Group Support Systems for Strategic Planning.

Author List: Dennis, Alan R.; Tyran, Craig K.; Vogel, Douglas R.; Nunamaker, Jr., Jay F.;
Journal of Management Information Systems, 1997, Volume 14, Issue 1, Page 155-184.
Strategic planning is typically performed by groups of managers. Group support systems (GSS), an information technology designed to improve group work, may therefore have useful application to strategic planning. In this paper, the application of GSS is examined with respect to four dimensions: process support, process structure, task support, and task structure. A GSS may assist the communication aspects of group meetings by providing process support to improve interaction among participants and process structure to direct the pattern or content of the discussion. GSS may also provide task structure, such as structured analysis and modeling techniques, and task support, such as access to important task information. This paper reports on the use of a GSS in the strategic planning processes of thirty organizations. The ability of the GSS to provide process support was found to be the most important contributor to strategic planning success, with task structure and process structure secondary. Task support contributed little. Those organizations that made greater use of electronic communication, structured problem analysis techniques, and structured meeting processes reported greater success.
Keywords: group support systems;strategic management;strategic planning
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#257 0.297 group support groups meeting gdss decision systems meetings technology study electronic ems task process communication computer-supported outcomes quality consensus face-to-face
#296 0.145 collaboration support collaborative facilitation gss process processes technology group organizations engineering groupware facilitators use work tool address practitioners focused develop
#78 0.135 planning strategic process management plan operational implementation critical used tactical effectiveness number identified activities years effective developed issues empirical plans
#60 0.099 analysis techniques structured categories protocol used evolution support methods protocols verbal improve object-oriented difficulties analyses category benchmark comparison provided recognition
#244 0.088 structure integration complex business enhancement effects access extent analyzing volatile capture requires occurs pattern enables independent integrative structured decision-making costs
#44 0.075 approach analysis application approaches new used paper methodology simulation traditional techniques systems process based using proposed method present provides various
#225 0.070 information environment provide analysis paper overall better relationships outcomes increasingly useful valuable available increasing greater regarding levels decisions viewed relative