History and Future Development of Group Support Systems

Abstract

A group support system (GSS) is created with information technology (IT) and decision support techniques for assisting problem formulation and evaluation of alternative solutions in a group meeting (DeSanctis & Gallupe, 1987). The idea of GSS dated back to the 1970s; however, not until late 1980s did GSS take the form as we know it now. In 1987, two GSS systems were developed by researchers in different universities: Software Aided Meeting Management system at University of Minnesota, and GroupSystems at University of Arizona (Wagner, Wynne, & Mennecke, 1993). Since then, much research on GSS has been conducted and many organizations such as IBM, the Department of Defense, and the Internal Revenue Services, have used SAMM and GroupSystems in solving organizational problems.