The decision-making styles of an international business can have a significant impact on the design of information systems that support decision-making. Depending on the style, the decision support system (DSS) can be centered on individualized decision making or group decision making. There are different requirements needed in a DSS that supports individual decision making and group decision making.
A decision support system centered on individualized decision making will contain software that pertains to the needs of an individual. The DSS will analyze the data from a database and provide the results to the decision maker. The software used for individual decisions would be catered around an individual. A decision support system is often developed using general software that is adapted for a specific decision, but more complex and sophisticated software is available (Nickerson, 2001, p. 350). If the international business is centered on the individual decision style than the decision support system would probable be used on a personal computer, but could also use a network or multi-user computer.
If the decision making style of an international business is focused on group decisions, than the DSS should be designed to support group decisions. A group decision supports system (GDSS) is designed to support decisions made by groups. International businesses that uses the group decision making style require software that allows for better collaboration and communication. The design of the group decision support system would likely contain multiple groupware or workgroup applications. Some of the workgroup applications used in a GDSS are electronic messaging, information sharing, electronic meeting support, and workflow management. Because of the software used, a GDSS is typically used in a network. Because the business is international, the network would most likely be an International WANs in order to serve the decision makers in different countries (Nickerson, 2001).
Decision-making styles can have a substantial impact on the design of decision support systems. Information Builders state, “A properly designed DSS is an interactive software-based system intended to help decision makers compile useful information from raw data, documents, personal knowledge, and/or business models to identify and solve problems and make decisions” (Decision…, 2005). That is why it is so important to design the system with the most suitable software that is tailored to the needs of the business, whether using the individualized style or the group style.
