Organizations providing services to persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) are complex because of many interacting stakeholders with often different and competing interests. The combination of increased consumer demand and diminished resources makes organizational planning a challenge for the managers of such organizations. Such challenges are confounded by significant demands for the optimization of resources and the goal to reduce expenses and to more effectively and efficiently use existing resources while at the same time providing high quality services. The authors explore the possibilities of using "system dynamics modelling" in organizational decision-making processes related to resource allocations. System dynamics suggests the application of generic systems archetypes as a first step in interpreting complex situations in an organization. The authors illustrate the application of this method via a case study in one provider organization in the Netherlands. The authors contend that such a modeling approach can be used by the management of similar organizations serving people with ID as a tool to support decision making that can result in optimal resource allocation.

The central aspect of this study is a set of reflections on the efficacy of soft operational research techniques in understanding the dynamics of a complex system such as intellectual disability (ID) care providers. Organizations providing services to ID patients are complex and have many interacting stakeholders with often different and competing interests. Understanding the causes for failures in complex systems is crucial for appreciating the multiple perspectives of the key stakeholders of the system. Knowing the factors that adversely affect delivery of a patient-centred care by ID provider organizations offers the potential for identifying more effective resource-allocation solutions. The authors suggest cognitive mapping as a starting point for system dynamics modelling of optimal resource-allocation projects in ID care. The application of the method is illustrated via a case study in one of the ID care providers in the Netherlands. The paper discusses some of the practical implications of applying problem-structuring methods that support gathering feedback from vulnerable service users and front-line workers. The authors concluded that cognitive mapping technique can assist the management of healthcare organizations in strategic decision-making.

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Provider organizations specializing in supporting people with intellectual disabilities (ID) are under pressure because of public policy reforms, changes in society, and increased customer expectations. The combination of all these factors makes long‐term decision making a challenge for the managers of such organizations. The majority of research examining decision making in ID service organizations has commonly studied the issue from the perspective of healthcare providers. The authors contend that the degree of success of ID support providers depends on their ability to appreciate the views and interests of service receivers and frontline workers, the most important components in the system. Having a comprehensive picture of key stakeholders' overall perspectives on problem situations can enhance managers' understanding of the behavior of a complex system they manage. The authors suggest that the combination of qualitative system dynamics modeling and cognitive mapping techniques can facilitate collaborative representation of the stakeholders' views in a way that can support decision making in complex healthcare systems. The authors illustrate the application of this combined method through a case study in one ID supports provider in the Netherlands and demonstrated the possibilities of using structured stakeholders' perspectives related to flexible pool schedule shifts, one of the key resource allocation dilemmas in the organization, for organizational decision making.

Information Technology (IT) outsourcing becomes an increasingly popular phenomenon among business practitioners who seek services and/or products of third party suppliers to meet their in-house IT needs. It offers a business opportunity for IT outsourcing vendors, which, from a competitive potential perspective, may be challenging when such organisations are micro-enterprises (employing not more than ten employees) and operate from Malta -a developing micro island state in the Mediterranean and a constituent part of the European Union. This paper tests the notion of competitive potential as posed by the Strategic Alignment Model (SAM) of Henderson and Venkatraman (1993), within such particular context. Through the SAM, competitive potential is viewed as a strategic co-alignment of a firm's business strategy, IT strategy and organisation infrastructure. A best fit model which positively asserts such a notion is derived from Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) that is applied to data collected from a survey amongst the Maltese IT outsourcing micro-enterprises. The model is validated and confirmed through a Case Study involving six micro-enterprises. The paper indicates the strategic alignment of competitive, organisational and strategic factors, which, albeit not often explicit, are highly active in IT outsourcing micro-enterprises. It also indicates that competitive potential in the IT outsourcing micro-enterprises is a dynamic capability that evolves out of a well conceived business strategy, IT strategy and organisation infrastructure which seek to exploit existing competitive potential and compensate for resource constraints whilst seeking to deliver IT service and/or product through outsourcing arrangements.