Member Preferences for Discussion Content in Anticipated Group Decisions: Effects of Type of issue and Group Interactive Goal

Preferences for discussion content in three future group decision-making sessions were sought from individuals. Each session would deal with a different topic, and discussion would be limited to content items to be determined by compiling individual-member item rankings. Topics varied in the degree to which they were judgmental or intellective. An induced interactive goal stressed either group relations (group goal) or decision quality (task goal). For each topic, subjects ranked 12 potential discussion items, 6 reflecting normative and 6 informational material. Normative material was preferred if the anticipated topic was clearly judgmental, and informational material was preferred for an intellective topic, agreeing with prior research in which actual discussion followed the same type of issue-influence mode pattern. When given false feedback regarding the items (predominantly normative or informational) that had been chosen by compiling members' votes, subjects were most satisfied if selections were congruent with their interactive goal, that is, if they anticipated discussing normative items under a group goal and informational items under a task goal. In sum, preference for normative versus informational content in an anticipated discussion was driven by issue type, but satisfaction with expected content was driven by interactional goal. Though preferred influence mode in anticipated group decisions was affected by whether conditions fostered concern for group relations versus gathering facts, specific manifestations (ranking or satisfaction) varied with invoking conditions (issue type or goal).