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<article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
  <front>
    <journal-meta />
    <article-meta>
      <title-group>
        <article-title>Group Support Systems: Tools for HR Decision Making</article-title>
      </title-group>
      <contrib-group>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <string-name>James Yao</string-name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff0">0</xref>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">1</xref>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <string-name>Montclair State University</string-name>
          <email>wangj@mail.montclair.edu</email>
          <email>xingr@mail.montclair.edu</email>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff0">0</xref>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">1</xref>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <string-name>USA yaoj@mail.montclair.edu</string-name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff0">0</xref>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">1</xref>
        </contrib>
        <aff id="aff0">
          <label>0</label>
          <institution>John Wang, Montclair State University</institution>
          ,
          <country country="US">USA</country>
        </aff>
        <aff id="aff1">
          <label>1</label>
          <institution>Ruben Xing, Montclair State University</institution>
          ,
          <country country="US">USA</country>
        </aff>
      </contrib-group>
      <pub-date>
        <year>2010</year>
      </pub-date>
      <fpage>400</fpage>
      <lpage>409</lpage>
      <abstract>
        <p>Recently, many quantitative or qualitative techniques have been developed to support human resource management (HRM) activities, including Human Resource Information System (HRIS). More importantly, HRIS can include Expert System (ES), Decision Support System (DSS), and Executive Information System (EIS). As DSS and Group Support System (GSS) are able to facilitate human resources (HR) groups to gauge users' opinions, readiness, satisfaction, etc., increase their HRM activity quality, and generate better group collaborations and decision makings with current or planned HRIS services. Consequently, GSS can help HR professionals exploit and make smart use of soft data and act intelligently in their decision making process. This paper presents an in-depth discussion on what GSS is and how it works, which may shed some enlightenments to HR professionals on what grounds GSS can be integrated as part of HRIS and support HRM.</p>
      </abstract>
      <kwd-group>
        <kwd>Decision Support System (DSS)</kwd>
        <kwd>Group Support System (GSS)</kwd>
        <kwd>Group Decision Support System (GDSS)</kwd>
        <kwd>human resources (HR)</kwd>
        <kwd>human resource management (HRM)</kwd>
        <kwd>Human Resource Information System (HRIS)</kwd>
      </kwd-group>
    </article-meta>
  </front>
  <body>
    <sec id="sec-1">
      <title>Introduction</title>
      <p>Decision making is not necessarily a group phenomenon. However, with the growth of
team work, team decision making has become a common process in business and
organizations. Often these teams are dispersed geographically which makes group
decision making difficult and costly. The development of group support system solved
the problem and enhanced group decision making process because this technology
facilitates communications of information among remote team members. Group support
system was developed after the appearance of decision support system, another
important technology for decision making for organizations. In the late 1960s, a new
type of information system came about; model-oriented DSS or management decision
systems. By the late 1970s, a number of researchers and companies had developed
interactive information systems that used data and models to help managers analyze
semi-structured problems. These diverse systems were all called decision support
systems (DSS). From those early days, it was recognized that DSS could be designed to
support decision-makers at any level in an organization. DSS could support operations,
financial management and strategic decision-making.</p>
      <p>
        Group decision support systems (GDSS) which aims at increasing some of the benefits
of collaboration and reducing the inherent losses are interactive information
technologybased environments that support concerted and coordinated group efforts toward
completion of joint tasks [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref10">10</xref>
        ]. The term group support systems (GSS) was coined at the
start of the 1990’s to replace the term GDSS. The reason for this is that the role of
collaborative computing was expanded to more than just supporting decision making
[
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref23">23</xref>
        ]. For the avoidance of any ambiguities, the latter term shall be used in the
discussion throughout this paper.
      </p>
      <p>
        Human resources (HR) are rarely expected like other business functional areas to use
synthesized data because HR groups have been primarily connected with transactional
processing – getting data into the system and on record for reporting and historical
purposes [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref11">11</xref>
        ]. For them soft data doesn’t win at the table; hard data does. In most of the
business functional areas, data collected from transaction processing systems (TPS) may
not exhibit much sense to managers before they are processed. Whereas after being
processed with certain software, they can produce significant value to managerial
decision making to the extent that information gathered from the processed data can be
the determinant of the final decision. Data collected for HR through TPS on the other
hand seldom requires further processing or synthesis. However, the HR decision making
process may require human determinants, computers, information systems, and
communication technology in addition to the soft data, especially in collaborative
decision making where anonymity may play a key role. Data generated and/or collected
from these sources for the decision making are more facilitating and decisive, thus
making them the more vigorous, powerful and hard-earned data in HR decision making
process.
