Information Exchange and Induced Cooperation in Group Decision Support Systems

Abstract

Groups are becoming increasingly important in organizations, and they use electronic groupware to facilitate communication and workflow. The author uses a 2 x 2 laboratory experiment with 96 participants to evaluate the interaction between communication channel and incentive structure when groups have to solve a mixed-motive task. The communication channel variable has two values: face-to-face (FTF) communication and computer-mediated communication (CMC). Also, the incentive structure has two values: group-based and individual-based values. This article compares the performance and information exchange truthfulness of groups under these different experimental conditions. The author utilizes a game theory perspective to study the behavior of members in these groups. The results indicate that communication channel and incentive structure mitigate strategies that lead to decision choices and information exchange truthfulness among members in a group.