Effects of Communication Media on Intellective and Negotiation Task Performance

Themainobjectiveofthisresearchistoexaminethemediarichnesstheoryinalaboratoryexperiment. The investigation focuses on the effect of four different communication media (text, audio, video, and face-to- face) on objective task performance on an intellective task and a negotiation task. For the negotiation task, a social psychological factor, consonancy, was involved to examine the interaction effect with media on performance

Risky Shifts And The Model Of Communicative Events

Group interaction frequently results in group members changing their prior beliefs to a more extreme position.  This is referred to as group polarization. Using the model of communicative events, this paper proposes that task, medium of communication, group composition and their interaction will have an effect on the phenomenon of group polarization. A laboratory experiment was conducted to address these questions.   A 2x2x2 factorial design was used to analyze the results.   The analysis indicates that polarization does in fact occur and that the level of polarization varies depending on: the medium of communication, the task characteristics and their interaction. The composition of the group does not have a significant effect on polarization. The findings reported in this study have significance for developers, users and researchers of collaborative systems and for social-psychologists who study the phenomenon of group enhanced attitude shifts

E-mail and Direct Participation in Decision Making: A Literature Review

This paper reviews the literature on the effects of the use of e-mail on direct participation in decision making (PDM) in organisations. After a brief review of the organisational literature on participation the paper distinguishes e-mail theories on direct participation in three different theoretical perspectives. Then the paper focuses the attention on the role of e-mail in affecting task type, vertical and horizontal communication and their consequences for PDM. Finally the paper presents indications and open questions for future research.email, e-mail, decision making, participation in decision making, literature review,

Testing the Task-Media Fit: The Effects of Task Equivocality on Social Presence of Mobile Video-Mediated Communication

Since social presence theory was introduced, many researchers have tried to apply it to various technology-mediated communication media, including E-Mail, videoconferencing, and instant messengers. Yet few researches have investigated the influence of mobile video-mediated communication (VMC) on the social presence despite prevalence in business practices. In this paper, a research model is developed to test the relationship between the mobile VMC (video telephony and video chatting) and the level of social presence. And the task equivocality, whether it’s an intellective task or a negotiation task, is also considered as moderating variables, based on the task-media fit proposition. Hence, mobile video chatting could be suggested as an alternative media of mobile video telephony for less equivocal informative tasks according to this study

Teamwork Quality And Service Innovation Performance Of Virtual Teams

Virtual teams (VTs) have emerged as a new form of organizational structure supported by enabling information and communication technologies (ICT) that are able to meet future service innovation challenges of the fast-changing business environment. How effective are these virtual teams in comparison to traditional face-to-face groups? Is the teamwork quality similar and is information exchanged as effectively? The objective of this research is to investigate these issues by developing a research model that combines the task-technology fit and teamwork quality concepts and by using a laboratory experiment to examine the effect of task complexity, media characteristics, and teamwork quality on service innovation performance and satisfaction. The results will offer holds important implications for research and practice in the areas of both service innovation and IT

An Extended Adaptive Structuration Theory Framework for Determinants of Virtual Team Success

Virtual team represents an organizational form which can revolutionize the workplace and provide organizations with unprecedented levels of flexibility and responsiveness. Since nineties, virtual teams have been subjected to exhaustive research, mostly focused on the causal relationship between single or multiple constructs and the success variables of virtual teams, such as performance and satisfaction. There have been quite a few reviews on virtual teams which have provided a good overview of the state of virtual team research. These reviews have identified significant constructs in virtual team research, summarized and assessed their findings, proposed frameworks demonstrating the state of present research and posed some challenges and research questions which should be answered by future research on virtual teams. However, existing reviews are too general in terms of portraying relationships, such that their frameworks delineate links among categories of constructs as against among individual constructs themselves. None of the extant reviews identify explicit relationships among the most significant constructs of virtual teams and the research on virtual team performance is still equivocal. An understanding of such explicit relationships between the most significant constructs of virtual teams can get us a deeper insight into how virtual teams achieve effectiveness. Thus, there is a need to structure the current empirical research in order to understand the key direct and indirect drivers of virtual team performance. This study, based on a qualitative review of existing literature on virtual teams, identifies key drivers of virtual team effectiveness and develops a conceptual research framework with 9 propositions linking the identified drivers. It goes beyond the generalized models, such as, AST and Input-Process-Output models and develops a new model EAST (extended adaptive structuration theory) by extending the tenets of AST.This study uses adaptive structuration theory to organize the literature on virtual teams into three broad categories; viz. structural dimensions, social interaction and outcomes, and comes up with hypotheses and research questions linking the above categories

