A cross-cultural comparison of GSS and non-GSS consensus and satisfaction levels within and between the U.S. and Mexico

Abstract

Relatively few studies have considered cultural dimensions in their analysis of group support systems (GSS) and even fewer have employed empirical data to test their hypotheses. A cross-cultural field experiment was used to measure the effects of national culture (U.S. and Mexican) upon group consensus levels and individual satisfaction levels in GSS environments and non-GSS environments. Experimental results indicate that within the U.S culture, there were no significant differences in consensus levels between GSS and manual groups in the ranking of ideas, but that U.S. GSS groups reported greater changes in consensus levels. Results within the Mexican culture, reported higher ranking consensus levels for manual groups, but greater changes in consensus levels for GSS-supported groups. With regard to satisfaction levels, while U.S. groups reported no differences between treatments, Mexican GSS groups reported higher satisfaction levels than Mexican manual groups. While U.S. groups reported no differences perceived participation equity, Mexican GSS groups reported higher participation equity than Mexican manual groups. There were no differences in perceived participation equity between GSS and non-GSS groups reported within either the U.S. or Mexico. However, in comparing U.S. with Mexican groups there were significant differences in satisfaction and perceived participation equity between both cultures across all experimental treatments.