An experimental design was used to study supervisory-subordinate group decision
making of eight groups under three conditions: supervisor physically present; super
visor present via audio teleconferencing; supervisor present via audio /graphics telecon
ferencing. Two group decisions were made under each condition. Decision quality,
communication style and participant satisfaction were measured for each condition. In
addition, qualitative assessments were conducted at the end of the study. No statistic
ally significant differences were found on any of the dependent variables. The qualita
tive analysis also indicated no differences among the treatments. The implication of
this study is that supervisory /subordination group communication via telecommunica
tions rather than physical presence affects neither subordinate group decision making
nor interaction.
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