Chronological Evolution of the Information‑Driven Decision‑Making Process (1950–2020)

Abstract

The decision-making process (DMP) is essential in organizations and has changed due to multidisciplinary research, greatly influenced by the progress in information technologies and computational science. This work’s objective is analysing the progressive interaction between DMP and information technologies and the consequent breakthroughs in how business is conducted since 1950 to recent times. Therefore, a chronological review of the information-driven DMP evolvement is presented. The major landmarks that defined how technology influenced how information is generated, stored, managed, and used for making better decisions, minimizing the uncertainty and gaining knowledge, are covered. The findings showed that even if current data-driven trends in managerial decision making have led to competitive advantages and business opportunities, there is still a gap between the technological capabilities and the organizational needs. Nowadays, it has been reported that the adoption of technology solutions in many companies is faster than their capacity to adapt at managerial level. Aware of this reality, the “Circumplex Hierarchical Representation of Organization Maturity Assessment” (CHROMA) model has been developed. This tool makes it possible to evaluate whether the management of organizations is making decisions using the available data correctly and optimizing their information systems.