Siouta
Keyword(s):  
Atrial Fibrillation ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Shared Decision Making ◽  
Patient Involvement ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Medical Consultation ◽  
Shared Decision ◽  
Consultation Process ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the accounts of Swedish cardiologists concerning patient involvement in consultations for atrial fibrillation (AF). The questions were: how cardiologists handle and provide scope for patient involvement in medical consultations regarding AF treatment and how cardiologists describe their familiarity with shared decision-making. Design/methodology/approach A descriptive study was designed. Ten interviews with cardiologists at four Swedish hospitals were held, and a qualitative content analysis was performed on the collected data. Findings The analysis shows cardiologists’ accounts of persuasive practice, protective practice, professional role and medical craftsmanship when it comes to patient involvement and shared decision-making. The term “shared decision-making” implies a concept of not only making one decision but also ensuring that it is finalised with a satisfactory agreement between both parties involved, the patient as well as the cardiologist. In order for the idea of patient involvement to be fulfilled, the two parties involved must have equal power, which can never actually be guaranteed. Research limitations/implications Methodologically, this paper reflects the special contribution that can be made by the research design of descriptive qualitative content analysis (Krippendorff, 2004) to reveal and understand cardiologists’ perspectives on patient involvement and participation in medical consultation and shared decision-making. The utility of this kind of analysis is to find what cardiologists said and how they arrived at their understanding about patient involvement. Accordingly, there is no quantification in this type of research. Practical implications Cardiologists should prioritise patient involvement and participation in decision-making regarding AF treatment decisions in consultations when trying to meet the request of patient involvement. Originality/value Theoretically, the authors have learned that the patient involvement and shared decision-making requires the ability to see patients as active participants in the medical consultation process.

A bi-level multi objective programming approach to solve grey problems: an application to closed loop supply chain network

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zainab Asim ◽  
Syed Aqib Aqib Jalil ◽  
Shakeel Javaid ◽  
Syed Mohd Muneeb
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Closed Loop ◽  
Supply Chain Network ◽  
Membership Functions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Solution Approach ◽  
Multi Objective ◽  
Multi Objective Programming ◽  
Decision Variables ◽  
The Given

Purpose This paper aims to develop a grey decentralized bi-level multi-objective programming (MOP) model. A solution approach is also proposed for the given model. A production and transportation plan for a closed loop supply chain network under an uncertain environment and different scenarios is also developed. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, we combined grey linear programming (GLP) and fuzzy set theory to present a solution approach for the problem. The proposed model first solves the given problem using GLP. Membership functions for the decision variables under the control of the leader and for the goals are created. These membership functions are then used to generate the final solutions. Findings This paper provides insight for fomenting the decision-making process while providing a more flexible approach in uncertain logistics problems. The deviations of the final solution from the individual best solutions of the two levels are very little. These deviations can further be reduced by adjusting the tolerances associated with the decision variables under the control of the leader. Practical implications The proposed approach uses the concept of membership functions of linear form, and thus, requires less computational efforts while providing effective results. Most of the organizations exhibit decentralized decision-making under the presence of uncertainties. Therefore, the present study is helpful in dealing with such scenarios. Originality/value This is the first time, formulation of a decentralized bi-level multi-objective model under a grey environment is carried out as per the best knowledge of the authors. A solution approach is developed for bi-level MOP under grey uncertainty.

Managing boundaries at the accident scene – a qualitative study of collaboration exercises

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annika Andersson ◽  
Eric D. Carlstrom ◽  
Bengt Ahgren ◽  
Johan M. Berlin
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organisational Routines ◽  
Injured Patients ◽  
Accident Scene

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify what is practiced during collaboration exercises and possible facilitators for inter-organisational collaboration. Design/methodology/approach – Interviews with 23 participants from four collaboration exercises in Sweden were carried out during autumn 2011. Interview data were subjected to qualitative content analysis. Findings – Findings indicate that the exercises tend to focus on intra-organisational routines and skills, rather than developing collaboration capacities. What the participants practiced depended on roles and order of arrival at the exercise. Exercises contributed to practicing leadership roles, which was considered essential since crises are unpredictable and require inter-organisational decision making. Originality/value – The results of this study indicate that the ability to identify boundary objects, such as injured/patients, was found to be important in order for collaboration to occur. Furthermore, lessons learned from exercises could benefit from inter-organisational evaluation. By introducing and reinforcing certain elements and distinct aims of the exercise, the proactive function of collaboration exercises can be clarified.

