Authors:
Li Niu
;
Jie Lu
and
Guangquan Zhang
Affiliation:
Faculty of Information Technology, University of Technology, Australia
Keyword(s):
Executive support systems, Situation awareness, Mental models, Decision-making.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support Systems
;
Data Warehouses and OLAP
;
Databases and Information Systems Integration
;
Enterprise Information Systems
;
HCI on Enterprise Information Systems
;
Human Factors
;
Human-Computer Interaction
;
Physiological Computing Systems
;
Strategic Decision Support Systems
Abstract:
Regardless of cognitive orientation of increasing importance, most executive support systems (ESS) and other decision support systems (DSSs) focus on providing behavioural support to executives’ decision-making. In this paper, we suggest that cognitive orientation in information systems is twofold: situation awareness (SA) and mental model. A literature review of SA and mental models from different fields shows that both the two human mental constructs play very important roles in human decision-making, particularly in the naturalistic settings with time pressure, dynamics, complexity, uncertainty, and high personal stakes. Based on a discussion of application problems of present ESSs, a conceptual ESS framework on cognitive orientation is developed. Under this framework, executives’ SA and mental models can be developed and enriched, which eventually increases the probability of good decision-making and good performance.