A framework for communication support in group work with special reference to negotiation systems

Communication is central to all group interactions, including negotiations. Group interfaces can limit or enhance communication flows among participants. Hence, group interface design requires the identification of the communication flows among participants, which in turn requires an identification of the various dimensions of intragroup communication. This article outlines a framework to guide researchers in examining the communication needs of group members in computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW), highlighting its application to the context of negotiation. An analysis of communication flows is provided along four dimensions:concurrency, message, channel andparticipant characteristics. The framework is intended to encourage a detailed focus on key aspects of the group interface, to provide a scheme for categorizing the contributions of empirical work, and to identify factors worthy of empirical scrutiny.An earlier version of this article, A Communication-Based Framework for Group Interfaces in Computer-Supported Collaboration by F. Lim and I. Benbasat, appeared in theProceedings of the 24th Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences, pp. 610–620.