Group Decision Support System (GDSS)
Group decision support system is defined as a computer-based interactive system that enables the deriving of solutions to unstructured and semi-structured problems by a team of decision-making individuals (Venkatraman, 2016, p.60). The main reason for the support system is to improve the quality of resulting solutions and speed up the process of decision making.
Major Capabilities and Characteristics of GDSS
Group decision support system has the following capabilities and characteristics;
- The support system has the ability to give support to a decision-making group using information technology-related tools and automation of sub-processes such as brainstorming.
- Second, it has a designed system of information that does not majorly include customization of the existing components of a computerized system. Such an advancement means it is designed to solve a certain problem or make different organizational decisions at a group level (Venkatraman, 2016,p.60). Most other developing systems are a result of the configuration of the existing systems. GDSS standards for a specific problem and contains a minimal configuration.
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- It inspires the creation of new ideas, freedom of expression, and conflict resolution. The system has an inbuilt mechanism tailored at discouraging the growth of group behaviors termed as negative such as groupthink, miscommunication, and destructive conflict.
The first phase in the generation of GDSS was to offer support on one on one meeting in the decision-making room. Nowadays, support is given over the internet to virtual teams. A decision-making group can decide either to meet at different or at the same time. It depends on the urgency of the matter. The system renders sound decisions, especially when the decision to be made is controversial, such as determining the people to lay off in an organization or allocation of resources.
GDSS is capable of improving the process of decision making in various ways.
It offers a structure in the process of planning the meeting, which ensures the group meeting is on track. However, some of the applications allow a team to use idea generation methods and unstructured techniques.GDSS offers easy and rapid access to stored and external information required in the process of decision making. Besides, the support system provides support for the parallel information processing and generation of ideas by the members as it allows discussions through the computer.
It allows large groups to have a meeting that could not be manageable at standard times when done without the system. The larger group is characterized by complete skills, information, and knowledge, which is represented in the group meeting. It enables anonymous voting and offers results instantly as all the information generated from the meeting can be stored and analyzed in the future.
Options for Deploying GDSS Technology
There are two ways of deploying GDSS technology, and they include; in a decision room designed for particular purpose and groupware, which is an internet-based with running client programs anywhere the group members are located.( Lam,1987,p.200).
Decision-Making Rooms
The earliest form of GDSS was fitted on a particular purpose, customized and expensive facilities, which are called the decision-making rooms, and they contained a wide public screen and personal computers in front of all decision making rooms. Initially, the only people allowed to use the expensive facilities were high-end executives and managers. The software installed on personal computers is connected to a local area network (LAN). The rooms were well furnished, and electronic rooms structured in different sizes and shapes to accommodate high-end managers and executives. 15 to 30 personal computers connected to a network were fitted and recessed in the form of a desktop to offer excellent viewing of the contents running on the machines by the participants.
Then a computer acting as a server was then connected to a projection system large in size. The primary function was to project the works of the individual’s workstation and collected the facilitator’s workstation information. There are also breakout rooms containing personal computers and connected to the server, which allows subgroups that are small to consult and seek clarification on any matter they have not understood. Most of the time, the breakout rooms were adjacent to the decision making rooms. All the output information from the subgroups was also projected on the large public screen.
Some of the companies offered such rooms to other groups who also wanted to decide on a matter and rented them daily at a fee. There are high-end rooms which are still operating now, and companies are renting the. The decision support system is essential while deciding on complex issues such as the workers to lay off in an organization and the allocation of resources. It can be offered through a decision room or internet-based software. It allows all the groups to be on track while in the decision making process and evade conflicts. The system allows audio and video conferencing as it allows a good number of people to participate actively in the meeting. Initially, it was hard to have such a number of people in the decision-making process because the rooms could not accommodate them.
References
Desanctis, G., & Gallupe, R. B. (1987). A foundation for the study of group decision support systems. Management science, 33(5), 589-609.
Khiat, S., & Djamila, H. (2019). A temporal distributed group decision support system based on multi-criteria analysis. Int. J. Interact. Multimedia Artif. Intell., 5(7), 7-21.
Lam, S. S. (1997). The effects of group decision support systems and task structures on group communication and decision quality. Journal of Management Information Systems, 13(4), 193-215.
Turban, E., Sharda, R., & Delen, D. (2010). Decision support and business intelligence systems (required). Google Scholar.
Venkatraman, S., Fahd, K., Kaspi, S., & Venkatraman, R. (2016). SQL versus NoSQL movement with big data analytics. International Journal of Information Technology and Computer Science, 8(12), 59-66.