Issues and Concerns About Computer-Supported Meetings: The Facilitator's Perspective.

Author List: Niederman, Fred; Beise, Catherine M.; Beranek, Peggy M.;
MIS Quarterly, 1996, Volume 20, Issue 1, Page 1/22/2017.
In an effort to boost meeting productivity and success, managers may employ trained group facilitators. They may also implement group support systems (GSS) for the same reason. The two approaches can be taken separately or together. In this study, in-depth interviews with 37 practicing facilitators provided their perspectives on critical factors that influence meeting success and potential benefits and concerns with the use of GSS. Respondents focused on a core of communication and group process skills as critical for facilitator success. Overall, the respondents observed or anticipated more efficient and effective task performance as benefits of GSS technology. Their concerns focused on technology-related issues: participant anxiety, systems inflexibility, and systems reliability. Views of facilitators with high and low levels of GSS experience are largely consistent High-experience GSS facilitators viewed technical issues as more central to meeting success, while low-experience GSS facilitators focused more heavily on attributes of the group. The paper concludes by offering suggestions for identifying and training GSS facilitators and comments on key issues of importance to GSS designers, based on the facilitator's perspective.
Keywords: electronic meetings; Group support systems
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List of Topics

#150 0.241 issues management systems information key managers executives senior corporate important importance survey critical corporations multinational managing interviews study results concerns
#296 0.182 collaboration support collaborative facilitation gss process processes technology group organizations engineering groupware facilitators use work tool address practitioners focused develop
#257 0.121 group support groups meeting gdss decision systems meetings technology study electronic ems task process communication computer-supported outcomes quality consensus face-to-face
#10 0.092 strategies strategy based effort paper different findings approach suggest useful choice specific attributes explain effective affect employ particular online control
#233 0.083 group gss support groups systems brainstorming research process electronic members results paper effects individual ebs using used anonymity ideas discussion
#286 0.078 success model failure information impact variables failures delone suggested dimensions mclean reasons variable finally categories years recommendations benefits studies identify
#238 0.072 shared contribution groups understanding contributions group contribute work make members experience phenomenon largely central key common especially major conceptualizing study