Title: The effect of task structure and time structure on convergence activities using group support systems
Group support systems have been developed and are useful for generating many ideas in a short time span, however, the ability of groups to converge on the most worthy ideas has been generally neglected in the research literature. Thus, this empirical research assesses and validates the effects of task and time structure on the ability of computer mediated groups using a group support system (GSS) to perform an idea convergence task. Convergence was examined through literature review of past research and theory, with a focus on social and cognitive psychology, especially information processing theory. Using a 2*2 factorial study, a set of 5 person groups were asked to converge to a set of 20 ideas from a large set of 100 previously GSS generated ideas using the 1-10 point rating facility on a GSS, and taking the top 20 ideas as those for convergence. Task structure was manipulated by varying the number of questions in the convergence task (either a single question or 3 sub-questions), and time structure was manipulated by varying the number of breaks in the convergence process (no breaks or a break every five minutes until task completion). A kappa measure of convergence was developed to investigate convergence by comparing the group’s top 20 ideas with expert raters’ top 20 ideas. Subjective measures of satisfaction and mental load were also developed and used. Results indicate that task structure has an influence on convergence, and time structure influences satisfaction with convergence. More specifically, task structure influences the ability of a group of 5 raters to converge on a set of ideas. Time structure has more of an impact on the satisfaction with the convergence outcome…
Contents
1.0. INTRODUCTION
1.1. RESEARCH PROBLEM
1.2. RESEARCH QUESTION
1.3. LONG TERM SIGNIFICANCE
2.0. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. INTRODUCTION
2.2. GROUP PROCESSES
2.3. DIVERGENCE AND CONVERGENCE
2.3.2. CONVERGENCE TASKS USING GSS
2.3.3. COGNITIVE LOAD AND PERFORMANCE
2.4. GROUP SUPPORT SYSTEMS
2.4.1. PROCESS STRUCTURE
2.4.2. FACILITATION
2.4.3. USER INTERFACE
2.4.4. GROUP MEMORY
2.4.5. PREVIOUS RESEARCH FINDINGS FROM STUDIES INTO GSS EFFECTIVENESS
2.5. LITERATURE CRITIQUE
3.0. RESEARCH APPROACH AND HYPOTHESES
3.1. RESEARCH FRAMEWORK
3.2. RESEARCH MODEL
3.3. HYPOTHESES
4.0. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN AND PROCEDURE
4.1. PILOT TEST PREPARATION
4.2 PRODUCING THE IDEA POOL
4.3. GSS TECHNOLOGY
4.4. THE MAIN EMPIRICAL STUDY
4.4.1. OVERVIEW
4.4.2. SUBJECTS
4.4.3. CONVERGENCE TASK
4.4.5. TREATMENTS
4.4.7. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
4.5 EXPERIMENTAL MEASURES
4.5.1. MEASUREMENT OF CONVERGENCE
4.5.2. OBJECTIVE MEASURE OF CONVERGENCE
4.5.3. QUESTIONNAIRE DEVELOPMENT
5.0. RESULTS AND DATA ANALYSIS
5.1.1 INTERACTION EFFECTS
5.1.2 STATISTICAL TESTS PERFORMED
5.2 HYPOTHESES TESTING
5.3 MENTAL LOAD
5.4 CHI-SQUARED ANALYSIS
6.0. DISCUSSION
6.1 RESULTS FOR DISCUSSION
6.2 INTERACTION EFFECTS
6.2.1 INTERACTION EFFECTS OF QUESTION CRITERIA AND TIME STRUCTURE ON CONVERGENCE
6.2.2 INTERACTION EFFECTS OF QUESTION CRITERIA AND TIME STRUCTURE ON SATISFACTION WITH CONVERGENCE RESULT
6.2.3 THE MAIN EFFECT OF QUESTION CRITERIA CONVERGENCE
6.2.4 THE MAIN EFFECT OF TIME STRUCTURE ON CONVERGENCE
6.2.5 THE MAIN EFFECT OF QUESTION CRITERIA ON SATISFACTION WITH CONVERGENCE
6.2.7. THE CORRELATION BETWEEN COGNITIVE LOAD AND CONVERGENCE
6.3 LIMITATIONS
6.4 INTERNAL VALIDITY CONCERNS
6.4.1 POSSIBLE THREATS TO CONSTRUCT VALIDITY
6.4.2 RANDOM HETEROGENEITY OF PARTICIPANTS
6.4.3 THREATS TO EXTERNAL VALIDITY
6.5 IMPLICATION FOR PRACTICE
6.5.1 THE FACILITATION AND GENERAL USE OF GSS FOR CONVERGENCE
6.5.2 DEVELOPMENT OF GSS FOR THE PURPOSES OF CONVERGENCE
6.6 FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS
6.6.1 FURTHER EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES
6.6.2 THEORY DEVELOPMENT FOR STUDIES INTO CONVERGENCE IN GSS
6.6.3 MEASUREMENT OF CONVERGENCE
6.7 CHAPTER SUMMARY
7.0 CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
APPENDIX 1 CONVERGENCE EXPLANATION SHEETS
GROUP RATING/CONVERGENCE SESSION
GROUP RATING/CONVERGENCE SESSION
DEMOGRAPHICS
APPENDIX 4 (MULTI CRITERIA VERSION)
CONVERGENCE SESSION
SATISFACTION
PERCEIVED EFFECTIVENESS
CONVERGENCE SESSION
SATISFACTION
PERCEIVED EFFECTIVENESS
APPENDIX 5
Author: Coombes, John Michael
Source: City University of Hong Kong
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