scholarly journals Investigative decision-making: interviews with detectives

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-107
Author(s):  
Elpiniki Spanoudaki ◽  
Maria Ioannou ◽  
John Synnott ◽  
Calli Tzani-Pepelasi ◽  
Ntaniella Roumpini Pylarinou
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Naturalistic Inquiry ◽  
Naturalistic Decision Making ◽  
Internal Factors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Decision Making Model

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore investigative decision-making processes in the context of major crimes as experienced by the law enforcement agents.Design/methodology/approachEpisodic interviews were conducted with six agents from medium-sized police forces in the UK. Following the framework of naturalistic inquiry, qualitative content analysis took place with the assistance of Atlas.ti software. To ensure the validity of findings, the within method triangulation was preferred, by additionally analysing the interview transcripts with Alceste.FindingsFindings from this study revealed a variety of internal factors at play, shaping the decision-making course into an act of balancing various desired goals. Detectives appear to assess a situation based on their experiences confirming that the naturalistic decision-making model may assist in understanding investigative decision-making.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the busy schedule of law enforcement agents the number of participants was limited and availability difficult; therefore, this study can be thought of as a pilot study that will inspire researchers to use the same method for in-depth understanding of investigative decision-making.Practical implicationsResults captured the ill-defined goals in the police environment and provided ways of decreasing their impact on investigative decision-making thus should help detectives to understand their decision-making limitations and strengths.Social implicationsThis project will enhance the psychological understanding of investigative decision-making.Originality/valueThis project assists in understanding the psychological aspect of investigative decision-making during police duty and provides the opportunity to law enforcement agents to re-evaluate situations in order to improve the investigative decision-making process; while adds to existing literature.

scholarly journals A systematic approach for enterprise systems upgrade decision-making

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 778-802 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Feldman ◽  
Hanifa Shah ◽  
Craig Chapman ◽  
Erika A. Pärn ◽  
David J. Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Survey Design ◽  
Enterprise Systems ◽  
Decision Processes ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Empirically Supported ◽  
Technical Requirements ◽  
Methodical Approach ◽  
Need To Evaluate

Purpose Enterprise systems (ES) upgrade is fundamental to maintaining a system’s continuous improvement and stability. However, while the extant literature is replete with research on ES upgrade decision-making, there is scant knowledge about how different decision processes facilitate this decision to upgrade. This paper aims to investigate and better understand these processes from an organisational perspective. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a qualitative survey design, and used a Web-based questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to collect data from 23 large organisations. Data accrued were qualitatively analysed and manually coded to identify the various decision processes undertaken during ES upgrade decisions. Findings Analysis results reveal complex interrelations between the upgrade drivers, the need to evaluate the new version’s functionality and the upgrade impact. Understanding the interaction between these elements influences the upgrade decision process. Research limitations/implications The study proposes ES upgrade processes that support a decision to upgrade major releases. Further research is required to offer either similar or conflicting arguments on the upgrade decision-making and provide a probabilistic generalisation of the decision-making processes. Originality/value The research offers a comprehensive and empirically supported methodical approach that embraces an evaluation of a new version’s functionality, technical requirements and concomitant upgrade implications as intrinsic decision processes. This approach assists in the decisions to establish the upgrade need and determine the level of change, effort required, impacts and associated benefits.

Reducing biases of decision-making processes in complex organizations

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 270-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Cristofaro
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Quality Control ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Decision Processes ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Problem Structuring Methods ◽  
Complex Organizations ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Quality Control Tool ◽  
Decision Making Processes

Purpose This paper aims to study how biases in decision-making processes could be reduced. In this vein, over the past 30 years, scholars interested in decision-making have been raising their interest in the development of quality control tools to mitigate the effects of cognitive distortions. However, they have often neglected the use of psychological instruments for understanding the role of decision-makers’ personality in the quality of the decision-making processes. Design/methodology/approach This is an intrinsic case study about an Italian complex organization (i.e. Consorzio ELIS) which tries to shed light on the identified research question. Three decision-makers responsible for the decision processes of three new business initiatives were interviewed using a recent quality control tool (i.e. checklist) and their personality types were tracked by performing MBTI® tests. The thematic analysis, approached by using NVivo software, and after six months of direct observations inside the organization, allowed an understanding of the decision processes and their distortions. Findings The results of this study show how initiatives with frequent quality control mechanisms and different stakeholders are more able to pass the decision phase than initiatives with no controls, few participants and little difference between personalities. Originality/value The results of this work show how reducing biases of decision-making processes in complex organizations can benefit from the simultaneous use of the checklist and MBTI® test. As demonstrated, when used together, they can make more effective use of and provide better results for both, as well as providing a better quality control of the decision-making processes. From that, an approach is proposed that both takes into account the two perspectives and can work together with other cognitive problem structuring methods.

