Group Support Systems

1. Group Support Systems Chapter 13 Information Systems Management In Practice 5E McNurlin & Sprague

2. I. What are Group Support Systems? • Groups, rather than individuals, and the systems and technologies that support the communication and interaction among people as they work as groups • Key differences between GSS and GDSS are more recognizable when divided into two generic categories

3. I. What are Group Support Systems?: Key Differences Between GSS, GDSS • Communication: the transmission of information from one person to another or several others; and interaction: repetitive, back-and-forth communication over time • Decision making or problem solving: members of a group reach a decision or form a consensus; encompasses communication, to aid coordinating activities

4. Names used to refer to systems that support group work • Computer-supported cooperative work • Work group computing • Collaborative computing • Cooperative computing • Interpersonal computing • Coordination technology • Decision conferencing

5. Names used to refer to systems that support group work (cont.) • Computer conferencing • Computer-supported groups • Group decision support systems • Computer-assisted communication • Augmented knowledge workshops • Inter-functional coordination • Data interpretation systems, ….and others

6. Framework for Group Decision Support • Figure 13-1: A matrix showing intersection of proximity of group members (together or dispersed) with duration of their interaction (limited or ongoing) • Figure 13-2: Predominant characterization: time (same time/different time) on one dimension and place (same place/different place) on the other.

7. Characteristics of Groups • Membership: groups can be open, where almost anyone can join, or closed, where membership is restricted • Interaction: group can be loosely coupled, where the activity of each member is relatively independent of the other members, or tightly coupled, such as a project team where the work of each member is tied closely with the work of the other members • Hierarchy: group can be just one part of a “chain of command”; ex. conference planning committees

8. Types of Groups • Authority groups: involve formal authority (and often hierarchy), such as boss and subordinates; membership closed; coupling tight • Intradepartmental groups: can have members all doing essentially the same work, often under the same boss; membership closed; interaction can range from tight to loose coupling; hierarchy • Project teams: generally have members who work full-time to accomplish a goal within a specific schedule; membership closed; coupling tight; hierarchy

9. Types of Groups (cont.) • Interdepartmental work groups: pass work from department to department (purchasing, receiving, accounts payable) in a chain, forming a super group; membership closed; coupling tight; no hierarchy • Committees and task forces: formed to deal with a subject area or issue, then disband; does not require full-time work by the members; membership not too closed; interaction not as tightly coupled • “Communities of practice”: group of people who work or play together for so long that they have developed an identifiable way of doing things; ex. volunteer organization

10. Types of Groups (cont.) • Business relationship groups: relationships with customers, groups of customers, suppliers, and so on; membership open; interaction loosely coupled; no hierarchy • Peer groups: meet to exchange ideas and opinions; activities of each member are largely independent of the activities of the other members; membership can range; interaction loosely coupled; no hierarchy

11. Types of Groups • Networks: groups of people who socialize, exchange information, and expand the number of their personal acquaintances • Electronic groups: include chat rooms, multi-user domains, user groups, and virtual worlds, all forms of groups that have formed on the Internet to socialize, find information, entertain themselves, gain comfort, or just experiment with the new online world; membership wide open; no hierarchy; loosely coupled

12. Why are Group Systems Important? • Teams may be the basis for future organizations: organization will be composed mainly of specialists who direct their own performance through feedback from others (colleagues, customers, HQ); like a hospital • Move being driven by three factors: • Knowledge workers are becoming the dominant portion of labor, and they resist the command-and-control form of organization • All companies need to find ways to be more innovative and entrepreneurial • Information technology is forcing a shift • Thus, organizations are becoming flatter, with fewer HQs staff and many specialists out in operating units

13. Why are Group Systems Important? • Coordination theory may guide organizational design: use of IT to reduce costs of coordination could have these effects (in sequential order): • IT replaces some forms of human coordination, such as middle management • May increase the overall amount of coordination • May encourage a shift toward more coordination-intensive organizational structures, such as highly networked, decentralized organizations

14. Why are Group Systems Important? • Companies want to “manage” knowledge • tacit knowledge exists within a person’s mind and is private and unique to each person; explicit knowledge has been articulated, codified, and made public; ex. “The Rudy Problem.” • Discovering “who” has the problem is a step in the right direction. Create environment that supports knowledge sharing and emergence of knowledge brokers. • Successfully transferring knowledge depends 90% of having the right culture, and 10% on technology. • Buckman Labs case online forums capture information,volunteer experts identify valuable knowledge and streams of reasoning-build knowledge base.

