Improved organisational decision making using a contextual model

As businesses seek to enhance their competitive positions many look to make capital expenditures in technology to give them the technological boost they need to survive and gain a competitive advantage. In selecting the technology such as Information System solutions, management must engage in an, at times complex, decision-making process. There has been some empirical research on decision-making and innovation, but much of this has failed to examine the process of decision making at the organisational level. A number of organisational decision making models have been proposed in the literature yet there is no single model that encompasses all environmental factors and problems nor can a single modle encompass all factors. A common theme in much of the traditional decision making literature is the focus on process and actors, rather than the context and information. An understanding of the formal and informal organisational processes involved in decision making will enhance and improve how managers make decision [sic] related to investments in innovations and technologies. This paper examines the research on traditional decision making and proposes an alternative, contextual model that allows managers as decision makers to better understand the forms of information used in decision making.