Elsevier

Information & Management

Volume 33, Issue 5, 28 May 1998, Pages 231-240
Information & Management

Group decision support systems and incentive structures

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-7206(98)00029-9Get rights and content

Abstract

Many studies have compared the advantages and disadvantages of meetings using Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS), but relatively little research has been conducted on the role of incentives in these meetings. An experiment was conducted with 40 eight-person groups to determine the influence of incentive distribution mode (group or individual) and incentive type (positive or negative) on GDSS outcomes. Results indicate that group performance, including task performance, consensus, process satisfaction, and participation, is higher if there are group-based incentives, and that negative incentives or extinction result in more participation and less satisfaction. No interaction effects were found between incentive distribution mode and incentive type.

Introduction

The emerging phenomena of virtual corporations, virtual products, corporate alliances, distributed workplaces, and telecommuting require employees, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders to meet, but not necessarily in one place at the same time. As a result, Group Decision Support Systems (GDSSs) and teleconferencing systems may become increasingly important for these requisite meetings.

Substantial evidence has indicated that GDSSs can enhance creativity among group members [28], support negotiation [17], improve productivity [27], and increase group effectiveness and satisfaction 11, 25. By making the decision-making process more structured and by reducing evaluation apprehension through anonymous communication, GDSSs improve individual contributions resulting in enhanced group decision quality. Further, parallel communication afforded through a GDSS reduces production blocking and may help expedite decision making 1, 12.

However, GDSSs may foster a decision-making environment which is centered upon the individual, and thereby create a potential danger that overall group or organizational interests may not be well-served unless participants have a incentive to do so. The role of incentives in electronic meetings should, therefore, be of interest to all organizations that currently use or will use this technology in the future.

If incentives influence an individuals's motivation to participate, it may be possible to devise reward systems (incentives) to boost group performance or individual productivity in electronic meetings.

Section snippets

Previous research

What motivates individuals in a meeting to withhold information, contribute misinformation, participate as passive observers, or free load? Several perspectives from social psychology and economic agency theory help to explain such behaviors.

Subjects

Subjects for the experiment were recruited on a voluntary basis from several sections of an undergraduate MIS course. An incentive to participate in the experiment and to perform well was offered in the form of extra credit in the subjects' classes. The participants were randomly assigned to the various treatment groups, and a pre-meeting questionnaire was used to verify that differences among groups were not statistically significant. The group size was kept at eight persons, and a total of 40

Multivariate results

Table 1 lists the three hypotheses based upon previous research and experimentation in their substantive form. The first two hypotheses were concerned with main effects and the third one related to the interaction effect of the two factors.

  • H1: It was expected that groups with group-based incentives (GBI) would perform better than those with individual-based incentives (IBI).

The test result for H1 was highly significant in supporting the postulated assertion. This implies that group-based

The role of individual and group incentives

Based on organizational behavior and economic theory, we anticipated that group-based incentives would reduce member participation in brainstorming. This assertion was made on the basis of findings that the anonymity offered by electronic brainstorming encourages free-riding behavior unless members are encouraged to participate by linking rewards to their performance. However, experimental results indicated the opposite behavior: group-based incentives resulted in more participation than

Conclusion

This paper has explored the role of incentives on group performance. Experimental results strongly supported the hypothesis that group-based incentives result in superior performance in GDSS-supported decision-making groups.

Ashraf Shirani received the B.S. degree in city planning from the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore, Pakistan, the M.P.S. degree in regional planning from Cornell University, the M.B.A. degree from the University of Arkansas, and the Ph.D. degree in MIS from the University of Mississippi. He is an Assistant Professor of Business Computer Information Systems at Hofstra University.

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  • Cited by (16)

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    Ashraf Shirani received the B.S. degree in city planning from the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore, Pakistan, the M.P.S. degree in regional planning from Cornell University, the M.B.A. degree from the University of Arkansas, and the Ph.D. degree in MIS from the University of Mississippi. He is an Assistant Professor of Business Computer Information Systems at Hofstra University.

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    Milam Aiken received the B.S. degree in Engineering and the M.B.A. degree from the University of Oklahoma, the B.A. degree in Computer Science and the B.S. degree in Business from the State University of New York, and the Ph.D. degree in MIS from the University of Arizona. He is an Associate Professor of Management Information Systems at the University of Mississippi.

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    Joseph G.P. Paolillo received the B.S. degree in Chemistry from Ohio University, the M.B.A. degree from the University of Delaware, and the Ph.D. degree in Management from the University of Oregon. He is a Professor of Management at the University of Mississippi.

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