The Effect of GDSS and Elected Leadership on Small Group Meetings

This research investigated the effect of a group decision support system (GDSS) and elected leadership on meetings of five-person groups. A controlled experiment that varied the form of decision support (no support, manual structure support equivalent to the GDSS structure, and GDSS support) and elected leadership (yes and no) was used to compare group decisions. Forty-eight undergraduate student groups were randomly assigned to one of the six treatment conditions of this 3×2 factorial design. The groups solved a preference task that required resolution of competing preference structures to arrive at group decisions. The level of premeeting consensus was used as a covariate. The dependent measures included postmeeting consensus, equality of influence, and influence of the leader. The major findings of this research are: • Manual groups displayed a significantly higher postmeeting consensus than GDSS groups. Elected leadership did not increase postmeeting consensus. • There was a significant correlation between equality of influence and pre-meeting consensus in GDSS groups. Groups that had high premeeting consensus seemed willing to let one member dominate the final solution. • Group support in the form of structure has potential to undermine leadership in small group meetings because leaders in manual and GDSS groups appeared to be less influential than their counterparts in baseline groups.

[1]  Daniel G. Bobrow,et al.  Beyond the chalkboard: computer support for collaboration and problem solving in meetings , 1988, CACM.

[2]  Murray Turoff,et al.  The Delphi Method: Techniques and Applications , 1976 .

[3]  John Rohrbaugh,et al.  Improving the quality of group judgment: Social judgment analysis and the nominal group technique , 1981 .

[4]  Bernard M. Bass,et al.  A Comparison of Leadership and Situational Characteristics Within Profit and Non-Profit Organizations. , 1980 .

[5]  S. Kiesler,et al.  Group processes in computer-mediated communication☆ , 1986 .

[6]  Gerardine DeSanctis,et al.  Using a GDSS to Facilitate Group Consensus: Some Intended and Unintended Consequences , 1988, MIS Q..

[7]  Ronald Brent Gallupe,et al.  The impact of task difficulty on the use of a group decision support system , 1985 .

[8]  Lee Sproull,et al.  Reducing social context cues: electronic mail in organizational communication , 1986 .

[9]  Paul P. Wang,et al.  Fuzzy sets : theory and applications to policy analysis and information systems , 1981 .

[10]  L. Floyd Lewis,et al.  A decision support system for face-to-face groups , 1987, J. Inf. Sci..

[11]  Kenneth L. Kraemer,et al.  The impact of technological support on groups: An assessment of the empirical research , 1989, Decis. Support Syst..

[12]  Jacob Cohen.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences , 1969, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[13]  Gerardine DeSanctis,et al.  A foundation for the study of group decision support systems , 1987 .

[14]  I. Janis.  Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes , 1982 .

[15]  Carroll L. Shartle.  Leader BEHAVIOR in Jobs , 1951 .

[16]  Edgar F. Borgatta,et al.  The Exercise of Influence in Small Groups. , 1965 .

[17]  Ilze Zigurs,et al.  A Study of Influence in Computer-Mediated Group Decision Making , 1988, MIS Q..

[18]  Bernard M. Bass,et al.  Leadership, Psychology, and Organization Behavior , 1961 .

[19]  B. Bass.  Leadership, psychology, and organizational behavior. , 1960 .

[20]  H. Simon,et al.  Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization. , 1959 .

[21]  Jay F. Nunamaker,et al.  Information Technology to Support Electronic Meetings , 1988, MIS Q..

[22]  Jay F. Nunamaker,et al.  Facilitating Group Creativity: Experience with a Group Decision Support System , 1987, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[23]  G. W. Hill.  Group versus individual performance: are n + 1 heads better than one?" psychological bulletin , 1982 .

[24]  Richard T. Watson,et al.  Group decision support systems: the cultural factor , 1989, ICIS '89.

[25]  Robert D. McPhee,et al.  Group decision‐making as a structurational process , 1985 .

[26]  Starr Roxanne Hiltz,et al.  Computer Support for Group Versus Individual Decisions , 1982, IEEE Trans. Commun..

[27]  Karlene H. Roberts,et al.  Supervisor influence and subordinate mobility aspirations as moderators of consideration and initiating structure. , 1978 .

[28]  John Rohrbaugh,et al.  Improving the quality of group judgment: Social judgment analysis and the Delphi technique. , 1979 .

[29]  R. Watson.  A study of group decision support system use in three and four-person groups for a preference alloca , 1987 .

[30]  Jay Hall,et al.  A comparison of decision-making performances in established and ad hoc groups. , 1966 .

[31]  G. Huber.  The Nature and Design of Post-Industrial Organizations , 1984 .

[32]  R. A. Cooke,et al.  Estimating the Difference Between Group Versus Individual Performance on Problem-Solving Tasks , 1987 .

[33]  Raymond Samuel Ross,et al.  Small Groups in Organizational Settings , 1989 .

[34]  A. V. D. Ven,et al.  Group Techniques for Program Planning , 1975 .

[35]  George P. Huber,et al.  Issues in the Design of Group Decision Support Systems , 1984, MIS Q..

[36]  Kenneth L. Kraemer,et al.  Computer-based systems for cooperative work and group decision making , 1988, CSUR.

[37]  Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa,et al.  Computer Support for Meetings of Groups Working on Unstructured Problems: A Field Experiment , 1988, MIS Q..

[38]  S. Green,et al.  The effects of three social decision schemes on decision group process , 1980 .

[39]  H. Guetzkow,et al.  Groups, Leadership, and Men , 1952 .

[40]  J. McGrath.  Groups: Interaction and Performance , 1984 .

[41]  Randall Steeb,et al.  A Computer-Based Interactive System for Group Decisionmaking , 1981, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.

[42]  Bernard M. Bass,et al.  Handbook of Leadership , 1990 .

[43]  James C. Bezdek,et al.  A Fuzzy Analysis of Consensus in Small Groups , 1980 .