Assessing competency in GSS skills: a pilot study in the certification of GSS facilitators

The recent development of Group Support S,ystems (GSS) tools has resulted in the creation of an increasing number of ‘electronic meeting’ facilities around the world. These face-to-face electronic meetings often require the services of a ‘meeting facilitator’ to manage, co-ordinate, and balance the human and computer intemctions. Facilitators come from a variety of backgrounds and most require some form of training before they can function as facilitators of electronic meetings. Some facilitatcm have a strong background in GSS skills, while others are professional facilitators with little or no GSS experience. However, an effective facilitator of electronic meetings requires, among other things, knowledge and skills in the following areas: (a) electronic meeting tools (GSS), (b) group interaction support (GIS), and (c) group process design (GPD). The Group Decision Centre (GDC), based at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, began as a research and teaching facility but, like many such centres, is now offering a commercial facilitation service 10 local business organizations. This commercialization raised several management issues, including quality assurance. This paper describes one approach to quality assurance by the certification of five GSS facilitators. In particular, it identifies and discusses issues about the design and implementation of a pilot project to assess competency in the use of GSS tools. INTRODUCTION The use of Group Support Systems (GSS) has increased dramatically in recent years. Permission to copy without fee ail or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the AOM copyright notice and the title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of the Association of Computing Machinery. To copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fee and/or specific permission. SIGCPR ’95, Nashville, TN, USA @ 1995 ACM 0-89791-71 2-x19510004....50.5O In New Zealand, for example, there was no electronic meeting systems (13MS)1 facility before 1990, but in that small country there are already three, with more planned. In the USA, although the actual number of facilities is not known, Anson (1993) counted 644 workstation based GSS systems GroupSystems, VisionQuest and TeamKit/2 with some facilities having more than one system installed. Many EMS facilities are of course in universities for research and education. However, as these facilities become better known to local business organizations, a range of commercial EMS facilitation services are being offered (Krcmar, et al., 1994; Pervan and Klass, 1994). The need for group facilitation support in ‘electronic meeting’ environments is well documented and the quality of this support can ultimately affect the success of these meetings (Nunamaker et al., 1991; George et al., 1988; Gallupe et al., 1988; Bostrom et al., 1991; and Beranek et al., 1993). “Group facilitation skills need to be encouraged and developed. Initial GDSS success and willingness of groups to return for additional sessions is often very dependent on the overall satisfaction with the use of the GDSS which, in turn, is often very dependent on facilitator interaction in the group process . . . Failure to appreciate the need for the effective group facilitation support can result in limited GDSS success” (Vogel et al., 1987; p. 126) Facilitation has been defined as “a set of functions or activities carried out before, during and after a meeting to help the group achieve its own outcomes” (Bostrom et al., 1991; p. 2). McGoff and Ambrose (1991; p. 807) state that” . . . although the technology has matured to the point where it is very easy to use by almost anyone, our experience continues to confirm that the quality of the group session is predominantly dependent on the facilitator.” This reliance on the human facilitator to assist participants in electronic meetings achieve useful outcomes means that the facilitator must know thoroughly how to manage and support electronic