      </p>
      <p>
        Recently, many quantitative or qualitative techniques have been developed to support
human resource management (HRM) activities, classified as management
sciences/operations research, multiattribute utility theory, multi-criteria decision
making, ad hoc approaches, and human resource information systems (HRIS) [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref7">7</xref>
        ]. More
importantly, HRIS can include the three systems of expert systems (ES), decision
support systems, and executive information systems (EIS) in addition to transaction
processing systems and management information systems (MIS) which are
conventionally accepted as an HRIS. As decision support systems, GSS is able to
facilitate HR groups to gauge users’ opinions, readiness, satisfaction, etc., increase their
HRM activity quality, and generate better group collaborations and decision makings
with current or planned HRIS services. Consequently, GSS can help HR professionals
exploit and make smart use of soft data and act more intelligently in their decision
making process.
      </p>
      <p>The paper will first discuss what GSS is and the strengths and weaknesses of GSS.
Understanding of GSS, its pros and cons in particular, can assist HR professionals to
appreciate its functions and values in the decision-making process of HRM. Then recent
research findings in GSS will be discussed with a hope of stirring up an inspiration in
the e-HRM research on the application of GSS in HRM. Finally, future trends of GSS
will be briefed to promote the incorporation of the improvements in communication
technology for better collaboration in HRM.
2</p>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-2">
      <title>Group Support Systems</title>
      <p>
        In the early 1980s, academic researchers developed a new category of software to
support group decision-making. Execucom Systems developed Mindsight, the
University of Arizona developed GroupSystems, and researchers at the University of
Minnesota developed the SAMM system [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref24">24</xref>
        ]. These are all examples of early Group
Support Systems. “A Group Support System could be any combination of hardware and
software that enhances group work. GSS is a generic term that includes all forms of
collaborative computing” [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref27">27</xref>
        ]. The increased need for GSS arises from the fact that
decision-making is often a group phenomenon, and therefore computer support for
communication and the integration of multiple inputs in DSS is required. The desire to
use GSS therefore comes from the need of technological support for groups.
GSS are designed to remedy the dysfunctional properties of decision-making groups,
such as groupthink, lack of coordination, information overload, concentration block,
etc. These systems are becoming popular in aiding decision-making in many
organizational settings by combining the computer, communication, and decision
technologies to improve the decision-making process. These systems use a key tool to
improve the quality of decisions made by a group. This key tool is the anonymity of
members of a decision-making group. The purpose of GSS is to maximize the benefits
of group work, while minimizing the dysfunctions of group work. This maximization
and minimization can be made possible by GSS mainly by two factors: anonymity,
which is enabled by removing the identifications of those who are contributing ideas
and parallelism, which refers to ideas from contributors can flow to the facilitator
simultaneously via electronic media without additional interference. In this way,
genuine idea generation and communication are maximized and interfering factors are
minimized within the group, especially a hierarchical group.
2.1
      </p>
      <sec id="sec-2-1">
        <title>Strengths and Weaknesses of GSS</title>
        <p>
          GSS provides support for communication, deliberation, and information flow especially
for group activities that may be distributed geographically and temporarily. Group work
has numerous benefits and advantages. First, groups are better at understanding
problems and catching errors than individuals [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref15">15</xref>
          ], [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref16">16</xref>
          ]. Second, a group has more
information than any one member which when combined can create new knowledge.
Third, working in a group stimulates creativity and synergy. Finally, groups balance out
the risk-tolerant and risk-averse. GSS offer many benefits. First, GSS support parallel
information processing, parallel computer discussion, and generation of ideas. Second,
they promote anonymity, which allows shy people or those who do not want to disclose
their identities to contribute and helps prevent aggressive individuals from driving the
meeting. Finally, these systems help keep the group on track and show the bigger
picture. The two keywords here are parallelism and anonymity [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref27">27</xref>
          ].
        </p>
        <p>
          Some of the potential dysfunctions of group work are not automatically eliminated by
GSS: first, groupthink, as suggested above, where people begin to think alike and not
tolerate new ideas; second, lack of coordination, excess time consumption, poor quality
solutions, and nonproductive time; third, duplication of efforts and high cost of
meetings, including travel; finally, information overload, concentration blocking
(disturbance from inappropriate influences, free-riding discussions), and group
misrepresentation (improper or badly chosen groups) can be added as the potential
dysfunctions of group work. Process dysfunctions are caused by structural
characteristics of the group setting that could hinder a group from reaching its full
potential. Process dysfunctions hinder productivity because of unequal participation or
unequal air time. This happens in a setting where only one person can take control of
the floor. This sort of dysfunction can be countered by the use of computerized
exchanges because people may enter their comments and thoughts simultaneously.
