The effectiveness of virtual facilitation in supporting GDSS appropriation and structured group decision making

Since their introduction a quarter of a century ago, group decision support systems (GDSS) have evolved from applications designed primarily to support decision making for groups in face-to-face settings, to their growing use for “web conferencing,” online collaboration, and distributed group decision-making. Indeed, it is only recently that such groupware applications for conducting face-to-face, as well as “virtual meetings” among dispersed workgroups have achieved mainstream status, as evidenced by Microsoft’s ubiquitous advertising campaign promoting its “Live Meeting” electronic meeting systems (EMS) software. As these applications become more widely adopted, issues relating to their effective utilization are becoming increasingly relevant. This research addresses an area of growing interest in the study of group decision support systems, and one which holds promise for improving the effective utilization of advanced information technologies in general: the feasibility of using virtual facilitation (system-directed multi-modal user support) for supporting the GDSS appropriation process and for improving structured group decision-making efficiency and effectiveness. A multi-modal application for automating the GDSS facilitation process is used to compare conventional GDSS-supported groups with groups using virtual facilitation, as well as groups interacting without computerized decision-making support. A hidden-profile task designed to compare GDSS appropriation levels, user satisfaction, and decision-making efficiency and effectiveness is utilized in an experiment employing auditors, accountants, and IT security professionals as participants. The results of the experiment are analyzed and possible directions for future research efforts are discussed

Facilitator Effects On The Process Of GSS Appropriation: Opening The Black Box

Though technology support of group decision making has long been believed to increase the number of ideas generated and the overall quality of decisions, research on this topic has failed to provide consistent support of these outcomes. Facilitation of the group decision process by specially trained experts is believed to add even further to the benefits the technology brings. The effects of facilitation have been tested in many configurations, yet, here too, researchers have not been able to consistently identify the benefits. The literature shows that prior research in this area has been based on the outcomes of the group decision process focusing on the quantity of ideas generated and group member retrospective perceptions of the process. This suggests that researchers took a black box approach to studying the effects of facilitation in group support systems (GSS) adoption and use subsequently ignoring important aspects of group process and the effects of facilitation in that process. To that end, analysis has been done from the lens of adaptive structuration theory (AST) of 48 homogeneous decision groups in terms of setting, task, and prior relevant participant experience; an excellent environment in which to observe how group members act (make appropriation moves) to adopt and use GSS differently in differing facilitative contexts. This study found that process restrictiveness significantly affects the quantity and types of appropriation moves over the course of a decision task. An unprecedented finding was that different individual facilitators affect the quantity and types of appropriation moves even when holding the treatment restrictiveness constant. I also performed an original extension of the method suggested by AST by disaggregating appropriation moves into the source and target of interactions. This study successfully opens the black box of GSS facilitation and shows analysis of process reveals nuanced differences in factors that affect appropriation that have not been apparent from prior, outcomes-based analyses

User Acceptance of Group Support Systems

A Group Support System (GSS) is a type of Information Systems that helps decision making in an organization in a group setting. Apart from groupware technologies such as email and conferencing systems, not many GSS applications have been widely accepted in organizations. Prior research has studied the factors such as task technology fit, use of appropriation mediators, and appropriation support, etc., that contribute to the successful use of GSS. Not much, however, has been written about the factors that may influence the users’ intentions to experiment and eventually accept a GSS. This study utilizes the literature on technology acceptance, adaptive structuration theory, and task technology fit to prepare a framework to investigate the factors that influence the user acceptance of GSSs in organizations

The impacts of Delphi communication structure on small and medium sized asynchronous virtual teams

