Group Decision Support Systems - Research

Research

Significant research supports measuring impacts of:

• Adapting human factors for these technologies,
• Facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration, and
• Promoting effective organizational learning.

In the 1980s, a commercial joint venture between IBM and the U.S. Department of Defense created a new form of software as a solution to improve the decision alignment between various branches of the armed forces. This first commercial (DOS-based) technology was developed by behavioral scientist Dr. Jerry Wagner and was called VisionQuest. In the 1990's while at the University of Texas, Austin campus, Dr. Wagner secured venture capital funding to develop new GDSS software, this time with the end goal of leveraging the Internet (which was becoming mainstream by now). The new technology was WebIQ and is now called WIQ (by ynSyte).[http://www.gowiq.com}

Academic work on Group Decision Support Systems was largely led in the 1980s and 1990s by the University of Minnesota (the SAMM System) and the University of Arizona (PLEXSYS, later renamed GroupSystems). The Arizona research software was spun off as Ventana Corporation (now known as GroupSystems Inc.). The University of Arizona researchers report both benefits and costs for their electronic meeting system.

The benefits, or process gains, from using a GDSS (over more traditional group techniques) are:

• More precise communication;
• Synergy: members are empowered to build on ideas of others;
• More objective evaluation of ideas;
• Stimulation of individuals to increase participation;
• Learning: group members imitate and learn from successful behaviors of others.

The costs, or process losses, from using a GDSS (instead of more traditional group techniques) are:

• More free riding;
• More information overload;
• More flaming;
• Slower feedback;
• Fewer information cues;
• Incomplete use of information.

However, the researchers found that GDSS over traditional group techniques limited or reduced the following process losses:

• Less attention blocking
• Less conformance pressure
• Less airtime fragmentation
• Less attenuation blocking
• Less socializing
• Less individual domination