Power [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref24">24</xref>
          ] utters that simultaneous expression of ideas may be beneficial to the
quantity of ideas generated. This is because computers have the capacity for
concurrency. Finally, process dysfunctions are usually caused by limitations in the
structure and forms of meetings.
        </p>
        <p>
          Social dysfunctions, as Power [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref24">24</xref>
          ] describes, can hinder group productivity through
undesirable social processes that occur in the group. Social processes refer to those
activities, actions, and operations that involve the interaction between people [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref8">8</xref>
          ], [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref20">20</xref>
          ].
For example, a group may limit the quality and quantity of input from any of its
members by social processes such as evaluation apprehension, conformity pressures,
free riding, social loafing, cognitive inertia, socializing, and domination due to status
imbalance, groupthink, and incomplete analysis. These problems arise from processes
present in all groups and are rooted in the ways in which group members change their
behavior to adapt to the group. Finally, the prevalent analysis of group decision-making
is that social influences within the group lead the rational individual astray.
The view of GSS portrayed by Power [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref24">24</xref>
          ] is that they are text-based tools made with
purpose of remedying some problems of decision-making in co-present groups. These
systems claim to remove the social obstacles that prevent individuals from attaining
their full potential in the group. Anonymity is central to achieving this full potential of
individuals in a group. Shy people tend not to speak in a group discussion face-to-face.
This hinders them from contributing to the group. GSS solve this problem by allowing
these individuals to evade their shyness in the public and input their contributions
through individual human computer interaction devices, thus achieving the goal of
removing this social obstacle from these individuals and facilitating them to reach their
full potential in the group. Meanwhile, the systems help prevent aggressive individuals
in the group from driving the meeting, which is typically a potential intimidating source
to the shy people in a group.
2.2
        </p>
      </sec>
      <sec id="sec-2-2">
        <title>Recent GSS Research Findings</title>
        <p>
          Decision-making in an organization today has become more the work of some form of
group. Whether this group is a board, team, or a unit, important issues can be at stake. It
is fair to ask, given the possible problems that occur in a group setting: Would the group
setting have a negative effect on the quality of decisions that have to be made by the
group? Current research in this area suggests that GSS, if implemented and used
correctly, can improve the quality of group decision making significantly by minimizing
the negative effects of group decision-making and by maximizing the benefits of group
collaboration and decision-making. GSS have come a long way since their inception.
Current and previous research efforts have made significant findings on the effects of
the numerous criteria that affect the decision making process in a group setting while
using GSS. The results show that while the Internet has made it easier and less costly to
use GSS than ever before, the social effects of group decision making can have a
significant effect on the quality of decisions made in a group setting using GSS. By
manipulating things such as visual cues, group versus individual-based incentives,
anonymity, group size, feedback, leadership role, communication mode, type of tool
used, social presence (degree of personal connection in communication settings) [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref13">13</xref>
          ],
[
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref18">18</xref>
          ], [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref21">21</xref>
          ], face-to-face versus distant, shift work or non-shift work, the fit between
facilitation style and agenda structure, and finally, a relationship versus a task focus, it
is possible to significantly impact the quality of decisions made by a group using GSS.
According to Barkhi, Jacob, and Pirkul [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref3">3</xref>
          ], GSS are divided into two groups;
Distributed GDSS(DGDSS) and face-to-face GDSS(FGDSS). DGDSS groups consist of
members who use a GSS at the same time but at different places. On the other hand,
FGDSS groups consist of members who use a GSS at the same time and same place.
The authors studied and compared the decision process and outcomes of groups that use
FGDSS to those that use DGDSS. The results indicate communication mode and
incentive structure can influence the effects of each other. Therefore, the appropriate
design of incentive structures may be important to the success of virtual organizations.
The Web-based Multi-Criteria Group Support System (MCGSS), according to Lu et al.,
[
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref17">17</xref>
          ], Zahir and Dobing [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref28">28</xref>
          ], is designed so that users can enter their preferences in an
easily understood and user-friendly interface through a web browser. They state that
easy-to-learn and user-friendly interfaces are essential if GSS are to become more
commonly used in organizational decision-making and that MCGSS uses a new visual
mode of preference entry. The relative importance of any two objects is expressed
through a pair of side-by-side bars drawn in a graphical window. The ratio of the
heights of two bars represents the user's relative preference for the two objects. Bar
heights can be adjusted dynamically by dragging the mouse or utilizing some other
device. Their article presents the design of a web-based MCGSS that can be used by a
group of geographically dispersed decision-makers. This system takes advantage of
Internet technology and enables a novel procedure to aggregate intensities of
preferences.
