ENRICHING EXECUTIVES' SITUATION AWARENESS AND MENTAL MODELS - A Conceptual ESS Framework

摘要

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.