Danial L. Clapper

On‐line focus groups: conceptual issues and a research tool

Explores the potential effects of computer technology on the traditional structure and functioning of focus groups. On‐line focus groups are purported to be cost‐effective, enable the inclusion of dispersed participants, and result in broad and honest responses on the part of participants as a result of system anonymity. However, many of these claims have not been carefully examined. It is essential that the unique qualities of on‐line environments form the theoretical grounding for on‐line research efforts. Drawing on insights from research in the computer‐mediated communication field, we propose some conditions in which on‐line focus groups may broaden current applications and provide a useful complement to traditional face‐to‐face approaches. Considering these insights, we developed an Internet tool, called Internet Focus Group or IntFG ‐ to enable future empirical exploration of on‐line focus groups. The main motivation for the development of the IntFG tool is that it is a necessary element of a systematic research program in this area.

Element finding: the impact of a group support system on a crucial phase of sense making

Many of the problem situations facing organizations today are complex and ill-structured, lacking a definitive structure and formulation. The attempt to clearly understand and make sense of these situations is a difficult, but crucial, early requirement for effective problem solving. Problem-solving theory suggests that element finding--identifying the elements or variables that are relevant to a problem situation--is one of the earliest essential divergent activities of sense making. This paper details a theoretical framework synthesizing the work of a number of problem-solving research streams to highlight how brainstorming, although with distinct objectives, can be used as a divergent tool during very different phases of the problem-solving process. Using this framework, we empirically explored the impact of electronic brainstorming--a feature of group support systems--on element finding as groups attempted to identify the elements of an ill-structured situation facing them.

Mediating Group Influence With a Group Support System: An Experimental Investigation

This is an investigation of the use of group support systems (GSS) to mediate group influence. GSS researchers have explored the impact of a GSSs ability to facilitate creativity in idea-generating tasks such as brainstorming; this study can be viewed as an extension of this research stream from idea generation to the choice phase of group decision making. In an experimental setting, 48 participants were each combined with groups of 3 confederates. In each group the confederates attempted to influence the participant to move from his or her initial position to the majority position. The communication configuration used by each group was either no GSS, a GSS in a face-to-face setting, or a GSS in a distributed setting. In addition, each group used 1 of 2 different tasks to determine the impact of task type on group influence. The results indicate that the GSS significantly lessened the ability of the group majority to influence an individual member for both of the task types which the groups performed.

An interdisciplinary approach for exploring the impact of individual characteristics in the context of GSS research

While GSS models view individual member characteristics as explanatory variables, little research has been done to examine the impact of these variables on the group process. One explanation for this dearth of research is simply that the number of possible dimensions of individual characteristics which could be explored is extremely large. The work of mental model researchers provides an excellent starting point for more closely examining the unique knowledge, understandings and perspectives that individuals bring to the group process. In this paper, we detail and illustrate an interdisciplinary approach which addresses two significant barriers confronting GSS researchers interested in exploring this area: the extremely time consuming methodologies required to elicit and represent mental models, and the lack of a means to form groups based on the similarity of the mental models of the group members. The approach integrates theories and techniques for three different disciplines - Cognitive and Social Science, Production and Operations Management, and Operations Research.