Claims, Arguments, and Decisions: Formalisms for Representation, Gaming, and Coordination.

Author List: Ramesh, Ram; Whinston, Andrew B.;
Information Systems Research, 1994, Volume 5, Issue 3, Page 294-325.
Decisions in large corporations continually evolve from several group processes, shaping the focus of business activities overtime. These decisions arise out of a combination of formal analyses and less formal interactions among decision makers. We address the pragmatics of group decision processes from the perspective of argumentation and analysis. We develop formalisms for the representation of argumentative knowledge. gaming the argumentation process and the coordination of the games. The representation formalism provides a framework for organizing the logic underlying the claims and arguments in a group. The gaming formalism provides a framework for conducting and regulating the group interactions. The coordination formalism addresses the issues of scheduling the games and the resolution process. The three formalisms together constitute the basis for designing computer-assisted systems that support argumentation processes in groups. We introduce the term Argumentative Reasoning Facilitation Systems (ARFS), and develop a framework for their design. These systems would serve to record, organize, regulate and coordinate argumentative decision processes in Organizations. The formalisms provide new windows for research on novel applications of decision support systems in organizations. Some of the systemic, organizational and behavioral research issues identified from this work are also presented.
Keywords: organization;decision-making;groups;argument theory;knowledge representation;nonmonotonic logic;structured modeling;systems integration
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#57 0.244 decision support systems making design models group makers integrated article delivery representation portfolio include selection effective claims decisions rationale various
#296 0.206 collaboration support collaborative facilitation gss process processes technology group organizations engineering groupware facilitators use work tool address practitioners focused develop
#100 0.107 affective concepts role questions game gaming production games logic play shaping frames future network natural processes evidence addresses reference theorizing
#268 0.075 arguments retailers manufacturers retailer internet claim manufacturer consumer argumentation referral agency store third-party upstream argument wholesale rely samples electronic plus
#32 0.064 research studies issues researchers scientific methodological article conducting conduct advanced rigor researcher methodology practitioner issue relevance findings validation papers published
#37 0.055 intelligence business discovery framework text knowledge new existing visualization based analyzing mining genetic algorithms related techniques large proposed novel artificial
#256 0.055 coordination mechanisms work contingencies boundaries temporal coordinating vertical associated activities different coordinate suggests dispersed coordinated horizontal relative demand spatial hours
#162 0.054 structural modeling scale equation implications economies large future framework perspective propose broad scope resulting identified leading analyzed second interviews analysis