Conflict, Leadership, and Performance: What Virtual Team Members Need to Know

Conflict and leadership are both individually well-studied elements of group development. In this paper we seek to understand how leadership and conflict coexist within a team’s development and what the temporal context is within which they emerge for higher- versus lower-performing teams. In order to investigate this question we collected survey data, message postings and performance scores for 22 virtual teams over an 11-week period. Our results suggest that high-performing teams experience less relational conflict, engage in more task leadership, and respond more promptly to conflict with appropriate leadership behaviors. We situate these findings in the context of what virtual team members need to know

Fitting Graphical DSS to Task Characteristics

Previous research has found the use of graphical Decision Support Systems (DSS) to be more effective than tabular DSS in some decision situations, but not in others [8, 9]. This paper presents the results of two laboratory experiments testing the hypothesis that the features provided by graphical DSS may best fit some tasks, while those of tabular DSS best fit other tasks. The first experiment, which examined decision outcomes, found that a tabular DSS better fit a less complex task, while a graphical DSS better fit a more complex task with high information load in which decision makers needed to understand relationships among data elements. The second experiment, which examined decision processes, found that decision makers using graphical DSS tended to use less information in making their decisions than those using tabular DSS

Face Challenging Perception and Media Feature Preference for The Task of Delivering Bad News: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

Delivering bad news is a frequently occurring, unpleasant and challenging communication task. Literature on bad news communication attributes the challenge of delivering bad news to individuals’ concern about hurting other’s face, a concept originated and dominant in China but applicable to other cultures. As the interactions at the workplace become increasingly computer-mediated, communication media may be leveraged to deliver bad news. The existing literature offered some insights on technology (including communication media) preference as well as cultural differences in it. However, existing research focused on the technology aspect. This study examines cultural differences in technology preference due to the task aspect. Specifically, focusing on the task of delivering bad news, this study distinguishes between the two mechanisms via which cultural differences may emerge, i.e., task perception (i.e., face challenging perception) and task response (in terms of media feature preference). Data is collected using surveys from clients of a multinational public relations company. Results show that there is no cultural difference (China versus non-China) in face challenging perception, that individuals’ face challenging perception increases their preference for high rehearsability and for less natural symbol sets, and that, holding face challenging perception constant, there is marginally supported cultural difference in the preferences for rehearsability but no difference in the preference for symbol sets. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/pajais/vol10/iss2/2

Task-Technology Fit and Culture: Perceptions of and Media Feature Preferences for The Task of Delivering Bad Nwes

Task-technology fit (TTF) suggests that what drives technology utilizations is individuals’ subjective evaluations of fit. The technology aspect that gives rise to task-technology fit has received extensive attention, and researchers recently called for more attention to the task aspect. In this paper, we examine how culture may affect the task aspect of TTF, consequently leading to differences in subjective evaluations of fit and ultimately technology utilizations. Moreover, we distinguish the two mechanisms via which culture may affect the task aspect of task-technology fit, i.e., task perception and task response. Focusing on the task of delivering bad news, we examine cultural differences (China vs. Non-China) in the perception of and responses to (in terms of media feature preferences) the task of delivering bad news. Data was collected using surveys from clients of a multinational public relations company. Results show that there was no difference in task perception for delivering bad news between Chinese and Non-Chinese participants, marginally supported difference in the preferences for rehearsability, and no difference in the preference for symbol sets

Emergent leadership, Gender, and Culture: The Case of Sri Lanka

Organizations are increasingly making use of technology to put together people from different geographic areas to collaborate and communicate in order to accomplish assigned tasks. Such virtual work arrangements are not limited by country borders. These virtual team arrangements require many new work practices including more proactive individual participation – or emergent leadership. While emergent leadership has been studied extensively in North America, much less work has been done in other cultures. In this paper we report the findings from a longitudinal study of emergent leadership behavior in virtual project teams in Sir Lanka with special attention paid to the role of gender. Similar to North American studies we found that technology helped level the playing field for women enabling them to engage in emergent leadership behavior

Integrating ERD and UML Concepts When Teaching Data Modeling

In this paper, we describe a teaching approach that evolved from our experience teaching in both the traditional database and systems analysis classes as well as a number of semesters spent team-teaching an object-oriented systems development course. Fundamentally, we argue that existing knowledge of structured systems development can and should inform our teaching processes when teaching object-oriented systems development techniques. We draw from an anecdotal industry example provided by one of our former students to illustrate the value of this approach given our perception that there is a need in practice today to easily shift from structured to object-oriented thinking

Gender, Media and Leader Emergence: Examining the Impression Management Strategies of Men and Women in Different Settings

This study examined the impact of media (face-to-face versus computer-mediated communication) on the process of leadership emergence by females and males. Specifically, we adapted the literature associated with impression management to investigate whether there are any differences in terms of two key impression management behaviors- self-promotion and supplication- between males and females who emerged as leaders in face-to-face and technology-mediated settings. Our findings challenge conventional gender-related findings. The results indicated that self-promotion plays an important role in influencing leadership emergence while supplication negatively impacts leadership emergence. In a face-to-face context, females who emerged as leaders were found to employ more self-promotion tactics than male leaders while female leaders and male leaders did not differ with respect to the amount of supplication tactics used. Females who emerged as leaders in a face-to-face context were also found to engage in greater self-promotion and more supplication tactics than females who emerged as leaders in a CmC context. Interestingly, there was no significant impact of media on the extent of self-promotion and supplication strategies displayed by male leaders. Future research avenues and implications are discussed

Lessons from the Trenches of Metatriangulation Research

In this paper we describe our application of a relatively untried research approach called metatriangulation. Metatriangulation is a three-phased, qualitative meta-analysis process that may be used to explore variations in the assumptions of alternative paradigms, gain insights into these multiple paradigms, and address emerging themes and the resulting theories. In applying this method we encountered difficulties in selecting a sample, in reaching agreement among coders, and in our attempts to build theory from our results. From our experiences we developed a modified version of the metatriangulation method. We did find metatriangulation to be an excellent tool in understanding theoretical perspectives in MIS research and believe the use of our modified method will aid future researchers in this pursuit

Characteristics of Effective GSS Facilitators

As businesses increase their use of groups to solve problems, the importance of strong group facilitation skills has increased. This paper investigates the characteristics of high-performing group facilitators versus low-performing group facilitators. The characteristics investigated represent two broad areas of interest: general facilitator background and skills possessed by the facilitator. The facilitator background factors that proved to be good predictors of high performance included: overall experience and number of computer-supported meeting facilitated. The skills possessed by high performers included: plans and designs meetings, demonstrates flexibility, and listens to, clarifies, and integrates information. The analysis provides a rule for accurately predicting whether a facilitator is a high-performer or a low-performer more than 77% of the time