Dialectic Decision Support Systems: The Design and Evaluation Framework

Many complex and unstructured decisions are hindered by a lack of clear understanding of various underlying assumptions and perspectives involved in the decision process. At present, little attention is paid to the elicitation of underlying assumptions and perspectives in dealing with complex issues in traditional decision support systems (DSS). We argue that the Socratic dialectic inquiry is an effective method for dealing with unstructured problems that are complex and require the involvement of different perspectives in DSS. In this paper, we propose a design for Dialectic Decision Support System (DDSS), in which dialectical processes are integrated with traditional DSS in order to support individual users. We propose the design of DDSS and formulate a conceptual model for testing the superior efficacy of DDSS compared with traditional DSS. The potential contribution of this research is in providing a greater level of support for critical thinking, dealing with complex decision problems, and identifying creative solutions.