“Good Things Come in Lightweights”: A Group Decision-Making Analysis Comparing Twitter on Mobile Communication Devices to Computer-Mediated Communication

This paper reports on a study of the effects of Twitter-enabled mobile communication devices on group decision-making and group dynamics. One hundred and sixty-seven university students formed 44 groups under two distinct communication conditions: Twitter operating on mobile communication devices (TMCD), and Google Groups online message boards (OMB) accessed through personal computers. Each group was tracked as it completed an assigned set of group decision-making tasks. The study’s results are analyzed through media synchronicity theory and its distinction between conveyance and convergence communication processes. TMCD exhibited significantly fewer conflicting (unfriendly) messages and a greater number of initiatory messages than OMB. Moreover, with tasks involving convergence communication processes, TMCD achieved significantly higher levels of conformity and satisfaction than OMB. These results imply that lightweight, portable mobile communication devices (MCDs), enabled with Twitter or another similar interface, complement conventional computer-mediated communication, offering an effective means of group decision-making

AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OFTHE EFFECT OF A GROUP DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM ON NORMATME INFLUENCE IN SMALL GROUPS

This research represents an attempt to determine the impact of a group decision support system (GDSS) on the ability of groups to influence the judgments of individual group members. The power of groups to influence individuals has been well documented in the social psychological literature. For organizations interested in promoting innovation and creative problem solving in group settings, this tendency can be quite troubling. In the past, researchers have looked at how certain types of GDSSs might lessen these types of group pressures in the generation of creative ideas. This research may be viewed as an extension of this work to the choice phase of decision making. In an experimental setting forty-eight subjects were combined on an individual basis with groups of confederates to test the normative influence of the groups on the choices made by the individuals. Three different communication modality configurations were employed to test the effect which this had on the influence of the group. Whereas negative group effects in the idea-generating phase may lead to good ideas not being considered, group effects in the choice stage can to lead poor decisions being adopted, perhaps with even more unfortunate results. Obviously, both of these effects represent serious threats to the effectiveness of decision-making groups; consequently, both represent areas for potential contribution of improved versions of GDSSs

AN EXTENDED ADAPTIVE STRUCTURATION THEORY FOR THE DETERMINANTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF VIRTUAL TEAM SUCCESS

Virtual teams represent an organizational form which can revolutionize the workplace and provide organizations with unprecedented levels of flexibility and responsiveness. Extant reviews on virtual team research lack in two important aspects: First they do not explain the inconsistencies in virtual team research, and second they fail to explain how virtual teams achieve success. This paper, based on an extensive literature review of available research on virtual teams, identifies key drivers of virtual team effectiveness. Integrating the identified drivers, it develops a conceptual, analytical framework with 9 propositions, to explain virtual teams’ path to success. The new framework is termed as EAST (extended adaptive structuration theory). It goes beyond the generalized frameworks, such as AST (Adaptive Structuration Theory) and Input- Output frameworks to identify virtual team specific constructs such as Mission, Emergent Socio- Emotional States, and Individual Dimension. EAST identifies potential areas of future research for scholars, and provides advice to IS professionals regarding how to deploy virtual teams