Head nurses’ decision-making when managing ethical dilemmas

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vilma Zydziunaite ◽  
Daiva Lepaite ◽  
Päivi Åstedt-Kurki ◽  
Tarja Suominen
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Resistance To Change ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Nursing Management ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Written Form ◽  
Societal Expectations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to characterize issues related to head nurses’ decision making when managing ethical dilemmas. Design/methodology/approach – The study is qualitative descriptive, in which researchers stay close to the data. The data were collected in the format of unstructured written reflections. Inductive conventional latent qualitative content analysis was applied to the data. Findings – The issues of head nurses’ management of decision making in ethical dilemmas relate to the following aspects: taking risks in deviating from the formalities, balancing power and humaneness, maintaining the professional hierarchy, managing resistance to change, managing with limited options, and experiencing the decline of nurse’s professional and/or human dignity. Research limitations/implications – Reflections in written form were preferred to semi-structured interviews and the researchers were unable to contact the participants directly and to ask additional questions. All the reflections were produced in a language other than English. Practical implications – The issues of head nurses’ management of decision making in ethical dilemmas reveal the gap between societal expectations and the opportunities to improve nursing leadership in health care organizations. Social implications – The issues of head nurses’ decision making when managing ethical dilemmas are related to contexts that reflect the attitudes of society and health care system toward nursing management. Originality/value – The study adds to the understanding of issues of the management of decision making in ethical dilemmas. It is an ongoing systematic process that encourages head nurses to learn from practice and manage the quality of care by empowering themselves and nurses to take responsibility for leadership.

scholarly journals Decision-making processes in football clubs associated with an external advisory programme

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 386-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Thomas Egli ◽  
Torsten Schlesinger ◽  
Mariëlle Splinter ◽  
Siegfried Nagel
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
External Input ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Implementation Processes ◽  
Garbage Can Model ◽  
Football Clubs ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Sport Clubs

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to foster a better understanding of how decision-making processes work in sport clubs and to develop appropriate advisory concepts or management tools in order to successfully realize structural changes in sport clubs. This paper examines the decision-making processes associated with an external advisory programme. Based on the assumption of bounded rationality, the garbage can model is used to grasp these decision-making processes theoretically and to access them empirically. Design/methodology/approach Based on a case study framework, an in-depth analysis of the decision-making and implementation processes involved in an advisory programme was performed in ten selected football clubs. Guided interviews were conducted on the basis of the four streams of the garbage can model. The interviews were analysed with qualitative content analysis. Findings Results show that three types of club can be distinguished in terms of their implementation processes: low implementation of the external input; partial implementation of the external input; and rigorous implementation of the external input. In addition, the analysis shows that the participants in the advisory programme are the key actors in both the decision-making process and the implementation. Originality/value The paper provides insights into the practicability of advisory programmes for sport clubs and the transfer to the clubs’ practical decision-making routines. Additionally, it shows how sport clubs deal with (external) advisory impulses, and which different decision-making practices underlie these processes.

Product deletion and supply chain repercussions: risk management using FMEA

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingyun Zhu ◽  
Seyedehfatemeh Golrizgashti ◽  
Joseph Sarkis
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Portfolio Management ◽  
Failure Modes ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Product Portfolio ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Managerial Implications

PurposeProduct portfolio management is a strategic concern. Product portfolio management includes decisions associated with adding new products, maintaining existing products and deleting or phasing out problematic products. This paper first introduces a framework to identify risks of product deletion along supply chain activities. It utilizes failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) to identify, analyse and evaluate product deletion risks on supply chains and proposes managerial implications for risk management in dynamic business scenarios. It is meant to build upon and address a gap in the product deletion and supply chain linkage literature.Design/methodology/approachFMEA is utilized in this study to structure and manage potential risks in product deletion decision-making on supply chains. FMEA is based on an analysis of severity, occurrence and detectability of failure modes. FMEA provides methods to help identify managerial preventive solutions to avoid and mitigate risk consequences of such decisions.FindingsTen top product deletion risks are identified in this study; discussions of their negative impact on supply chain performance, and possible managerial recommendations are followed for risk control, monitor and elimination.Practical implicationsFindings help managers to predict, avoid and mitigate risk consequences of product deletion decisions; especially those related to the supply chain. A framework to structure various risks of product deletion in the supply chain can be useful to both practitioners and researchers.Originality/valueThis study advances product portfolio management through enhanced understanding of product deletion decision-making in organizations; and especially contributes to a broader investigation of such decisions in supply chain management. It also structures the factors that play a role in identifying risks.

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