Features of Group Decision Support System (GDSS)

 Ease of Use: It consists of an interactive interface that makes working with GDSS simple and
easy.
 Better Decision Making: It provides the conference room setting and various software tools that
facilitate users at different locations to make decisions as a group resulting in better decisions.
 Emphasis on Semi-structured and Unstructured Decisions: It provides important information
that assists middle and higher level management in making semi-structured and unstructured
decisions.
 Specific and General Support: The facilitator controls the different phases of the group decision
support system meeting (idea generation, discussion, voting and vote counting etc.) what is
displayed on the central screen and the type of ranking and voting that takes place, etc. In
addition, the facilitator also provides general support to the group and helps them to use the
system.
 Supports all Phases of the Decision Making: It can support all the four phases of decision
making, viz intelligence, design, choice and implementation.
 Supports Positive Group Behavior: In a group meeting, as participants can share their ideas
more openly without the fear of being criticized, they display more positive group behavior
towards the subject matter of the meeting.

Characteristics of a GDSS

A GDSS has a number of unique characteristics to support a group of participants in their decision-
making process:

 Special design to support creative thinking, effective communications and decision-making

techniques
 Easy to use so participants from different backgrounds can all participate effectively
 Flexible so it can incorporate the different perspectives and decision-making styles of the
different participants
 Automated record keeping for future review and analysis
 Parallel communication to allow multiple participants to contribute simultaneously
 • Special Design
 • Ease of use
 • Specific and general support
 • Suppressing negative group behavior
 • Supporting positive group behavior
 • Organizational commitment/support
 • Trained facilitators or may be user driven
 • User training
 • Anonymity
 • Appropriate tasks


How GDSS can enhance group decision making :

GDSS help to enhance group decision making by following ways:

1. Improved preplanning : Improved preplanning forces an agenda to keep the
meeting on track.
2. Increased participation :More number of persons, result more effective contribution
 towards decisions.
3. Open, collaborative meetings atmosphere : GDSS help to provide open, and
collaborative meeting atmosphere which provide non judgmental input by all
attendees.
4. Criticism free idea generation : GDSS provide criticism free idea generation with
more inputs and better ideas.
5. Documentation of meeting : GDSS help for effective documentation of meetings
which are used for further discussion and use.
6. Setting priorities and making decisions : GDSS help to set the priorities and give
importance to those problems which are more critical.

ESS Benefits

Facilitates the attainment of organizational objectives.

2. Facilitates access to information by integrating many sources of data and provides broad, highly
aggregated information. This, in turn, promotes broad, aggregated “perspective” and “context.”
3. Improves the users’ “productivity” by enabling more effective decision-making.
4. Allows the anticipation of problems/opportunities and facilitates pro-active rather than a reactive
response.
5. Increases communication capability and quality.
6. Facilitates better strategic planning and control.
7. Facilitates finding the cause of a problem in a “root-cause analysis” mode rather than “fix-it”
mode.
8. Meets the needs of the executives in time-effective and time-efficient Manner.
9. According to Rockart and Treacy, executive information system also helps in providing answers
to questions like:
a. What business should the organization be in?
b. What are the competitors doing?
c. What new acquisitions/activities would protect the organization from business cycles/business
swings?
d. Which units should the organization divest/spin-off to raise cash for further
expansion/diversification/ acquisition?
10. The executive information system provides the competitive advantage.
11. The most important benefit, of course, is that executive information system encourages the
development of a more open and active information culture.

GDSS vs DSS
Making decisions is a very important aspect of life, especially in business where it can mean profits or
losses. Of course, decision making is best left to the analytical minds of people but it doesn’t hurt if you
have the right tools to aid you in the effort. This is where GDSS (Group Decision Support System) and
DSS (Decision Support System) come in. The main difference between the two is the number of people
involved in the decision making process. The DSS is just a tool that gives an individual better guidance
on how to weigh certain factors and to make the best possible decision. In contrast, GDSS helps a group
of people to come up with ideas and decide the best course of action.

Because the two function very differently, they also rely on different methodologies. DSS relies on a
knowledge base and a set of mathematical formulas to evaluate a certain set of inputs and provide an
informative guideline on how the user should decide. Of course, a person’s analytical skill is still needed
to analyze and give a proper decision. In comparison, GDSS does not rely on a knowledge base or on
mathematical models. It relies purely on ideas created by the group and gives them venues to discuss,
improve, and vote on it. GDSS gives the group a means of collaborating to reach a decision.
Although both DSS and GDSS are both software, only GDSS requires a working link between the
multiple user’s computers. It doesn’t matter if your group members are mere inches away from each other
or miles apart as you can use LANs and even the Internet to communicate with each other.

Advantages of MIS:
By using management information system, managers can have an overall brief look at the company. They
can use these statistics to compete in the market. Company owners can make actions in quick time. Also,
they can make better communication within the company. So the company can now better manage
different departments, and coordination within company becomes better.

Quality of products also becomes good because all the past experiences and customers responses are
noted. The decisions in the company are made in a timely manner.

The information delivered to managers are well-structured and they can improve company performance.
As information is stored in digital form so this type of information is always available in a timely manner.
Creation of jobs in the company is better handled in MIS.

Disadvantages of MIS:
Management information system is expensive to set up and maintain. Managers and company owners
have to learn skills to use MIS. As with passage of time, new tools are introduced so updating with latest
trends is also required. Up gradation of the system is also another problem in MIS and it involves extra
fees and staff.

As MIS in online connected so hacking is also done by 3rd party people. In some cases, some sensitive
data is stolen like credit card details of customers.
If the type of data gathered by the company is not beneficial then the result of information is useless and
wastage of time and resources.

MIS works on quantitative data and not quality data that is another drawback of this system. Effectiveness
is also a problem in this system which means top management team can be fired at any time and the new
team can change company policy that effects overall company decisions and employees interactions.

Examples of MIS:
Any large company using tools to manage customer data, outcome information and make a decision on
that data. Like car manufacturing company, supermarket, Brokerage Company etc.