Abstract
Group Support Systems (GSS) are software systems that support group work, providing facilities for idea generation, idea organization, rating and ranking, communication, and recording of ideas. Because preference tasks occur frequently in organizational work, the rating and ranking facility is one of the most popular features of GSS. Nevertheless, this area has not received the attention it deserves in GSS research. Ratings in group decision-making contexts require techniques for synthesizing individual scores into group scores. Because the application of these techniques is only meaningful when there exists a relatively high level of consensus that is obtained through human interaction, there is the need for techniques to assess the level of group consensus, and also for supporting consensus build-ing. In this paper, an integrated method for rating and ranking, consensus assessment and consensus building is presented. This approach permits ambiguity in the ratings and yet provides appropriate interval and point numeric estimates; it offers interpretable similarity measures and consensus indicators.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
G. Appa and C. Smith, On L-1 and Chebyshev estimation, Mathematical Programming 5(1973) 73–87.
A. Basilevsky, Applied Matrix Algebra in the Statistical Sciences, Elsevier, 1983.
N. Bryson, O. Ngwenyama and A. Mobolurin, A qualitative discriminant approach to scoring and ranking in Group Decision Support systems, Information Processing and Management 30(1994) 389–405.
D. Clapper, E. McLean and R. Watson, An experimental investigation of the effect of a Group Support System on normative influence in small groups, in: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Information Systems, J. DeGross, I. Benbasat, G. DeSanctis and C. Beath, eds., 1991, pp. 273–282.
G. Colson and B. Mareschal, JUDGES: A descriptive Group Decision Support System for the ranking of items, Decision Support Systems 12(1994)391–404.
W. Cook and M. Kress, Ordinal ranking with intensity of preference, Management Science 31(1985) 26–32.
W. Cook and L. Seiford, Priority ranking and consensus formation, Management Science 24(1978) 1721–1732.
M. Deutsch and H. Gerard, A study of normative and informational social influences upon individual judgement, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 51(1955)629–636.
J. Dyer and R. Sarin, Group preference aggregation rules based on strength of preference, Management Science 25(1979)589–609.
M. Fedrizzi and J. Kacprzyk, On measuring consensus in the setting of fuzzy preference relations, in: Non-Conventional Preference Relations in Decision Making, J. Kacprzyk and M. Roubens, eds., Springer, Berlin, 1988, pp. 129–141.
P. Friedman, Upstream facilitation: A proactive approach to managing problem-solving groups, Management Communication Quarterly 3(1989)33–50.
S. Goddard, Ranking in tournaments and group decision making, Management Sciences 29(1983) 1384–1392.
R. Hamm, Selection of verbal probabilities: A solution for some problems of verbal probability expression, Organization Behavior and Human Decision Processes 48(1991)193–223.
W. Huang, K. Raman and K. Wei, A process study of effects of GSS and task type on informational and normative influence in small groups, Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information Systems, 1993, pp. 91–101.
C.W. Kirkwood and R.K. Sarin, Ranking with partial information: A method and an application, Operations Research 33(1985)38–48.
S. Narula, The minimum sum of absolute errors regression, Journal of Quality Technology 19(1987) 37–45.
J. Nunamaker, D. Vogel, A. Heminger, B. Martz, R. Grohowski and C. McGroff, Experiences at IBM with group support group systems: A field study, Decision Support Systems 5(1989)183–196.
J. Nunamaker, A. Dennis, J. Valacih, D. Vogel and A. George, Electronic meeting systems to support group work, Communications ACM 34(1991)40–61.
H. Nurmi, M. Fedrizzi and J. Kacprzyk, Vague notions in the theory of voting, in: Multiperson Decision Making Using Fuzzy Sets and Possibility Theory, J. Kacprzyk and M. Fedrizzi, eds., Kluwer Academic, 1990, pp. 43–52.
B. Spillman, R. Spillman and J. Bezdek, A fuzzy analysis of consensus in small groups, in: Fuzzy Sets: Theory and Application to Policy Analysis and Information Systems, P. Wan and S. Chang, eds., Plenum, New York, 1980, pp. 291–308.
B. Tan, H.-H. Teo and K.-K. Wei, Promoting consensus in small decision making groups, Information and Management 28(1995)251–259.
B. Tan, K. Wei and R. Watson, Dampening status influence using a group support system: An empirical stucy, Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information Systems, 1993, pp. 77–89.
D. Timmermanns, The roles of experience and domain of expertise in using numerical and verbal probability terms in medical decisions, Medical Decision Making 14(1994)146–156.
R. Watson, M. Alexander, C. Pollard and R. Bostrom, The use and adoption of OptionFinder: A keypad based Group Decison Support System, Report to the 3M Management Institute, February 1991.
M. Weber, Decision making with incomplete information, European Journal of Operational Research 28(1987)44–57.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bryson, N. Supporting consensus formation in Group Support Systems using the Qualitative Discriminant Process. Annals of Operations Research 71, 75–91 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018983818299
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018983818299