Current Group Support System (GSS) theory is heavily influenced by a rational model of human behavior, which in turn leads to some fundamental assumptions about what meetings are all about and what can be done to improve them. The purpose of this paper is to examine these fundamental assumptions, but from a perspective other than the more typical one of small-group processes and dynamics. Instead, we draw on organizational theories of power and politics, organizational culture and symbolism, and interactionism to provide new vantage points from which to examine these fundamental GSS objectives. Each of these perspectives represent fundamentally different philosophies on the nature and processes that characterize organizational meetings. From this theoretical triangulation, a much richer picture of organization meetings emerges. In particular, it becomes apparent that the rich shading and nuances of meaning that characterize organizational meetings are not adequately captured by a strictly small-group based, rational model of human behavior. To hope to understand how technology will change the dynamics of decisionmaking, hidden agendas, veiled threats, hidden meanings, the formation and disintegration of alliances, the shifting nattire of power and status, to name but a few, a theory base as rich as these dynamics will be needed
