TY - JOUR
T1 - An analysis of communication mode in group support systems research
AU - Fjermestad, Jerry
N1 - Funding Information:
Partial funding for this research was provided by the National Science Foundation (9015236) and by the New Jersey Institute of Technology under SBR Grant number 421090. Additional support was provided by the New Jersey Center for Multimedia Research and the New Jersey Center for Pervasive Information Technology. This is a revised and expanded version of a paper presented at the Thirty-first Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. A special thank you is extended to S. Roxanne Hiltz, Robert Briggs, Alan Dennis, Ron Rice and Nicholas Romano for all of their help. In addition, a thank you is extended to two anonymous reviewers who made invaluable comments.
PY - 2004/5
Y1 - 2004/5
N2 - Group support systems (GSS) have been the subject of many investigations and meta-analyses over the past decade. This study presents, summarizes, and analyzes the results of 145 experiments that used communication mode as an independent variable. The results show that the modal outcome for GSSs compared to Face-to-Face (FtF) methods is "no difference," while the overall percentage of positive effects for results that compare GSS to FtF is 29.2%. The results suggest that the use of a GSS improves decision quality, depth of analysis, equality of participation, and satisfaction over manual methods. Additionally, more detailed analysis suggests that task type, GSS type and the interaction of both have a moderating effect on adaptation and outcome factors. Specifically, groups working on idea generation tasks using GSS decision room technology improve to 39.6% (GSS>FtF) effect. Conversely, asynchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) groups working on decision making tasks improved to 46.4% (GSS>FtF) effect. FtF groups show higher levels of consensus and perceived quality, communicate more, and are more efficient (requiring less time to complete the tasks). No differences are observed between FtF and GSS groups on satisfaction and usability.
AB - Group support systems (GSS) have been the subject of many investigations and meta-analyses over the past decade. This study presents, summarizes, and analyzes the results of 145 experiments that used communication mode as an independent variable. The results show that the modal outcome for GSSs compared to Face-to-Face (FtF) methods is "no difference," while the overall percentage of positive effects for results that compare GSS to FtF is 29.2%. The results suggest that the use of a GSS improves decision quality, depth of analysis, equality of participation, and satisfaction over manual methods. Additionally, more detailed analysis suggests that task type, GSS type and the interaction of both have a moderating effect on adaptation and outcome factors. Specifically, groups working on idea generation tasks using GSS decision room technology improve to 39.6% (GSS>FtF) effect. Conversely, asynchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) groups working on decision making tasks improved to 46.4% (GSS>FtF) effect. FtF groups show higher levels of consensus and perceived quality, communicate more, and are more efficient (requiring less time to complete the tasks). No differences are observed between FtF and GSS groups on satisfaction and usability.
KW - Categorical assessment
KW - Experimental analysis
KW - Group decision support systems
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U2 - 10.1016/S0167-9236(03)00021-6
DO - 10.1016/S0167-9236(03)00021-6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:2342574913
SN - 0167-9236
VL - 37
SP - 239
EP - 263
JO - Decision Support Systems
JF - Decision Support Systems
IS - 2
ER -