Group, sub-group and nominal group idea generation in an electronic meeting environment

How should a group organize itself to generate ideas? Should all group members work together as one group, should they form several smaller sub-groups that work independently, or should members work separately as individuals? Previous research outside of electronic meeting environments presents a clear and unambiguous answer: members should work individually. Any benefits from group interaction (i.e. process gains) for idea generation are outweighed by the negative effects of group interaction (i.e. process losses). The authors re-examine this question in an electronic meeting environment through a re-analysis of two prior experiments. In contrast to findings from previous non-computer-mediated idea generation research, groups generated more ideas (with higher quality) than did the same number of participants working as individuals or in several smaller sub-groups.<>