This study examines the impact of organisational culture and GSS (Group Support Systems) on small group decision-making as measured by group decision outcomes. Laboratory experiments were designed to investigate how two types of groups selected on the basis of having apparently different organisational cultures make decisions on a preference task, in situations where they were given one of two different means of support (face-to-face GSS support or manually structured support) to aid their decision-making. Organisational culture and GSS are the independent variables, whilst the dependent outcome variables were perceived decision quality, decision process satisfaction, decision satisfaction, unified commitment, collaborative climate, and group cohesiveness. The research results showed that manually-supported groups, those who were given simple physical decision-support aids and worked face-to-face, had higher perceived decision quality and decision process satisfaction but no significant differences in unified commitment, decision satisfaction, collaborative climate, and group cohesiveness were found when compared to face-to-face GSS???supported groups who were given electronic aids. One of the two groups drawn from environments where organisational culture was expected to be quite different, that is the Kensington Campus group had higher perceived decision quality, decision process satisfaction, unified commitment, and group cohesiveness but no significant differences in decision satisfaction and collaborative climate when compared with groups drawn from a campus of the same university, ADFA (Australian Defence Force Academy) Campus, one which is attended only by military students. Whilst compared with those of manually structured support on group outcomes, the impacts of GSS on group outcomes weakened when they performed a preference task, organisational culture was found to have a significant impact on group outcomes when both face-to-face GSS and manual settings were considered.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/241941 |
Date | January 2008 |
Creators | Huang, Hai-Shen, Information Technology & Electrical Engineering, Australian Defence Force Academy, UNSW |
Publisher | Awarded by:University of New South Wales - Australian Defence Force Academy. School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering |
Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Rights | Copyright Hai-Shen Huang, http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
Page generated in 0.0014 seconds