Intervening with GSS to Facilitate Meetings - An Action Research Approach

In recent years, Group Support Systems (GSS) have seen increased use in the business environment. However, published research seldom indicates why it was decided that a GSS was suitable for meeting support. In this thesis we employ an instrument to collect participants' perceptions of meetings that are not supported with GSS technology. We then feed this information into an action research mechanism that enables us to identify meeting process characteristics that subsequent provision of a GSS will help to improve. Data is collected from several meetings (cases) on a longitudinal basis with meeting processes studied on a continuous basis. Recommendations can then be made for focused intervention with a GSS.