KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION FOR GROUP-PROBLEM SOLVING

The tasks faced by contemporary and future managers are and will be increasingly complex and cognitive in nature. In fact, most managers are faced with the management of the knowledge bases of groups of individuals possessing specialized knowledge in a variety of domains. Eliciting, representing, organizing, integrating, constraining and evaluating these co knowledge sources are required for accurate problem solving and decision making in the manager's environment. Given the complexity of these cognitive activities, computerized systems for group problem solving (GPSS) and group decision support (GDSS) have emerged. An existing problem with these systems is the lack of facility with which knowledge can be elicited, organized, and integrated for problem solving and decision making activities. The research presented in this paper describes an automated knowledge acquisition capability based upon a cognitive complexity analysis for generating problem representations from which decisions and problem solutions can be made. The problem solving process described is consistent with an information processing model of problem solving which can be applied to group and individual applications and serves as a com architecture for the development of an information center.