Diversity, Group Behavior, and Performance of Short Duration Ad Hoc Virtual Teams: Findings from a Laboratory Experiment

The purpose of this research is to examine whether the team diversity and psychological factors (such as, trust andmotivation) can influence performance of short-duration, ad-hoc virtual teams engaged in problem solving tasks. We focuson the diversities of the members of virtual teams across national culture, educational specialization, and collaborationtechnology proficiency. A laboratory experiment was conducted involving virtual teams that were engaged in data modeldesign. The results indicate that educational specialization diversity affects trust and motivation in the virtual teams. We alsofind that both trust and collaboration technology proficiency diversity influence performance of the virtual teams. Thefindings of the study highlight the importance of diversity and psychological factors in shaping the performance of shortdurationvirtual teams

Knowledge Sharing in Online Cancer Survivorship Community System: A Theoretical Framework

Innovative uses of technology to support patient to patient or patient to clinician knowledge sharing are emerging through professional health institutions and communities that take advantage of social networking technologies. Although successful online health communities exist, many such communities do fail. Researchers have stated that the reason for these failures is due to the lack of evidence-based, scientific guidance in building and managing online communities. Knowledge sharing among participants is important for the survival of online health communities. The most difficult and challenging task for online health communities is to understand why certain participants share knowledge in a sustained manner while others do not. The purpose of this study is to identify the conditions that will predict and prescribe a successful online health community. We propose a theoretical model that presents computer self-efficacy, system capabilities, patient characteristics, appropriation support as determinants of knowledge sharing. We also propose that knowledge sharing affects satisfaction, and frequent usage of online health community networks within online cancer survivorship community

User Acceptance of Group Support Systems

A Group Support System (GSS) is a type of Information Systems that helps decision making in an organization in a group setting. Apart from groupware technologies such as email and conferencing systems, not many GSS applications have been widely accepted in organizations. Prior research has studied the factors such as task technology fit, use of appropriation mediators, and appropriation support, etc., that contribute to the successful use of GSS. Not much, however, has been written about the factors that may influence the users’ intentions to experiment and eventually accept a GSS. This study utilizes the literature on technology acceptance, adaptive structuration theory, and task technology fit to prepare a framework to investigate the factors that influence the user acceptance of GSSs in organizations

Social Networks: Cultural Diversity, Trust, Reciprocity and Social Capital.

Rapid growth of the Internet has led to the proliferation of various applications including use of social networks sites. Social networks sites facilitate communications between users with shared interests. Social networks sites are popular components of the Web 2.0 phenomenon where users share content. The rapid growth of social network sites usage necessitates a further analysis of factors affecting usage of these sites and creation of social networks. We propose a theoretical model on the effects of cultural diversity, trust, reciprocity, and social capital on users’ willingness to participate in the activities of social network sites

Cultural Diversity, Perceived Work Atmosphere, and Intragroup Conflict in Global Virtual Teams: Findings from a Laboratory Experiment

In this paper we focus on the relationships among cultural diversity, perceived work atmosphere, and intra-groupconflict in global virtual teams. We report the findings of a laboratory experiment that was conducted involving thesubjects who were geographically dispersed. The participants used IBM’s Lotus Sametime to perform a group task.The findings of the study reveal that in virtual teams, task conflict overshadows relationship conflict; the culturalheterogeneity of the team members influences their perception of the work atmosphere, which in its turn aggravatestask conflict in the teams. We also find that Intra-group conflict adversely affects team members’ satisfaction andcollaborative conflict management style has a moderating effect on this relationship

A Theoretical Framework of Creativity Software, Idea Creativity, and Group Satisfaction

Idea generation software can be useful in electronic brainstorming and creativity tasks. Based on the theory of task/technology fit, we discuss two software features: graphic/outline mode and communication support, and propose that these features can improve group’s creative performance in an electronic brainstorming task. We assess group’s creative performance by idea creativity, which in turn can affect group members’ satisfaction with the outcome of the electronic brainstorming session, and satisfaction with the electronic brainstorming process. We develop a theoretical framework to explain these relationships and state propositions associated with the research model. Practitioners can use the model to improve an electronic brainstorming session and researchers can extend our framework by exploring in depth the software interactive mode and communication support of idea generation software, and the interaction of both features

Group Atmosphere, Shared Understanding, and Perceived Conflict in Virtual Teams: Findings from an Experiment

In this paper, we present a theoretical model on the relationships among group atmosphere, shared understanding, and perceived task conflict in virtual teams. We validate the theoretical model by analyzing data that was collected in a laboratory experiment on virtual teams. We find that cultural diversity of virtual team adversely affects group atmosphere and group atmosphere has a positive influence on the development of shared understanding in these teams. We also find that the development of shared understanding weakens perceived task conflict in virtual teams. However, we do not find a strong support for the moderating effect of avoidance conflict management style on the relationship between shared understanding and perceived task conflict