Journals Proceedings

Abstract

This paper aims to shed some light on the importance of the facilitator in a GDSS (Group Decision Support System) supported meeting and the role he/she plays in managing these systems and consequently the impact of his/her managing behaviour on the outcomes of a GDSS meeting. Based on a field study interviewing people from real GDSS environment, SIDE’s (Social Identity model of Deindividuation Effects) strategic component assumption and relevant GDSS supported meeting’s literature this paper proposes a new model named ‘Task-Conflict and Anonymity-Enabled GDSS Meeting (TAGDSSM). This proposed model aims to enhance the understanding and interpreting of facilitators’ and users’ behaviour in anonymity-enabled GDSS meeting environment. The TAGDSSM model manifests two major constructs impacting user’s behaviour in the decision making process: GDSS system’s anonymity and facilitator’s behaviour within GDSS meetings. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with experienced GDSS meeting facilitators, technical support experts, users and managers of GDSS meeting application providers. All interviewees were from real GDSS meeting settings who had interacted with the system in a real and non-simulated organizational environment. Three world leading GDSS anonymity-enabled meeting applications were investigated in this research: ‘MeetingSphere’, ‘FacilitatePro’ and ‘Spilter’. The new proposed model ATGDSSM is worthy of examination as it helps in explaining the interplay among users and anonymously generated contributions in a GDSS meeting and how it may drive users’ efforts and meeting outcomes.