Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Effect Of Structure On Convergence Activities Using Group Support Systems

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Handbook of Group Decision and Negotiation

Part of the book series: Advances in Group Decision and Negotiation ((AGDN,volume 4))

Abstract

Facilitating group decision and negotiation is a broad topic and has received considerable attention (see chapters by Ackermann and Eden, and Richardson and Andersen, this volume). As research on Group Support Systems (GSS) has evolved over the past decades, a good deal of useful knowledge on group processes, idea generation and decision making has been found (see the chapter by Lewis, this volume).Particular attention has been given to aspects of decision making structure (for example, see chapters by Salo and Hamalainen, Hujala and Kurttila, this volume). See the chapter by Kolfshoten et al., this volume: they consider a number of aspects related to collaboration engineering.However, there are still areas that require in-depth research to remove uncertainties and move computer-mediated group process research forward into the second decade of the 21st century.For example, the ability to converge on the most worthy ideas to translate into knowledge has been generally neglected in this research literature.This is regrettable given its group process importance, especially given the volume of ideas generated by GSS.In this chapter, our focus is on the effects of structure on convergence activities using GSS.Experience shows that convergence dynamics are affected by facilitation (e.g., protocol) as well as specialized technological support (e.g., a “dashboard”).This chapter gives a brief overview of the research and presents an empirical study to illustrate the sort of issues that remain (and the possible solutions) plus directions for future study.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 259.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adamson RE, Taylor DW (1954) Functional fixedness as related to elapsed time and to set. J Exp Psychol 47:122–126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alavi MA, Leidner DE (2001) Review: knowledge management and knowledge management systems: conceptual foundations and research issues. MIS Q 25(1):107–136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen RB (1983) Cognitive factors in the use of menus and trees: an experiment. IEEE J Selected Areas Commun 1:333–336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chapanis A (1972) Studies in interactive communication: the effects of four communication modes on the behaviour of teams during cooperative problem solving. Hum Factors 14:487–509

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen J (1960) A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educ Psychol Meas 20:37–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cook GJ (1993) An empirical investigation of information search strategies with implications for decision support system design. Decis Sci 24(3):683–697

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Csíkszentmihályi M (1996) Creativity: flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. Harper Perennial, New York, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Davenport T, Prusak L (1998) Working knowledge. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis GB, Olson MH (1985) Management information systems: conceptual foundations, structure and development, 2nd edn. McGraw-Hill Series, New York, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Deci L, Ryan RM (1985) Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behaviour. Plenum, New York, NY

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dennis A, George J, Jessup L, Nunamaker J, Vogel D (1988) Information technology to support electronic meetings. MIS Q 12(4):591–624

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dennis AR, Aronson JE, Heminger WG, Walker ED (1999) Structuring time and task in electronic brainstorming. MIS Q 23(1):95–108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeSanctis G, Poole MS (1991) Understanding the differences in collaborative-systems through appropriation analysis. In: Proceedings of the 24th annual Hawaii international conference on system sciences, Hawaii, 3, pp 547–553

    Google Scholar 

  • Easton AC, Vogel DR, Nunamaker JF (1989) Stakeholder identification and assumption surfacing in small groups: an experimental study. In: Nunamaker JF (ed) Proceedings of the 22nd Hawaii international conference on system sciences, vol 3. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, CA, pp 344–352

    Google Scholar 

  • Eggemeier FT, Crabtree MS, LaPoint PA (1983) The effect of delayed report on subjective ratings of mental workload. In: Proceedings of the human factors society 27th annual meeting, Norfolk, VA, pp 139–143

    Google Scholar 

  • Fjermestad J (1998) In GSS research how many groups per treatment condition are enough? Am Conf Inf Syst 17(3): 115–159

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallupe RB, DeSanctis G, Dickson GW (1988) Computer-based support for group problem finding: an experimental investigation. MIS Q 12(2):277–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilhooly KJ (1999) Creative thinking: myths and misconceptions. In: Sala SD (ed) Mind myths: exploring popular assumptions about the mind and brain. Wiley, New York, NY, pp 138–155

    Google Scholar 

  • Gopher D, Braune R (1984) On the psychophysics of workload: why bother with subjective measures? Hum Factors 26: 519–532

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray P (1983) Initial observations from the decision room project. In: Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on decision support system. Boston, Mass, pp 135–138

    Google Scholar 

  • Grise ML, Gallupe RB (2000) Information overload: addressing the productivity paradox in face-to-face electronic meetings. J Manage Inf Syst 16(3):157–185

    Google Scholar 

  • Grohowski R, McGoff C, Vogel D, Martz B, Nunamaker J (1990) Implementing electronic meeting systems at IBM: lessons learned and success factors. MIS Q 14(4):368–383

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gruber M, Davis GB (1988) Inching our way up Mount Olympus: the evolving systems approach to creative thinking. In: Sternberg RJ (ed) The nature of creativity. Contemporary psychological perspectives. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp 243–270

