Interacting effects of GDSS and leadership

Abstract

Effects of Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) on decision making have been extensively studied in various contexts, involving important variables such as group task and group size. However, a factor of significant relevance to group meeting, leadership, has been little dealt with in GDSS research. This paper reports on an experimental investigation of the interacting effects of GDSS and elected leadership on influence attempts in a decision-room setting. Findings reveal that while the use of GDSS caused the influence distribution to be more equal among group members in the absence of leadership, the system did not withstand the overriding force of leadership when a group leader was present. © 1994.