V. Palade, R.J. Howlett, and L.C. Jain (Eds.): KES 2003, LNAI 2774, pp. 107-114, 2003.  Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003 Integrating Simulation and Argumentation in Organizational Decision Making Nikos Karacapilidis and Emmanuel Adamides Industrial Management Lab, MEAD, University of Patras 26500 Rio Patras, Greece {nikos,adamides}@mech.upatras.gr Abstract. This paper presents a framework for organizational decision making that provides simulation and argumentation features. The over- all approach allows for distributed and asynchronous collaboration and aims at giving an active role to the decision makers involved in the so- lution of the underlying problems. Its main contribution lies in the seamless integration of a discourse-based decision support tool with an organizational knowledge base, a system dynamics simulation envi- ronment and a collection of models for addressing specific strategic is- sues. The usability of the proposed framework is illustrated through a comprehensive example of collective formulation of manufacturing strategy. 1 Introduction Organizational decision making is a task of increased complexity. As such, it needs to be supported by advanced information technology in the modeling of the issue to be addressed, in the collection and dissemination of data, information and knowledge produced by diverse sources, in the evaluation of alternative solutions, in the con- struction of shared meaning and in the feedback learning processes [3, 4]. At the level of the organization, most problems cross the boundaries of a single function and can only be solved by exploiting the collective cross-functional knowledge and experi- ence through an apparent process of constructive discussion and collaboration among the parties involved as well as through mechanisms that organize and maintain the collective meaning of the issue. As knowledge and experience reside in a diverse set of organizational assets including employees, structure, culture and processes, a con- sistent approach for synthetic, problem-specific use of tacit and codified knowledge for decision-making is required. This advocates the synergy between the decision support and knowledge management processes of the organization. Decision-making processes generate new knowledge. For instance, the evidence that justifies or chal- lenges an alternative, and the practices to be followed or avoided after the evaluation of a decision provide a refined understanding of the problem. On the other hand, knowledge management activities such as knowledge elicitation, representation and distribution influence the creation of the decision models to be adopted, thus enhanc- ing the decision making process [2].