A field experiment on GSS anonymity and group member status

Author

Wilson, John ; Jessup, Leonard M.

Author_Institution

Wausau Ins. Co., Wausau, WI, USA

Volume

4

fYear

1995

fDate

3-6 Jan 1995

Firstpage

212

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted within Wausau Insurance Companies (Wausau) to determine the effects of GSS anonymity and status on group productivity and satisfaction. Professionals and managers within Wausau participated in GSS sessions to discuss ways to solve the problem of insurance fraud within their industry. Groups of four and five members interacted either with or without anonymity and either under equal status or unequal status. Anonymous groups generated more total comments, more unique ideas, and more ideas of higher rarity than did identified groups. Equal status group members were more satisfied than were unequal status group members

Keywords

fraud; groupware; human factors; insurance data processing; office automation; social aspects of automation; Wausau Insurance Companies; anonymous groups; equal status group members; field experiment; group member status; group productivity; group support systems; insurance fraud; unequal status group members; Collaborative software; Decision making; Filters; Insurance; Productivity; Security; Vehicles; Voting;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

System Sciences, 1995. Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth Hawaii International Conference on

Conference_Location

Wailea, HI

Print_ISBN

0-8186-6930-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/HICSS.1995.375728

Filename

375728