The improvement of Internet technology has motivated distributed work groups to collaborate without meeting face to face. Although asynchronous meetings through Web-based group communications systems enable groups dispersed temporarily and geographically to collaborate more flexibly, parallel and non-linear communication among dispersed members also challenge effective and efficient group coordination. Moreover, the Web-based asynchronous meeting is distinguished not only from the face-to-face meeting but also from the synchronous computer-supported meeting in terms of coordination process. However, previous asynchronous group communications or virtual team research focused more on the comparison of this new type of meeting with the face-to-face meeting. Not many research efforts have been exerted to improve the productivity of this new form of meeting and find ways to overcome its disadvantages. Facilitation was proved effective to enhance the productivity of synchronous meetings. However the effect of structured discussion through facilitation was not clear in asynchronous meeting settings even though facilitation is a common practice in asynchronous group communication systems. This study examined the effect of a facilitated structure in improving the productivity of asynchronous decision-making groups. Delphi was chosen as the facilitated structure because it has been widely used as the paper-and-pencil-based structure to facilitate dispersed experts in collecting their opinions. In this study a computer-based Delphi structure was implemented through asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication. A 2X2 controlled experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of Delphi structure on the effectiveness of small-sized (5-6 members) and medium-sized (10-12 members) asynchronous computer-supported groups. The formal facilitation using Delphi structure was effective to improve the productivity of asynchronous groups in generating more ideas. On the contrary, informal leadership by group coordinators seems to have played a more important role in producing better reports. In terms of per person ideas, small-sized groups were more productive, even though medium-sized groups produced more total ideas than small-sized groups. The superiority of Delphi groups and small-sized groups is related to their higher equality of participation. This result suggests that in asynchronous meetings, equal participation of group members in discussion is important in improving idea generation productivity while in synchronous meetings, the process loss of production blocking plays a crucial role

Technology-Mediated Learning: A Comprehensive Theoretical Model

Increasing organizational investment in technology for training and learning underscores how important it is for researchers to understand and investigate technology-mediated learning (TML). However, the limited empirical data in this area fails to provide a consistent and comprehensive picture of the TML phenomena. A critical aspect missing from existing research is the focus on the learning process. In this paper, we articulate a theoretical model, based on Adaptive Structuration Theory, for TML that explicitly configures elements of the learning process, including team, technology, and learning technique structures. Existing TML research from the information systems (IS) and education literatures is summarized and research gaps are identified. The paper not only helps to explain inconsistencies in previous research, but also develops specific propositions for future research. The propositions stated in the paper represent the theoretical relationships among the constructs in the TML model. The model provides a vehicle for researchers, both in IS and education, to summarize and integrate existing research and theories and to guide future research in this important area

The Role of Information Elaboration for Co-Construction of Meaning during Idea Convergence: A Causal Mediation Analysis

Teams need to co-construct meaning to establish shared understanding about concepts when converging on the best ideas generated from crowdsourcing events. Facilitation interventions can aid the co-construction of meaning. The causal mechanism is believed to be the extent exchanged information is elaborated on. However, this mediating role has not been empirically confirmed in past research. Information elaboration in teams with and without facilitation intervention was tested with causal mediation analysis by drawing on data collected in a laboratory experiment. The findings suggest that facilitated teams had better information elaboration and co-construction than non-facilitated teams. Moreover, information elaboration could be identified as a strong causal mechanism through which facilitation interventions affect the co-construction of meaning. The study contributes to unravelling the black box of team processes through which this causal effect of facilitation intervention arises and helps fostering the design of improved automated feedback mechanisms

Using Multi-Agent Simulation to Explore the Contribution of Facilitation to GSS Transition

Significant prior research has shown that facilitation is a critical part of GSS transition. This study examines an under-researched aspect of facilitation—its contributions to self-sustained GSS use among group members. Integrating insights from Adaptive Structuration Theory, experimental economics, and the Collaboration Engineering literature, we formalize interactions of group members in GSS transition as strategic interactions in a minimum-effort coordination game. The contributions of facilitation are interpreted as coordination mechanisms to help group members achieve and maintain an agreement on GSS use by reducing uncertainties in the coordination game. We implement the conjectured coordination mechanisms in a multi-agent simulator. The simulator offers insights into the separate and combined effects of common facilitation practices during the lifecycle of GSS transition. These insights can help the Collaboration Engineering community to identify and package the facilitation routines that are critical for group members to achieve self-sustained GSS use and understand how facilitation routines should be adapted to different stages of GSS transition lifecycle. Moreover, they indicate the value of the multi-agent approach in uncovering new insights and representing the issue of GSS transition with a new view

Four facets of a process modeling facilitator

Business process modeling as a practice and research field has received great attention in recent years. However, while related artifacts such as models, tools or grammars have substantially matured, comparatively little is known about the activities that are conducted as part of the actual act of process modeling. Especially the key role of the modeling facilitator has not been researched to date. In this paper, we propose a new theory-grounded, conceptual framework describing four facets (the driving engineer, the driving artist, the catalyzing engineer, and the catalyzing artist) that can be used by a facilitator. These facets with behavioral styles have been empirically explored via in-depth interviews and additional questionnaires with experienced process analysts. We develop a proposal for an emerging theory for describing, investigating, and explaining different behaviors associated with Business Process Modeling Facilitation. This theory is an important sensitizing vehicle for examining processes and outcomes from process modeling endeavors