This paper examines the facilitator, group member, and system roles as a complete socio-technical system. Each of these three components of the sociotechnical system is discussed in terms of the roles that they play within the context of the group meeting. This research draws from previous work on "group roles" to define how these "roles" interact to accomplish effective group per formance. The development of a concept called the "co-facilitator", being composed of both human and information technology components, is established as a perspective for future system development. Finally, the design of a study in progress is discussed, the intent of which is to explore the roles that each component of the socio-technical system play within the context of longitudinal work groups.
Mark A. Fuller, Jonathan Trower