Organisational experts-The social context of expertise

Decision support system (DSS) and expert system (ES) construction attempts to make organisational expertise more widely available. Yet the prevailing paradigm of expertise employed is essentially that it is a unidimensional organisational resource, much as any other. This paper takes a contrasting, holistic approach, examining the ways in which human experts and their expertise are systemically integrated into organisations. The socio-political nature of expertise and the resultant power structures are considered and the implications for expert systems and decision support systems examined. A systems and Operational Research OR perspective highlights neglected aspects of DSS and ES implementation.