Decision Sciences Journal
Volume 27, Number 4
Fall 1996
Organizational Computing as a Facilitator of Operational and
Managerial Decision Making: An Exploratory Study of Managers'
Perceptions
James T. C. Teng
College of Business Administration, University of South Carolina,
Columbia, SC 29208, e-mail: fsujteng@darla.badm.scarolina.edu
Kenneth J. Calhoun
College of Information Science and Business Administration,
Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA 16057-1326
ABSTRACT
Much of the current knowledge pertaining to information technology
(IT) and decision making is based on decades old technologies that
revolved around a central computing function and
application-specific systems. The purpose of this research is to
examine the IT decision-making relationship within the emerging
organizational computing (OC) environment permeated by spontaneous
utilization of both application- and nonapplication-specific
computing and communication technologies. Specifically, this study
seeks to explore managers' perceptions of the emerging OC
environment as a facilitator of their decision-making activities.
To achieve a higher level of clarity than previous works, a
two-dimensional research framework is developed with the IT
dimension consisting of computing and communication, and the
decision-making dimension differentiated between operational and
managerial decisions. A survey instrument was constructed that
measured the computing and communication dimensions of information
technology use and their perceived effects upon operational and
managerial decisions. The major findings of the study confirmed
that managers recognize the value of general,
nonapplication-specific information technologies in decision
making, and that this recognition is highly associated with how
intensively these information technologies are used. Additionally,
it was found that the two dimensions of IT differ in their
relationships to decision making, and that IT usage relates to
managerial decisions differently than operational decisions. These
study findings have significant implication for practice and
research, especially in the context of information resource
management in which the primary purpose of the IS function is the
delivery of general information service to users rather than the
development of specific IS applications.
Subject Areas: Decision Support Systems, End-Use
Computing, and Management Information Systems.
|