        </p>
        <p>
          In line with Kim [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref14">14</xref>
          ], the role of leadership facilitates group processes by adding
structure to group interaction. The effects of leadership on group performance in GSS
settings still remains one of the least studied areas of GSS research. An analysis of
comments by group leaders show that they are more efficient when making comments
on group objectives and interaction structure, but this is only true in the early stages of
group interaction. In the later stages, it is of increasing importance that group leaders
make comments that encourage interaction and maintain cohesion between members of
the group. Dennis and Wixom [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref9">9</xref>
          ] presented a meta-analysis investigating five
moderators. These moderators are as follows; tool, the type of group, task, the size of
the group, and facilitation. The authors studied their effects on GSS. Results of the
study draw multiple conclusions. First, process satisfaction is less for decision-making
tasks than it is for the idea-generation tasks. Second, the GSS tool itself influences
decision quality. Finally, the authors conclude that group size is an important moderator
when it comes to measuring satisfaction with the process and decision time.
Rutkowski, Fairchild, &amp; Rijsman [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref26">26</xref>
          ] demonstrated experimentally that in the context
of dyadic conflict, patterns of interpersonal communication, supported by a particular
Group Support System technology, affect the quality of decision making. The authors
found that GSS are efficient tools that support inter-group communication and relations.
The authors also delved further into this topic and discussed the implications of their
research on the study of intercultural negotiation and conflict resolution. They observed
that groups are becoming increasingly important in organizations and that intercultural
negotiation and conflict resolution use electronic groupware to facilitate communication
and workflow. Barkhi [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref2">2</xref>
          ] compared the performance and information exchange
truthfulness of groups under these various experimental conditions. The author utilizes a
game theory perspective to study the behavior of members in these groups. The results
indicate that communication channel and incentive structure mitigate strategies that lead
to decision choices and information exchange truthfulness among members in a group.
GSS can improve communication and learning as demonstrated by Bandy and Young
[
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref1">1</xref>
          ]. Their study examined the impact of two collaborative technologies and a priming
agent upon communication complexity and learning style in a group decision-making
context. Their findings revealed that communication complexity was significantly
greater in groups using a GSS compared to groups using a simple chat system,
suggesting that characteristics of the GSS served to structure discourse among group
members. Burke [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref6">6</xref>
          ] examined how GSS learning environments (face-to-face vs.
distant) and task difficulty level (simple vs. difficult) influenced participation levels and
social presence among accounting students working collaboratively on an accounting
task.
        </p>
        <p>
          Hostager, Lester, Ready, &amp; Bergmann [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref12">12</xref>
          ] examined the effects of agenda structure and
facilitator style on participant satisfaction and output quality in meetings employing
GSS. This study indicates that GSS facilitators should try to find a fit between their
facilitation style and the agenda structure, while not forgetting to adopt either a
relationship or a task focus and ensuring that they are consistent with their choice. GSS
are designed as an analysis tool to support the decision processes of a group. Inherent in
the design is the developer's desire to make the basic meeting process better either by
increasing process gains or reducing process losses. Further, it is suggested by Martz
and Sheperd [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref19">19</xref>
          ] that one way that GSS attack these losses is by providing immediate
feedback.
2.3
        </p>
      </sec>
      <sec id="sec-2-3">
        <title>GSS in the Real World</title>
        <p>There are three options for setting up GSS technologies. One of them is in a
specialpurpose decision room, another is at a multiple-use facility, and the third is a web-based
groupware with clients running wherever the group members are.
2.3.1</p>
      </sec>
      <sec id="sec-2-4">
        <title>Facilitating Meetings</title>
        <p>
          One example of the use of GSS is the system developed by a group of researchers of the
University of Arizona to facilitate the organization of meetings. A typical meeting room
consisted of a microcomputer for each participant, as well as a large projector for the
display of either individuals’ work or the combined results of the group efforts. A
typical meeting is composed of a three-tier process consisting of electronic
brainstorming, idea generation, as well as voting. Under the electronic brainstorming
phase, all group members typed at separate terminals using electronic brainstorming
software, and recorded their ideas regarding questions posed for the day. Even though
these sessions were anonymous, everyone could see the abundance of ideas.
