ON EVALUATING THE PERFORMANCE OF WIDE-BAND GDSSS

Many Group Decision Support Systems are designed to work within a comp lex organizational environment and to tackle complex strategic issues. Many have called for these systems to be evaluated in relation to cle ar success criteria. This paper addresses the issues that this request raises and seeks to encourage a debate about alternative research met hods appropriate to such a task. Specifically the paper discusses: the purpose of the systems, the need to attend to the past and future of a group, GDSS to support negotiation towards decision-making, the sign ificance of the consultant client relationship, the role of decision m odels, the duration of the intervention, and the role of a theoretical framework. A number of research methods are discussed and some of the problems in their use noted Ultimately the paper argues for more 'act ion research' rather than less of any other sort of research.