This preliminary study was conducted to learn about the consequences of computer support for teams working on unstructured, high-level conceptual software design problems in face-to-face group settings. A networked workstation technology and electronic blackboard technology were contrasted with their conventional counterparts. Twenty-one software designers, assigned to three teams, performed team tasks that involved generating ideas and reaching consensus. Positive effects on the thoroughness of information exchange and quality of team performance were found in the meetings in which electronic blackboard technology was available. The networked workstations provided mixed results. Significant team differences were found in performance and interaction measures. The results and their implications are discussed in terms of the necessary future developments and nature of future research in computer-based meeting support technology.
This paper deals with a number of issues pertinent to the design of group decision support systems. It notes that the need for such systems, whether designed by users or vendors, is a consequence of the clash of two important forces: (1) the environmentally-imposed demand for more information sharing in organizations, and (2) the resistance to allocating more managerial and professional time to attending meetings. The paper focuses on three major issues in the design of these systems: 1) system capabilities, 2) system delivery modes, and 3) system design strategies, and discusses the relationship of these issues to system use and survival. The relevance of numeric information, textual information, and relational information in a decision-group context are examined, and various system capabilities for displaying and using such information are noted.
Today's Decision Support Systems (DSS) are almost invariably designed to function in rational, or rationalized, decision making environments. Many organizational environments, such as political environments or garbage can environments, are more accurately portrayed, however, with models other than the Rational Model. Can DSS be useful in such environments? What are the boundary conditions for the application of DSS? These are the questions addressed in this article. The purposes of this article are to examine the nature of organizational decision environments and to examine the nature of the DSS that might be specifically designed to assist managers who find themselves operating in these environments Before proceeding to these tasks, it will be useful to put DSS into some perspective. First, let us remind ourselves of what we all know but sometimes forget: every manager has and uses a management information system (an mis), a combination of information sources and channels, and procedures for drawing on these sources and channels.