Task/technology fit and the effectiveness of group support systems: evidence in the context of tasks requiring domain specific knowledge

Research on the effectiveness of group support systems (GSS) technology has begun to explore the "task/technology" fit hypothesis, which suggests and interaction between task type and communication mode. Some limited research employing generic tasks and ad hoc groups has found that GSS-mediated groups perform about the same as their face-to-face counterparts on creative tasks but significantly worse on intellective tasks. This research extends prior work by investigating the task/technology fit hypothesis using groups with a shared history and business oriented idea generation and problem solving tasks. Consistent with the prediction of task technology fit theory, the results revealed a significant disordinal interaction-subjects performed significantly better when communicating face-to-face for the problem solving task and when communicating via the GSS for the idea generation task. Echoing the findings of much prior research, subjects tended to prefer face-to-face communication over GSS mediated communication.