The Demand Rate of Facilitation Functions

Facilitation is a key success factor for effective GSS applications. Developing technological support for the facilitator is a very promising direction in creating more successful (distributed) GSS use. The choice for which facilitation function to support with what kind of technologies can be based on different criteria. In this paper we focus on identifying facilitation functions that are perceived as demanding by facilitators. In literature, we identified several lists of functions a facilitator should perform when facilitating a meeting. We, however, could not find a rank order in literature with regard to the demand rate of a facilitation function. We developed a questionnaire in which we ask facilitators to indicate the demand rate of facilitation functions in different group settings. In total, at this moment, thirteen facilitators filled in the questionnaire. Some first insights in the demand rate of facilitation functions are given.