A SUBSTANCE-THEORY-ORIENTED APPROACH TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ORGANIZATIONAL DSS

Organizational Decision Support Systems are general-purpose, multiple- user, large-scale systems that have a relatively definite, continuous and organized position in the planning and decision making processes o f an organization and which are designed for a variety of organization al decisions. Because designing, developing, and implementing an ODSS is a more challenging task than that of one-function or one-user DSS, strong and clear methodological principles are needed to manage the de velopment process. In this conceptual research a novel and comprehensi ve framework for the implementation of an organizational DSS is outlin ed. The proposed approach is a Substance-Theory-Oriented (STO) methodo logy to design and develop ODSS. According to the methodology, the emp hasis in the implementation process is moved from technological aspect s closer to managerial, substantive aspects. We believe that all phase s of the development process can be supported by appropriate manageria l theories. The central theme of this paper is to show that the manage rial substance-theories can be used to direct what should be included in and how to develop an ODSS. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.