One aspect of brainstorming that has received little research attention is how the brainstorming problem should be presented to the group, whether as one all-encompassing question or as a series of separate questions each focusing on one aspect of the problem. This paper reports the results of two experiments in which subjects (MBAs in the first, senior executives in the second) electronically brainstormed on intact problems (where all parts of the problem were presented simultaneously) or on decomposed problems (where three subcategories of the problem were sequentially posed to the groups). In both experiments, groups using the decomposed process generated 60% more ideas. We attribute these differences to the ability of time constraints to increase the rate of idea generation, and the ability of problem decomposition to refocus members' attention more evenly across the entire problem.
This study examines the influence of anonymity on group process in groups using a group decision support system (GDSS) with an idea-generating task. Group members whose contributions were anonymous generated more comments, were more critical and probing, and were more likely to embellish ideas proposed by others than were those whose contributions were identified by name. Implications for group support research are discussed.