)

About GDSS Characteristics of GDSS Similarities between GDSS and DSS Why use GDSS Advantages and Disadvantages of GDSS Examples of GDSS Academia research in GDSS Future Implications of GDSS

A Group Decision Support System (GDSS) is an interactive computer based system that facilitates the solution of semi structured or unstructured problems by a group of decision makers. Goal is to improve decision making meetings by speeding up the decision making process or by improving the quality of decision making.

Ease of use Specific and general support Suppressing negative group behavior Supporting positive group behavior

Organizational commitment/support Trained facilitators or may be user driven User training Anonymity Appropriate tasks Dedicated decision rooms

Same-Time Same-Place
(Most widely used GDSScomputers with projectors, voting tools)

Same-Time Different-Place
(team room, tools, audio conferencing, screen sharing, chat)

Different-Time Same-Place
(audio/video conferencing, document sharing)

Different-Time Different-Place
(voice mail, email, bulletin boards)

Both use models, data and user-friendly software Both use internal and external data Both allow the decision maker to take an active role Both have flexible systems Both have graphical output

High level managers can spend 80% of their time making decisions in groups. Applied correctly, GDSS can reduce this time, arriving at a better decision faster. GDSS provides the hardware, software, databases and procedures for effective decision making.

Anonymity drive out fear leading to better decisions from a diverse hierarchy of decision makers Parallel Communication eliminate monopolizing providing increased participation, better decisions Automated record keeping no need to take notes, theyre automatically recorded Ability for virtual meetings only need hardware, software and people connected Portability - Can be set up to be portable laptop Global Potential - People can be connected across the world No need for a computer guru although some basic experience is a must

Cost infrastructure costs to provide the hardware and software/room/network connectivity can be very expensive Security especially true when companies rent the facilities for GDSS; also, the facilitator may be a lowerlevel employee who may leak information to peers Technical Failure power loss, loss of connectivity, relies heavily on bandwidth and LAN/WAN infrastructure properly setup system should minimize this risk Keyboarding Skills reduced participation may result due to frustration Training learning curve is present for users, varies by situation Perception of messages lack of verbal communication could lead to misinterpretation

1) Group Leader (and Facilitator?) select software, develop agenda 2) Participants meet (in decision room/Internet) and are given a task. 3) Participants generate ideas brainstorm anonymously 4) Facilitator organize ideas into categories (different for user-driven software) 5) Discussion and prioritization may involve ranking by some criteria and/or rating to the facilitators scale 6) Repeat Steps 3, 4, 5 as necessary 7) Reach decision 8) Recommend providing feedback on decision and results to all involved

Arizona Public Service Technical Classroom Executive Decision Room CMI Center for the Management of Information University of Arizona Decision Information Center CMI - Center for the Management of Information University of Arizona Portable "Rigs - CMI - Center for the Management of Information University of Arizona

1) One example of implementation of GDSS is at IBM. They, as well as many other corporations, initiated GDSS to improve group meetings. A specific case involved a plant manager not being able to identify the cause of problems with shop floor control. After having a meeting for two hours with plant personnel all that resulted were arguments and bad feelings. So after meeting with the company's GDSS facilitator, the manager decided to have ten plant employees, himself, and two junior analysts participate in a GDSS program. They would use electronic brainstorming and voting to resolve the shop floor control problem. The manager and the facilitator decided the topic would be "What are the key issues in improving shop floor control?" After brainstorming for 35 minutes and compiling 645 lines of suggestions, ideas and comments on how to improve shop floor control, the manager found that he had gotten useful information about the issue for the first time. A list was compiled of the comments and then the members of the group ranked them in order of importance. The results were displayed and a discussion occurred for ten minutes. The manager thanked the participants and was given a printout of all the discussion and results of the group vote (Aiken 3). 2) Another example is Hewlett-Packard. Their human-factors engineers work at locations all over the world. And they meet in person only once a year. The rest of the time, they have frequent, ongoing meetings to discuss professional and company issues. But they have these discussions through an electronic conference and final decision making is done with the aid of GDSS (Sproull 121).

Thinktank is a Web2.0 application Accessed through internet Browser Think tank Mainly used for Brainstormingidentifying , organising, prioritizing, evaluating and documenting ideas-in real time or offline to support face to face or virtual team meeting activities Each session contain all information about meeting-session leader ,date/time of the session, location, agenda, attendees rights ,supporting documents , and outcomes.

1998 - GDSS and incentive structure (1)

Group-based incentives resulted in more participation than individual-based incentives Group based incentives found to result in superior performance in GDSS-supported decision-making groups

1998 - Examining the conflicting results of GDSS research (2)

Organizations in the global business environment are much more interested in groupware systems that include group activities not necessarily in the same place or at the same time. It is becoming more important to coordinate conflicts and collaborate in work with others in the distributed environment amplifying the need for GDSS in geographically separated group. Unlike facilitator-driven GDSS, user-driven GDSS users show less satisfaction with the initial use of the system. Regardless of the different technical design configurations, softwares and tasks, GDSS was consistently shown to have a positive effect on the decision making process.

1996 - The effects of a group decision support system on culturally diverse and culturally homogeneous group decision making (3)

GDSS may offer a conducive environment for improving group decision making in both culturally homogeneous and diverse groups. Groups that used GDSS produced significantly higher number of non-redundant, realistic ideas than groups that did not use a GDSS. Culturally diverse groups significantly outperformed homogeneous groups on number of ideas generated. This study suggests that there is reason to believe that, if carefully managed, the benefits of a culturally diverse workforce can heavily outweigh the disadvantages

Integrating into existing corporate framework GDSS brings changes which must be managed GDSS will incorporate Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems the software will learn and help the users make better decisions Decreasing cost will allow more organizations to use GDSS Increasing implementation of GDSS with the customer Customer voice their needs in non-threatening environment

GDSS may play a large role in the future of the virtual companies GDSS can help the virtual companies do business in the global business environment GDSS can help promote a culturally diverse work environment Telework seems to make a lot of sense using GDSS

THANK YOU