Impact of task-medium fit on effectiveness and efficiency in GDSS supported meetings

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a research experiment which examined the impact of task type and communication medium on the effectiveness and efficiency in GDSS supported-meetings. Task type was varied by using an intellective task and a preference task. Communication medium was varied by using a face-to-face setting and a dispersed setting. The effectiveness and efficiency of group decisions were measured using decision quality and decision time respectively. With the intellective task, there were no significant differences between groups in the face-to-face setting and groups in the dispersed setting in terms of effectiveness and efficiency though, on the average, groups in the dispersed setting were more efficient than groups in the face-to-face setting. With the preference task, groups in the face-to-face setting were significantly more effective and efficient than groups in the dispersed setting. A communication medium which is too rich for the task seems to lead to a slight reduction in the efficiency of GDSS supported meetings. A communication medium which is too lean for the task seems to have a significant negative impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of GDSS supported meetings.