| Although there have been numerous studies in how to best apply a group decision support system (GDSS) in meetings, studies pertaining to facilitation are sparse. This research addressed the facilitation dimension in GDSS meetings by measuring the impacts of three facilitation modes (expert human, novice human and automated) on group processes and meeting outcomes. The study utilized creativity tasks and participants' perceptions of process satisfaction, meeting effectiveness, group cohesiveness, and GDSS ease-of-use were measured using a self-reported measurement instrument that was tested. Meeting outcomes were assessed by the non-redundancy and quality of ideas produced. The results indicated that an automated facilitator was as good as an expert human facilitator, whereas a novice human facilitator was the least desirable in GDSS meetings. This paper began with an extensive literature review of group facilitation, followed by the theoretical foundations and hypotheses, and ended with an agenda for future research using artificially-intelligent automated facilitator. |
