Supporting Virtual Teams with Distributed Group Support Systems: A Study of the Effect of a Group Leader

摘要

Though leadership is essentially the function of structuring group interaction, the effect of leadership on group outcome still remains as one of the least answered GSS research questions. In this study, the role of leadership is studied with virtual teams, or distributed groups with Distributed Group Support Systems, which is another least investigated GSS topic. This study observes that group leaders made significant differences in objective decision quality and satisfaction with decision process, while perceived decision quality and consensus were not significantly different between groups with and without a leader. The content analysis group leaders' comments shows that a group leader is effective when a group leader provides comments on making clear group objectives and providing interaction structure in early stage, and comments on encouraging interaction and on maintaining group cohesion.