A STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF COMMUNICATION CHANNEL AND AUTHORITY ON GROUPDECISION-PROCESSES AND OUTCOMES

Experimental research on Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) has gen erally focused on idea generation and choice tasks. The experiments ha ve typically consisted of groups whose members share the same objectiv es and do not have a formally designated leader. This paper reports on the results of an experiment in which the groups worked on a mixed-mo tive task. A key feature of the study is that the participants did not have the same information (information asymmetry). The experimental s tudy consisted of a 2 x 2 factorial design. The two factors were commu nication channel (face-to-face vs. computer mediated communication) an d group leadership mode (group with a leader vs. groups without leader ). The results indicate that there are differences in perceived as wel l as actual performance between groups meeting same place/same time (d ecision room) and groups meeting same time/different places (distribut ed communications environment). The presence or absence of a formal le ader did not appear to have substantive effects. (C) 1998 Elsevier Sci ence B.V. All rights reserved.