The impact of authority structure, incentive structure, and communication mode on group decision support system use

摘要

In today's virtual organizations, the type of communication mode that individuals use to interact with others may influence their decision outcomes and the information they exchange with others. The information that the individuals exchange is often influenced by their incentive structures, the type of communication mode, and the nature of the authority structure in their group. This paper reports the results of a set of experiments in which the groups work on a mixed-motive negotiation task under different types of incentive structures, authority structures, and communication modes. The experimental study consists of a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design. The results suggest that proper design of incentive structures and embedding these incentives into Group Decision Support System (GDSS) features is critical to the successful utilization of GDSS for virtual groups engaged in a mixed-motive negotiation task.