An Exploration of the Impact of Speech Recognition Technologies on Group Efficiency and Effectiveness During an Electronic Idea Generation Scenario

Abstract

Dynamic, evolving, complex, complicated, fast. All of these words describe today’s business environment. In this atmosphere, making decisions is critical to the success of an organization. To give themselves the best chance for success, many organizations look to groups of people rather than individuals to make decisions. However, especially in the idea generation phase of the decision process, these groups introduce many negative variables such as social loafing, evaluation apprehension, and production blocking.

To that end, this research examined the use of Speech-recognition technology in an electronic idea generation scenario as a means of overcoming the negative impacts the group imposed on the idea generation process. Four treatments were considered: Speech-recognition/Group Brainstorming, Speech-recognition/Nominal Technique, Keyboard/Group Brainstorming, and Keyboard/Nominal Technique. Group performance was compared by measures of efficiency and effectiveness.

Results indicate that the speech-recognition technology does not yet offer the benefits expected. Keyboard treatments consistently outperformed Speech-Recognition treatments, while the Nominal Technique treatments consistently outperformed the Group Brainstorming treatments. Limitations and future directions are presented.