Promoting consensus in small decision making groups

Abstract

Groups are sometimes convened to make decisions that promote wider acceptance of and greater commitment to the results. To accomplish this objective, groups need to achieve an acceptable consensus level. Group support systems (GSS) offer a means of enhancing consensus. In this study, a consensus monitor incorporated in a GSS was used by small decision making groups in an experimental setting. Groups that used the consensus monitor several times achieved higher post-meeting consensus than groups that used the consensus monitor only once. However, these groups did not differ in terms of perceived decision quality and perceived decision process quality. The implications of these findings are discussed. © 1995.