The Nature of Group Decision Support Systems

Abstract

In organizations, decisions usually involve multiple persons working together, spending considerable time in meetings. Group decision support systems (GDSS) are designed to help groups in meetings reach consensus. Such systems started with facilities (called decision rooms) in which people work together at the same time and in the same place. Such decision rooms contain individual computers where people can do private work, public screens seen by all, and networks and software to support both group and individual work. Over time, GDSS has expanded to include people located in different places and at different times. Although GDSS hardware is mostly off-the-shelf, specialized software is used for generating organizing, and prioritizing ideas, for organizational memory, and other tasks associated with group work. This chapter discusses the nature of GDSS, includes brief descriptions of early decision rooms, and considers major software vendors. The chapter concludes that GDSS is now a mature technology, many of whose concepts are now embedded in the way organizations work, and the major legacy of University research is to practice what was learned about individual and group behaviors in computer-based environments.