Effects of group support system and task type on social influencesin small groups

This paper reports the findings of an empirical research on the effect of group support system (GSS) and task type on social influences in small groups. It examines the task type with an intellective task and a preference task, and analyzes social influences in terms of informational and normative influence. The main findings are: (1) informational influence dominated in intellective task groups whereas normative influence dominated in preference task groups; and (2) a GSS amplified informational influence in intellective task groups and attenuated normative influence in preference task groups. The paper suggests further research using varying levels of GSS support and different task types to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of GSS and task type on social influences in small groups     

Impacts of GSS generic structures and task types on group communication process and outcome: Some expected and unexpected research findings

The contingency nature of GSS use implies that some GSS structures may be more suitable for supporting some task types than others. Research specifically examining effects of the GSS-task fit on group process and outcome has been inadequate in GSS research literature. This research, therefore, focused on the GSS-task fit. Two task types were used to explore the fit: an intellective task that was chosen to elicit the good fit and a preference task which was chosen to elicit the poor fit. Half groups were provided with computer (GSS) support and the other half was not. Research results reported some expected and unexpected findings. The good GSS-task fit for the intellective task enhanced group communication in group process whereas the poor fit for the preference task reduced group communication, as expected. However, the good fit for an intellective task failed to increase group satisfaction, relative to the poor fit for a preference task, which was unexpected. A possible reason for the unexpected results was suggested and discussed. The research findings provide empirical evidences to support the argument that GSS may not be studied as a global entity in the future. Instead, more research needs to be done on GSS-task fit to explore matches between specific GSS structures and specific task types.     

Impacts of GSS generic structures and task types on group communication process and outcome: some expected and unexpected research findings

The contingency nature of GSS use implies that some GSS structures may be more suitable for supporting some task types than others. Research specifically examining effects of the GSS-task fit on group process and outcome has been inadequate in GSS research literature. This research, therefore, focused on the GSS-task fit. Two task types were used to explore the fit: an intellective task that was chosen to elicit the good fit and a preference task which was chosen to elicit the poor fit. Half groups were provided with computer (GSS) support and the other half was not. Research results reported some expected and unexpected findings. The good GSS-task fit for the intellective task enhanced group communication in group process whereas the poor fit for the preference task reduced group communication, as expected. However, the good fit for an intellective task failed to increase group satisfaction, relative to the poor fit for a preference task, which was unexpected. A possible reason for the unexpected results was suggested and discussed. The research findings provide empirical evidences to support the argument that GSS may not be studied as a global entity in the future. Instead, more research needs to be done on GSS-task fit to explore matches between specific GSS structures and specific task types.     

Task as a moderator for the effects of group support systems on group influence processes

This research studied the interacting effects of group support systems (GSS) and task type on small groups. It focused on group influence processes rather than group outcomes, which has been largely neglected in GSS research literature. The results of this research indicated that GSS significantly affected group influence processes: GSS reduced the dominance significance (i.e., the influence dominance) among group members; and it increased the amount of influence behaviour and resulted in a less even influence distribution in intellective task groups, but not in decision-making task groups. Therefore, the findings suggest that task type may play an important role in moderating the GSS effects. An important implication of the findings is that organizational GSS users should be careful when they adopt and use GSS to support a variety of tasks. They should carefully examine the characteristics of the various tasks to be performed, and then choose suitable GSS structures to support these tasks.     

Compensating effects of GSS on group performance

A GSS often fails to aid in providing group consensus and user satisfaction. To understand the reasons behind this lack of impact, we investigated the issue from an influence-process perspective. The independent variables manipulated were support (GSS vs. face-to-face) and task type (intellective vs. preference). The dependent variables measured were three process variables (informational influence, normative influence, and influence distribution) and three outcome variables (group consensus, decision satisfaction, and decision process satisfaction). The findings suggest that the lack of impact of GSS on decision-making groups may be due to their compensating effects. With the preference task, the use of GSS led to a more even influence distribution; this should improve group decision outcomes. But the use of GSS was also found to attenuate normative influence; this should negatively affect group decision outcomes. For an intellective task, the use of GSS resulted in an uneven distribution of influence; this should negatively affect group decision outcomes. But the use of GSS also amplified informational influence; this should enhance group decision outcomes. Collectively, such compensating effects of a GSS may explain why a lack of GSS impact on group decision outcomes has been observed in many studies.     

