Participative modelling for understanding: facilitating organizational change with GSS

The involvement of stakeholder groups in organizational change efforts seems a fertile application area for group support systems (GSS). In an action research study at the Amsterdam Municipal Police Force, we investigated the use of electronic meeting software and joint modelling facilities for the construction of models of the police force´s current situation. The findings of this study show the potential of GSS to facilitate organizational change both in terms of efficiency and in quality of the resulting models. A number of issues for future research are identified