An intelligent system for allocating times to the main activities of managers

Abstract

Correctly allocating times to the main activities of a manager is a crucial task that directly affects the possibility of success for any company. Decision support based on state-of-the-art methods can lead to better performance in this activity. However, allocating times to managerial activities is not straightforward; the decision support should provide a flexible recommendation so the manager can make a final decision while ensuring robustness. This paper describes and assesses a novel approach where a search for the best distribution of the manager’s time is performed by an intelligent decision support system. The approach consists of eliciting manager preferences to define the value of the manager’s main activities and, by using a portfolio-like optimization based on differential evolution, obtaining the best time allocation. Aiming at applicability in practical scenarios, the approach can deal with many activities, group decisions, cope with imprecision, vagueness, ill-determination, and other types of uncertainty. We present evidence of the approach’s applicability exploiting a real case study with the participation of several managers. The approach is assessed through the satisfaction level of each manager.