Towards intelligent organisational information systems

It has been argued in the literature that although specific types of computer-based information systems (CBIS) are powerful tools in certain parts of the decision-making processes in modern organisations, none of them provides integrated support. This lack becomes even more acute when one considers the operation of CBIS within an organisational setting where consistent assistance of a multitude of users in different departments is required, together with facilities for modelling such features as cooperation, conflict, negotiation, etc. On the other hand, there are indications that the incorporation of abilities such as perception, interpretation, reasoning, explanation, goal-setting, and learning in computer-aided support would greatly enhance the aforementioned decision-making processes. This paper reviews the evolution of CBIS, and attempts to synthesize current research towards the goal of competent and intelligent aiding of decision-making in organisational settings. The main argument of the paper is that decision-making functions in multi-participant organisations can be facilitated by the use of intelligent software entities with autonomous processing capabilities which possess coordination and negotiation facilities and are organised in distributed, hierarchical societies. This paper presents a conceptual definition of these entities, outlines their structural characteristics, and describes a framework for research towards their development.