15. Why are Group Systems Important? • Group computing as a new frontier • People spend 60 to 80% working with others • People seem to feel most productive when working alone • New organizational structures need to be created to support: emergence of teams, need to manage computer-based conversations among people and machines, and interest in supporting group processes

16. Time/Place Matrix - Fig.13.2 • “Same time, same place” cell: in upper left for face-to-face meetings (electronic meeting support system used by Burr-Brown) • “Same place, different times” cell: in upper right for supporting teams in one locale by giving them room tools to use in their team room at different times

17. Time/Place Matrix - Figure 13.2 • “Same time, different places” cell: in lower left for cross-distance meetings (audio conferencing, video conferencing, and screen sharing) • “Different times, different places” cell: in lower right for ongoing coordination, it incorporates communication-oriented systems such as electronic mail, computer conferencing, and group editing

18. “Platforms” for Group Support Systems • Advanced Workstations: run on IBM compatible PCs or Apple Macintosh. In the future, more powerful workstations and high end PCs will be needed to handle the display, storage, and transfer of multimedia documents • Local Area Networks (LAN): dominant communication infrastructure. High speed data transfer among workstations, continue development of client/server and cooperative processing architectures

19. “Platforms” for Group Support Systems • Operating Environments: collection of software layers defining environment within which user gets things done on the computer. It includes functions that have been performed by the operating system, plus a set of “middleware,” plus the “look and feel” of the user interface • Integrated Office Suites: final piece of technical infrastructure. They have been around in the form of DEC’s All-in-1, Wang’s Office, IBM’s Professors and Office Vision, and HP Desk. New ingredient is UNIX

20. Types of Group Support Systems • Supporting Same Time/Same Place Groups: • The problem with meetings: no agenda, or only a superficial one; key people arrive late or not at all • Information technology can help: • Eliminate some meetings: meetings that don’t call for a group decision, when key people can’t attend, when needed info is not available • Better preparation for meetings: computer conferencing; encourage better planning for those meetings that must be held • Improve the effectiveness and efficiency of meetings: group commitment happens more quickly

21. Case example: Burr-Brown • 24 IBM PS/2 • 48 people, 2 per workstation • Electronic Brainstorming - to generate ideas, simultaneously and anonymously • Issue Analyzer - to organize ideas • Voting tool - to rank ideas • Topic commenter to attach ideas already in system • Policy formation software to study alternatives

22. Case example - Burr-Brown, Reactions to use of group support system • It increased involvement - decision room allowed them to do in three days what would have taken them months • The planning process was more effective - because of anonymity and planning process itself was educational • Brainstorming effective, anonymity elicited candor and objectivity

23. Types of Group Support Systems • Supporting Presentations and Discussions: • More opportunities for discussion: using a GSS would eliminate the need to divide available airtime among potential speakers because participants could contribute simultaneously • More equal participation: because the GSS provides many parallel communication channels, loud or strong personalities probably would not dominate the discussion • Permanent record of discussion: GSS would capture a permanent electronic transcript of the online discussion • Improved feedback to presenters: presenters anticipated more comments as well as more detail in those comments

24. Types of Group Support Systems • Supporting Presentations and Discussions: • Improved learning: GSS was expected to reduce attention blocking (the loss of attentiveness caused by people trying to remember what they want to say during the presentation) • Remote and asynchronous participation: people who don’t attend a presentation could still benefit by reading and contributing after the event • Potential negative effects: online discussions might distract participants to the point where they lose the thread of the presentation

25. Types of Group Support Systems • Supporting Dispersed Groups: • Development of virtual teams: usually disband after their project is complete • Same time/same place: team meets face-to-face initially to develop the basic plan and objectives • Different time/different place: then they communicate by e-mail and do data gathering and analysis separately • Same time/different place: may have audio or video conferences to discuss developments and progress toward goals

26. Groupware on the Internet • Three Major Categories of Use: • To support project team activities: used the groupware to plan face-to-face non-groupware meetings • To support education: to supplement face-to-face teaching or training • To replace e-mail listserv systems: to support discussions of special interest groups

27. Groupware on the Internet • Advantages of Web-Based Groupware: • Open network standards • Open client standards • Minimal individual learning • Transformations • Functions • Setup costs • Disadvantages of Web-Based Groupware: • Features • Network speed and reliability • Network security • Operating costs • Group learning • Lack of access