MEMBER PREFERENCES FOR DISCUSSION CONTENT IN ANTICIPATED GROUP DECISIONS - EFFECTS OF TYPE OF ISSUE AND GROUP INTERACTIVE GOAL

Preferences for discussion content in three future group decision-maki ng sessions were sought from individuals. Each session would deal with a different topic, and discussion would be limited to content items t o be determined by compiling individual-member item rankings. Topics v aried in the degree to which they were judgmental or intellective. An induced interactive goal stressed either group relations (group goal) or decision quality (task goal). For each topic, subjects ranked 12 po tential discussion items, 6 reflecting normative and 6 informational m aterial. Normative material was preferred if the anticipated topic was clearly judgmental, and informational material was preferred for an i ntellective topic, agreeing with prior research in which actual discus sion followed the same type of issue-influence mode pattern. When give n false feedback regarding the items (predominantly normative or infor mational) that had been chosen by compiling members' votes, subjects w ere most satisfied if selections were congruent with their interactive goal, that is, if they anticipated discussing normative items under a group goal and informational items under a task goal. In sum, prefere nce for normative versus informational content in an anticipated discu ssion was driven by issue type, but satisfaction with expected content was driven by interactional goal. Though preferred influence mode in anticipated group decisions was affected by whether conditions fostere d concern for group relations versus gathering facts, specific manifes tations (ranking or satisfaction) varied with invoking conditions (iss ue type or goal).