Abstract: Research shows that group
support systems (GSS) have dramatically increased group productivity.
However, researchers in the field discovered that users sometimes
find themselves feeling emotionally unfulfilled despite exceptionally
good results; users report a loss of the affective reward often
associated with a challenging meeting where they struggle and
succeed. This lack of engagement has been shown to be a cause
of user resistance to adopting GSS technology. Team effectiveness
may be reduced over time as users seek less-effective but more
gratifying alternatives. This paper frames affective reward as
a function of excitation transfer. It describes the development
and validation of an instrument to measure affective reward, and
presents the results of the first laboratory investigation of
the construct. Key words and phrases:
affective award
, electronic brainstorming
, group support systems
, instrument validation
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