A Question of Timing: Information Acquisition and Group Decision Making Performance

Abstract

Information acquisition and its use are frequently considered critical to the decision- making process, yet related research, especially about the timing of information acquisition, is limited. This study explores the impact of information acquisition on decision time and perceived decision quality for groups that used group support systems (GSS) to work on a fuzzy task. We found that more information was accessed from a Web-based system in the first part of the group decision-making process, when the decision environment was searched and possible courses of action were analyzed. We also found that the proportion of information accessed in the first part of the meeting was significantly related to the decision time. More specifically, when most information was accessed in the first part of the decision-making session, the relationship between decision time and amount of information accessed in the early part of the meeting was positive and linear. However, a curvilinear relationship was found between decision time and amount of information accessed in the latter part of the decision-making session. Unlike the findings of a previous study, this earlier access of information is not associated with improved perceived decision quality.