机器人图标化编程环境的设计及实现

为解决传统机器人文本编程不易于学习和使用的问题,设计了面向机器人的图标化简便编程环境．重点研究了图标化机器人程序语言的设计及其解释执行技术．通过图标化编程环境在工业机器人上的实现和应用,说明图标化编程技术相对于传统文本式编程技术的易用性和高效性．     

Enhancing information sharing in group support systems (GSS)

Decision-making groups collectively have a larger information pool than any individual within the group. When groups employ group support systems (GSS) for discussion, task-relevant information that is common to all is exchanged more frequently than information that is unique to one person alone. Not only that, GSS groups also exhibit a lack of information processing with regards to unique information that members contribute during group discussion. A laboratory experiment was used to evaluate (1) the level of information exchange in GSS groups and (2) the effects of expertise role-assignment on the pooling and processing of unique information in GSS groups given two different pre-discussion information distributions. Forty-eight 3-members groups participated in a group judgment task, which required them to decide the most likely murderer from 3 suspects, in a murder case. Results indicated that regular GSS groups tend to pool more common information and partially shared information as compared to unique information. When role-assigned, GSS groups pooled more unique information during discussion and retained more unique information after discussion than non-role-assigned groups. As a result, role-assigned GSS groups had sufficient information to identify the most likely murderer in the murder mystery, as compared to regular GSS groups.     

A study of group support systems and the intergroup setting

In this study, we explore the supporting role of group support systems (GSS) in organizational workgroups that involve groups of distinct social identities. Intergroup processes become relevant and prevalent in such workgroups and trigger new issues. Anonymity is an important feature of GSS that concerns social influence in the intergroup setting. We report on the results of an experiment consisting of 20 workgroups. The enforcement of common fate and its impact on social influence are also examined. Our findings provide preliminary indication of the usefulness of GSS in the intergroup setting of organizational workgroups.     

Efficiently using contextual influence to recommend new items to ephemeral groups

Group recommender systems suggest items to groups of users that want to utilize those items together. These systems can support several activities that can be performed together with other people and are typically social, like watching TV or going to the restaurant. In this paper we study ephemeral groups, i.e., groups constituted by users who are together for the first time, and for which therefore there is no history of past group activities.Recent works have studied ephemeral group recommendations proposing techniques that learn complex models of users and items. These techniques, however, are not appropriate to recommend items that are new in the system, while we propose a method able to deal with new items too. Specifically, our technique determines the preference of a group for a given item by combining the individual preferences of the group members on the basis of their contextual influence, the contextual influence representing the ability of an individual, in a given situation, to guide the group’s decision. Moreover, while many works on recommendations do not consider the problem of efficiently producing recommendation lists at runtime, in this paper we speed up the recommendation process by applying techniques conceived for the top-$K$ query processing problem. Finally, we present extensive experiments, evaluating: (i) the accuracy of the recommendations, using a real TV dataset containing a log of viewings performed by real groups, and (ii) the efficiency of the online recommendation task, exploiting also a bigger partially synthetic dataset.     

Cross-cultural and cognitive issues in the implementation of new technology: focus on group support systems and Bulgaria

Over 40 per cent of technology implementation attempts in the United States (US) fail. These failures often are the result of human (rather than technological) problems. The consequences of implementers installing in one country equipment designed in another should be even more problematic and ubiquitous, as technology designers continue to move into international markets. A cognitive model of cross-cultural implementation is tested, using a US-designed group support system (GSS) and groups of Bulgarian and US university students. Bulgarians were expected to be less critical of the technology due to cultural responses to power and authority (i.e., less likely to challenge authority) and therefore less successful in adapting to the technology. However, results suggest that the Bulgarian students may in fact be more likely to challenge authority than their US counterparts. As hypothesized, Power Distance mediates some of the effects between culture and satisfaction with the GSS.     

