ABSTRACT
This chapter presents two theories basic to information technology systems and decision making. These are: systems theory and decision making theory. Systems theory is a perspective or way of looking at complex phenomena such as organizations. Human service professionals have had ample experience with systems, since they work in the human service delivery "system". Systems theory warns that grouping decisions may prevent practitioners from taking a holistic and synergistic view of a client's situation. Systems and decision-making theories can help to assess, explain, predict, and control. They offer a framework for examining problems and their solutions that may not be foreseen by examining practice alone. The chapter presents systems by characteristics such as their size, complexity, and abstractness. Since most human service agencies are more complex and less controlled than a transportation system, they often exhibit fewer organized system characteristics.
