An Exposition of CaRBS Based Data Mining

The non-trivial extraction of implicit, previously unknown, interesting, and potentially useful information is at the heart of efforts to solve real-world problems; perhaps nowhere more so than in the field of organization studies. This chapter aims to describe the ability of a nascent data mining technique, Classification and Ranking Belief Simplex (CaRBS), to undertake analysis in the area of organization research in the public sector. The rudiments of CaRBS, and the RCaRBS development also employed, are based on the general methodology of Dempster-Shafer theory (DST), as such, the data mining analysis undertaken with CaRBS is associated with uncertain modelling. Throughout this chapter, a real application is considered, namely, using survey data drawn from a large multipurpose public organization, to examine the argument that consensus on strategic priorities is, at least partly, determined by an organization’s structure, process and environment.