An empirical study of task type and communication medium in GDSS

The authors investigate the effects of task type and communication medium on group decision outcome in GDSS (group decision support system)-supported meetings. The two task types used are an intellective task and a preference task. The communication medium is varied by using a face-to-face setting and a dispersed setting. The group decision outcome variables of interest are consensus change, decision satisfaction, and decision scheme satisfaction. With the intellective task, no significant differences were found between face-to-face groups and dispersed groups for the group decision outcome variables. With the preference task, face-to-face groups achieved higher consensus change and experienced higher decision satisfaction and higher decision scheme satisfaction than dispersed groups. From the consensus and satisfaction perspectives, groups with a communication medium which is too lean for their task seem to experience more difficulties than groups with a communication medium which is too rich for their task