An Investigation of How and Why Managers Use Tablets to Support Decision Making

Abstract: Managers are very mobile and a large proportion of their work is dealing with decisions. Although many managers currently use tablet computers in their work, there is little research on tablets’ role in managerial decision support. This exploratory study aims to investigate how managers use tablets to support their decision-making and the reasons behind it. Anchoring on Task-Technology Fit theory, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 managers who use tablets for their work-related decision-making. The study reveals managers’ tablet usage patterns in terms of location, tablet applications, decision activities and types. This study has also found that a range of tablet characteristics and decision-task characteristics affect managers’ use of tablets to support decisionmaking at work. This exploratory study contributes to both academia and industry by providing evidence on the tablet decision support area, and affording organisations, tablet vendors and tablet application developers informative findings for further improvement in the provision of tablet-based decision support.