The influence of information presentation formats on complex task decision-making performance

Understanding the influence of information presentation formats on decision-making effectiveness is an important component of human–computer interaction user interface design. The pervasive nature and ease of use associated with information display formats in widely used personal productivity software suggests that decision-makers are likely to create and/or use documents with both text-based and more visually oriented information displays. Past research has investigated the role of these displays on simple decision tasks; however, empirical research has not extended to more complex tasks, more comparable to the types of tasks decision-makers face every day. Results from the empirical analysis suggest that the relationship between information presentation format and decision performance is moderated by the complexity of the task. More specifically, spatial formats result in superior decision accuracy for simple- and complex-spatial tasks and faster decision time for all tasks except the complex-symbolic task where graphs and tables result in equivalent decision time.     

The role of GSS in participatory policy analysis: A field experiment

This paper describes a rare opportunity for a field experiment; in this, several forms of evaluation were combined into a (quasi) experimental evaluation design. Two matched and randomized groups of citizens engaged in a debate on the future of their city (‘s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands) were studied during four meetings of a participatory policy exercise. The intent of our experiment was to test whether the use of a GSS had a positive effect on the quality of the group processes and the quality of group results. We found that process facilitation and time effects have more influence on group processes and outcomes than did the use of a GSS.     

Effect of GSS on knowledge acquisition

The study discussed here investigated the contribution of group support system(s) (GSS) to a particular aspect of organizational learning: knowledge acquisition at the group level. We present a model explaining the enabling effects of GSS on important attributes of effective collaborative learning that lead to higher levels of knowledge acquisition and discuss the results of an empirical study designed to test the predictions of the model. A GSS-mediated environment is compared to a non-GSS collaborative environment in terms of the participants' understanding of a problem-solving task. The results indicate that the GSS-mediated environment leads to a significantly higher level of understanding than the non-GSS environment.     

A graphical specification system for user-interface design

An environment for creating user interfaces for embedded systems, called the graphical specification system (GSS), is presented. GSS combines graphical and minimal low-level textual specification with a prototyping capability for rapid user-interface design and evaluation. It is part of a larger embedded systems project at Lockheed, called Express. The user interface components, display components, user-machine interaction, interface-application interaction, and executive component are discussed. Two scenarios, developed with GSS tool prototypes, demonstrate how some GSS tools function. One is the construction of a display with two pairs of gauges, one Cartesian and one polar. The other is the design of a display for submarine tracking     

Effects of individuals’ psychological states on their satisfaction with the GSS process

The use of group support systems (GSS) to improve the outcomes of, and satisfaction with, meetings is increasing. Our empirical study, drawing on the theory of job design, was initiated to investigate the relative contribution of both individual and group characteristics on GSS participants’ satisfaction with the process. Our field study found that when employees used a GSS to brainstorm on an issue of concern, two individual characteristics (locus of control and personal innovativeness) and one group characteristic (group cohesion) had significant impact on user satisfaction with the meeting process. Locus of control, however, was found to have an impact in the opposite direction to our assumptions. Computer anxiety, an individual characteristic, was not found to be significant.     

A web based consensus support system for group decision making problems and incomplete preferences

Reaching a high level of consensus among experts is critical in group decision making problems. Usually, it is the moderator task to assure that the consensus process is carried out properly and, if possible, to offer recommendations to the expert in order to change their opinions and narrow their differences.In this paper we present an implemented web based consensus support system that is able to help, or even replace, the moderator in a consensus process where experts are allowed to provide their preferences using one of many types (fuzzy, linguistic and multi-granular linguistic) of incomplete preference relations.This system is based on both consistency and consensus measures and it has been designed to provide advice to the experts to increase group consensus level while maintaining the individual consistency of each expert. The consistency measures are characterized by and computed using uninorm operators. When appropriate, the system also helps experts to reduce the incompleteness of their preference relations. The web interface allows to carry out distributed consensus processes and thus, experts do not necessarily need to physically meet together.     

