INFORMATION SUPPRESSION AND STATUS PERSISTENCE IN GROUP DECISION-MAKING - THE EFFECTS OF COMMUNICATION MEDIA

This experiment investigated the conditions under which a member with information critical for making the best group decision will positivel y influence the group's final choice. The impact of two factors on gro up decision quality, information exchange, and perceptions of influenc e was examined: (a) status differences among members (equal-status vs. mixed-status groups) and (b) communication media (face-to-face vs. co mputer-mediated communication). Three-person groups were composed such that tile critical information required to make the best decision was given only to the low-status member in the mixed-status groups and ra ndomly assigned to one member in the equal-status groups. The results indicated that the mixed-status groups made poorer decisions and made fewer references to critical information than equal-status groups, reg ardless of the communication medium. Computer-mediated communication s uppressed information exchange and the perceived influence of group me mbers, suggesting that the relation between status and communication m edia is more complex than proposed in past research.