    Google Scholar 

  • Guilford JP (1984) Varieties of divergent production. J Creat Behav 18:1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huff AS (1990) Mapping strategic thought. Wiley, New York, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Ivanov A, Cyr D (2006) The concept plot: a concept mapping visualization tool for web-based asynchronous brainstorming sessions. Inf Vis 5(3):185–191

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacko JA, Salvendy G (1996) Hierarchical menu design: breadth, depth and task complexity. Percept Mot Skills 82:1187–1201

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jessup LM, Connolly T, Galegher J (1990) The effects of anonymity on GDSS group process with an idea-generating task. MIS Q 14(3):312–321

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lamm H, Trommsdorff G (1973) Group versus individual performance on tasks requiring ideational proficiency (brainstorming): a review. Eur J Soc Psychol 3(4):361–387

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lim LH, Raman KS, Wei KK (1994) Interacting effects of GDSS and leadership. Source Decis Support Syst Arch 12(3):199–211

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly JR, Karau SJ (1993) Entrainment of creativity in small groups. Small Group Res 24(2):179–198

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kiger JL (1984) The depth/breadth trade off in the design of menu-driven user interface. Int J Man Mach Stud 20: 201–213

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirton MJ (ed) (1989) Adaptors and innovators: styles of creativity and problem solving. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Kreuger GP, Chapanis A (1976) Conferencing and teleconferencing in three communication modes as a function of the number of conferees. Ergonomics 23(2):103–122

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kwok R, Ma J, Vogel D (2002) Assessing GSS and facilitation effect on knowledge acquisition. J MIS 19(3):185–229

    Google Scholar 

  • Landauer TK, Nachbar DW (1985) Selection from alphabetic and numeric menu trees using a touch screen: breadth, depth, and width menu systems. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI’85 conference on human factors in computing systems. San Francisco, California, pp 73–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Locke EA, Latham GP (1990) A theory of goal setting and task performance. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • McGrath JE (1991) Time interaction and performance (TIP) a theory of groups. Small Group Res 22(2):147–174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGrath JE, Hollingshead AB (1994) Groups interacting with technology. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller J (1978) Living systems. Wiley, New York, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Newell A, Simon H (1972) Human problem solving. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Nonaka I (1988) Toward middle-up-down management: accelerating information creation. Sloan Manage Rev 29(3):9–18

    Google Scholar 

  • Nonaka I (1994) A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. Organ Sci 5(1):14–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nunamaker J, Dennis A, Valacich J, Vogel D, George J (1991) Electronic meeting systems to support group work. Commun ACM 34(7):40–61

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nunamaker JF, Briggs RO, Romano NC, Mittleman DD (1997a) The virtual office work-space: group systems web and case studies. In: Coleman D (ed) Groupware: collaborative strategies for corporate LANs and intranets. Prentice-Hall, New York, NY, pp 231–253

    Google Scholar 

  • Nunamaker JF, Briggs RO, Mittleman DD, Vogel DR, Balthazard PA (1997b) Lessons from a dozen years of group support systems research: a discussion of lab and field findings. J Manage Inf Syst 13(3):163–207

    Google Scholar 

  • Orlafi R, Harkey D, Edwards J (1996) The essential distributed objects survival guide, John Wiley and Sons Inc, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Paas F (1992) Training strategies for attaining transfer of problem-solving skill in statistics: a cognitive-load approach. J Educ Psychol 84:429–434

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paas F, Merrienboer van JJG (1994) Variability of worked examples and transfer of geometrical problem-solving skills: a cognitive-load approach. J Educ Psychol 86(1):122–133

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salas E (1991) Productivity loss in brainstorming groups: a meta-analytic integration. Basic Appl Soc Psychol 12(1): 3–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith CAP, Hayne SC (1997) Decision making under time pressure: an investigation of decision speed and decision quality of computer-supported groups management. Commun Q 11(1):97–126

    Google Scholar 

  • Stahl G (2006) Group cognition: computer support for building collaborative knowledge. MIT, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson R, DeSanctis G, Poole MS (1988) Using a GDSS to facilitate group consensus: Some intended and unintended consequences. MIS Q 12(3):436–478

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams E (1977) Experimental comparisons of face to face and mediated communications: a review. Psychol Bull 84: 963–967

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zigurs I, Buckland BK (1998) A theory of task/technology fit and group support systems effectiveness. MIS Q 22(3): 313–334

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China

    Doug Vogel & John Coombes

Authors
  1. Doug Vogel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. John Coombes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Doug Vogel .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Mathematics, Wilfrid Laurier University, University Ave. W. 75, Waterloo, N2L 3C5, Canada

    D. Marc Kilgour

  2. Strathclyde Business School, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, G4 0QU, United Kingdom

    Colin Eden

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Vogel, D., Coombes, J. (2010). The Effect Of Structure On Convergence Activities Using Group Support Systems. In: Kilgour, D., Eden, C. (eds) Handbook of Group Decision and Negotiation. Advances in Group Decision and Negotiation, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9097-3_18

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation