Group Support Systems
“Decisions in organisations involve an ecology
of actors trying to act rationally with limited
knowledge and preference coherence trying
to discover and execute proper behaviour in
ambiguous situations and trying to discover,
construct and communicate interpretations
of a confusing world.”
(March 1991 cited in Bannon)
What types of technology can best support
this process?
What does group work involve
and how can it be made more
effective?
How can technology can best
support this?
What does group work involve?
Group Decision-Making
1. ecology of actors trying to act rationally
with limited knowledge
1. trying to discover and execute proper
behaviour in ambiguous situations
2. trying to discover, construct and
communicate interpretations of a confusing
world
To make a decision…Actors with
limited knowledge
• Actors with limited knowledge : need to learn
about the situation : facts, opinions, positions
• How can IT help them do this ? – find out
more – from people, from information
sources,
• From people: through meetings, private
contact, emails, phone calls, discussions,
public forums …. online forums and
discussions, blog posts
• Searching, links, portals etc.
To make a decision… ambiguous situations
• trying to discover and execute proper behaviour in
ambiguous situations
• Might need more information to resolve ambiguity
• Ask someone ( social networks- who do I ask-post a
question to a forum)
• Find an expert (search- intelligent search- how do I
know who is an expert?)
• Research (Has someone done this before? Have they
done something like this? How did they go about it?
Search- engines, directories,google, google
scholar,google)
• Experiment – try something small and see if it works
To make a decision… trying to discover,
construct and communicate interpretations of a
confusing world
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Need ways that groups can work together to
Find out
Interpret- explain, listen
Communicate – share information, documents
Deliberate – listen, think, learn, debate
• Learn as groups
• Put themselves in each others shoes
Making decisions – examples- who
would be involved and how?
• Whether or not to grant planning permission
• Deciding which computer equipment to
purchase
• What mark to give a borderline students
• Whether to go to war or not.
• Which product to develop?
• Stakeholders- what is important to each
stakeholder? How do they communicate this?
What does group work involve?
Developing a product or process..
Brainstorming/debating and refining ideas/finding
out things/ consulting experts/research/ planning
/task allocation/ evaluation/criticism
Includes making decisions at different stages
Involves communications of different types e.g.
meetings, discussions, documents,
Involves structured workflows, shared documents,
drafts and revisions of documents, reports
• Decide?
• Communicate, deliberate, persuade …
• Vote?
Characteristics of group work
• A group performs a task
• Group members may be in different places,work
at different times, work for different organisations
• Group can be permanent or temporary and at any
managerial level in the organisation.
• There can be synergy or conflict within groups,
and gains or losses in productivity
• The expertise of nonteam members may be
needed
• Necessary information may be located in many
sources and may be in many formats.
• People need to communicate and access a diverse
set of information sources.
Example types of Group
• Multidisciplinary team – each group member has
expertise in a different field.
• Project team – group is together for the duration
of a particular project. Members may have
differing levels of expertise and commitment.
• Course board, academic council, exam board
• Peer review group
Group Tasks and Activities
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Communication, information sharing
Planning
Idea generation
Problem solving
Issue discussion
Negotiation
Conflict resolution/ consensus generation
System analysis
Document preparation
Meetings
What do meetings involve?
• A meeting is a joint activity engaged in by a
group of people
• Outcome depends on
– knowledge, opinions and judgements of participants
– the composition of the group and the decisionmaking process used by the group.
– the preparation done by the members of the group
– how effectively the meeting was chaired
• Differences of opinion are settled either by the
ranking person present or, more often by
negotiation or arbitration.
What can happen when a group works
well?- advantages of collaborative working
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Learning
Accountability
Support
Better error catching
More information, information synthesis
Synergy
Stimulates creativity, creates momentum
Better and more precise communication
More commitment to decision
Risk propensity is balanced
Problems with Group Work
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Dominating individuals/ fear of contributing
Slow and time consuming, Slow feedback
Bad coordinating and planning
Freeriding
Poor compromises
Timewasting, Repetition of tasks
Cost
Incomplete, inappropriate use of information
Too much info
Incomplete task analysis
Attention /concentration blocking
Groupthink- conformity of
group to dominant
opinion – happens when
the outside world &
environment is considered
less and less , &tends to
overestimate its own
power. The members
striving for unanimity
overrides their motivation
to realistically appraise
alternative course of
action.
Collaborative
intelligence“Collaborative
intelligence is a
measure of the
collaborative ability
of a group or
entity.” (Wikipedia)
Clear Communication is essential for
effective group work
• Groups of decision-makers must communicate,
collaborate and negotiate in their work.
• They need access to data, information and
knowledge, possibly from many locations
• Need formal and informal communication processes.
• Sensemaking –how do we know that we’ve
understood?
• How do I know that you’ve understood?
– Face to face?
– At a meeting?
– On the phone?
– Using skype?
– Using email
– Using facebook
– Texting
– Using twitter?
• How can behaviour differ online?
• Electronic communication methods may not
transfer nonverbal cues which are important
in establishing the richer meaning of our
message by adding context.
• The effectiveness of a collaborative
computing technology depends on the
location of the group members and on the
time information is sent and received.
Different types of Group Work
Time /place framework (Desanctis and Gallupe 1985,1987)
Same time
Different time
Same place
Different place
Common Group Activities Supported
• Information retrieval
• Information sharing
• Information use : Application of software
technology or group problem solving techniques
for reaching a group decision (e.g. GSS with
structured decision-making process)
• Structuring meetings
How can computer systems support Group
Work?
World Wide Web
Skype, NetMeeting, WebEx, Thinktank
Blogs, wikis, social networks, sharepoint…
Capabilities needed
• Brainstorming – e.g blogs, forums etc.
• Messaging –(messaging systems, email etc.)
• Voting – online voting, polling features
(like?, polling, commenting)
• Group scheduling & planning (e.g. workflow
management systems like MS Project)
• Conflict resolution
• Model Building ( e.g Thinktank)
• Online conferencing
• Electronic document sharing (e.g. Google
groups, docs)
Technologies
WWW – web 3.0?
• Intranets – shared documents and procedures,
email, address lists, tool access, software
distribution. Protected by firewall. Portals,
document management systems, e.g. sharepoint.
• Extranets – links work group from many
organisations.
• Email, egroups, instant messaging, chat,
newsgroups, email lists, forums, social networks,
blogs, wikis, microblogs(twitter,
yammer),webcasts
• Electronic meeting systems, electronic
conferencing systems
Source: Dion Hinchcliff blog
Example : Microsoft Sharepoint
Sites-single infrastructure for all your business
Web sites. Share documents with colleagues,
manage projects with partners, and publish
information to customers.
Communities- collaboration easy for people to
share ideas and work together
Search - relevance, refinement, and social cues
helps people find the information and
contacts
Content management .Set up compliance
measures ”behind the scenes”—with features
like document types, retention polices, and
automatic content
Insights-access to information in databases,
reports, and business applications. Help
people locate the information they need to
make good decisions.
(sharepoint.microsoft.com)
Example: Thinktank
• web conferencing and document sharing
capabilities
• workflow
• anonymous polling
• no-bad-suggestions-brainstorming -idea
generation
• summarize and organize documentation
• summarize team discussions and outcomes
Example GSS Process for same time
meeting
Planning– group facilitator and leader set agenda
and select software & resources
Meeting: question or problem posed to the group
• Idea Generation (30-45 minutes) ->list of ideas
brainstorming with comments
• Idea organisation – key ideas 45-90 minutes –
common themes and topics
• Discussion – real or electronic
• Prioritisation – voting tool
• Idea Generation – comment on topics, work on
key ideas and generate more
• Repeat above until final vote
Anytime Anyplace Meetings
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Information about participants is necessary
Planning is critical
Task completion times must be assigned.
Deadlines must be imposed so that the next
phase of the meeting may be entered.
• Need to let people know where they are and
focus them on tasks.
• Security
• Universal access
Advantages of electronic meeting
systems
• Parallelism of information processing, idea
generation
• Larger groups enabled
• Rapid and easy information access
• Multiple participation methods e.g. anonymous
voting.
• Provides structure to keep the group on track.
• Records information (organisational memory)
Disadvantages
• Information overload
• Narrow definition of the meeting process – less
emphasis on information collation and planning, and
development of alternatives.
• Talk is important, and easier without the machine
• Different professionals use different languages.
• Anonymity ?
• Information is not neutral