Additionally, an issue analyzer assisted the group in identifying and consolidating key
ideas generated from the idea generation. Lastly, a voting tool provided various
methods for prioritizing key terms. Here, even though voting is anonymous, the results
are readily displayed for all to view. This GSS by Nunamaker et al [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref22">22</xref>
          ] was used at an
IBM site. It was found that process structure helps focus the group on key issues and
discourages irrelevant digressions and unproductive behaviors.
2.3.2
        </p>
      </sec>
      <sec id="sec-2-5">
        <title>Web-Based GSS</title>
        <p>
          A web-based decision support system (DSS) is a DSS built with web technologies so
that the DSS users access with web browsers through an internet connection. In
addition, web-based DSS applications that are developed by companies may be
deployed on company intranets to support internal business processes or can be
integrated into public corporate websites to enhance services to trading partners [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref25">25</xref>
          ].
Most web-based DSS are currently individual DSS systems [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref4">4</xref>
          ]. On the contrary,
webbased GSS(GSS) provide a broader approach to solving complex problems that are less
structured. As noted earlier, there are a few web-based GSS and one of them,
GroupSystems, is a local area network-based client-server that exists for online
collaboration. Several commercially available web-based GSS products also contain
decision-making tools. These products provide support to the group decision-making
process with tools that facilitate brainstorming, idea generation, organization, prioritization,
and consensus development.
2.3.3
        </p>
      </sec>
      <sec id="sec-2-6">
        <title>Distance Learning</title>
        <p>Several courseware packages that have GSS functions facilitate distance learning. They
range from such tools like Blackboard, through Microsoft NetMeeting, to PlaceWare
Virtual Classroom. Distance learning, as a tool, can be an effective part of GSS. Many
corporations have taken advantage of it mostly through web-based streaming and other
private company intranets. Distance learning, therefore, can act as a strong collaborative
and knowledge management tool in GSS, with a distinctive feature, namely, being
accessible every hour of the day.
2.3.4</p>
      </sec>
      <sec id="sec-2-7">
        <title>GSS for Political Events</title>
        <p>
          The multi-faceted use of GSS is reflected in the dynamism inherent in organizational
structures. For instance, political risk associated with corporations’ decisions to expand
internationally could be alleviated using GSS. This is because the key to analyzing
political events is obtaining good information about these events. GSS thus provides
higher reliability in accessing this needed information, through anonymity, simultaneity
(may apply only to certain types of GSS), and documentation, features that are lacking
in face-face interactions. Among other advantages, anonymity offers participants a
greater degree of freedom in expressing their thoughts, and presents them with a greater
sense of confidence to be more critical. Blanning &amp; Reining [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref5">5</xref>
          ] suggest a
twocharacteristic framework depending on whether analysis of the event under
consideration is static or dynamic, as well as whether the analysis is one-dimensional or
multi-dimensional.
3
        </p>
      </sec>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-3">
      <title>Future trends of GSS</title>
      <p>GDSS is transforming into GSS and the same ideology used for enhancing group
meetings is being used in other areas as well. The idea is not just to increase the
effectiveness of decision-making, but to incorporate the current improvements in
communication technology to redefine collaboration. Anonymity is also becoming more
and more widespread in this new Internet culture; its effects on collaboration are very
interesting as discussed, e.g., allowing shy people to contribute and helping prevent
aggressive individuals from driving the meeting. The findings presented in this paper
uncover the social effects that might affect group work. These findings can also be
applied to other fields in which collaboration is experiencing growth as in education and
social networking. By combing the Internet, emerging technologies, and the findings in
social behavior as they relate to group work, with the exploding growth currently being
experienced in communication, the results and the rate of introduction of new ways of
collaborating will be absolutely amazing.
4</p>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-4">
      <title>Conclusions</title>
      <p>GSS, if implemented and used correctly, can improve the quality of group decision
making significantly by minimizing the negative effects of group decision-making and
by maximizing the benefits of group collaboration and decision-making. GSS have
come a long way since their inception. Current and previous research efforts have made
significant findings on the effects of the numerous criteria that affect the decision
making process in a group setting while using GSS. The results show that while the
Internet has made it easier and less costly to use GSS than ever before, the social effects
of group decision making can have a significant effect on the quality of decisions made
in a group setting using GSS. Based on the unique functionalities and by manipulating
things such as visual cues, group versus individual-based incentives, anonymity, group
size, feedback, leadership role, communication mode, type of tools used, social
presence, face-to-face versus distant, shift work or non-shift work, the fit between
facilitation style and agenda structure, and finally, a relationship versus a task focus, it
is more than likely possible to significantly improve the quality of decisions made by a
HR group using GSS.</p>
    </sec>
  </body>
  <back>
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