Effects of facilitation and leadership on meeting outcomes in a group support system environment

This study investigates the effects of facilitation and leadership on outcomes of meetings involving group support systems (GSS). It extends existing GSS literature by examining the critical roles of facilitation and leadership simultaneously within a single study. A 2×2 factorial controlled laboratory experiment was conducted. A preference task, which had no objective correct answers, was employed. Ten five-person groups completed each treatment. Independent variables were facilitation (with vs without) and leadership (with vs without). During their meetings, facilitators and leaders carried out task and interactional interventions respectively. Dependent variables were measures of meeting success (post-meeting consensus, decision confidence, discussion quality, and process satisfaction). Results reveal that: (1) facilitation appears to raise decision confidence; (2) leadership appears to enhance discussion quality and process satisfaction; (3) in the absence of leadership, facilitation seems to lower post-meeting consensus; and (4) in the absence of facilitation, leadership seems to raise post-meeting consensus. These results are compared with findings from prior related studies. Implications of these results for practice are discussed.     

Structured modeling group support systems: a product design theory

Structured modeling is critical to the design, development, and implementation of many systems including computer software, business processes, and data networks. Since the creation of structured models relies on the knowledge of many organizational stakeholders, groups often accomplish this task. Group support systems (GSS) focus on the support of group processes and would appear to be useful for structured modeling; however, GSS usually only provide textual or decision related output rather than the structured models needed for many design processes. This paper proposes a class of systems, structured modeling GSS (smGSS), which adds support for the development of structured models to standard GSS. Since past research has shown that research results may be difficult to compare across studies when the system under investigation is not well defined, this paper develops a product design theory that defines the required characteristics of and testable design propositions for an smGSS as derived from existing theory and empirical investigations.     

Sampling and pooling of decision-relevant information: Comparing the efficiency of face-to-face and GSS supported groups

Past research has suggested that decision-making groups, when communicating face-to-face (FtF), suffered from information sharing biases that affected the quality of the final decision: they tended to discuss previously-shared information before they started to discuss information not known to all, and discussed more of previously-shared than unshared information. In our study we examined these effects in groups that interacted FtF or using a group support system (GSS). Four-member groups discussed a requirements elicitation task in which some requirements were known to all members before starting their discussion, while other requirements were known only to two members of the group. Both GSS and FtF groups exchanged a large percentage of the shared requirements. However, the GSS groups were more effective in communicating unshared requirements. On average, FtF groups discussed shared requirements sooner and unshared requirements later than did GSS groups. Our study also compared empirical results with predictions from an information-sampling model of group discussion in order to assess the effectiveness of the model in computer-mediated group communication.     

Interface stability influences torso muscle recruitment and spinal load during pushing tasks

Handle or interface design can influence torso muscle recruitment and spinal load during pushing tasks. The objective of the study was to provide insight into the role of interface stability with regard to torso muscle recruitment and biomechanical loads on the spine. Fourteen subjects generated voluntary isometric trunk flexion force against a rigid interface and similar flexion exertions against an unstable interface, which simulated handle design in a cart pushing task. Normalized electromyographic (EMG) activity in the rectus abdominus, external oblique and internal oblique muscles increased with exertion effort. When using the unstable interface, EMG activity in the internal and external oblique muscle groups was greater than when using the rigid interface. Results agreed with trends from a biomechanical model implemented to predict the muscle activation necessary to generate isometric pushing forces and maintain spinal stability when using the two different interface designs. The co-contraction contributed to increased spinal load when using the unstable interface. It was concluded that handle or interface design and stability may influence spinal load and associated risk of musculoskeletal injury during manual materials tasks that involve pushing exertions.