Group support systems: Theory, products and experiences

Managers spend about 25 to 50 percent of their work time in meetings and a substantial proportion of this meeting time is perceived as being wasted. This demand on managerial time, imposed by meetings, creates a need for developing and implementing new approaches to make meetings more effective and efficient. Structured meeting management techniques and group support systems (GSS) have been suggested as aids to promote meeting effectiveness and efficiency. This paper discusses interaction problems in meetings and the use of structured meeting management techniques to alleviate these problems. It outlines theoretical concepts on GSS and describes four GSS products. It summarizes GSS experiences to date and concludes with some observations on the future of GSS technology in organizations.