No abstract

No abstract

M edia richness theory argues that performance improves when team members use "richer" media for equivocal tasks. This experiment studied the effects of media richness on decision making in two-person teams using "new media" (i.e., computer-mediated and video communication). Media richness was varied based on multiplicity of cues and immediacy of feedback. Subjects perceived differences in richness due to both cues and feedback, but matching richness to task equivocality did not improve decision quality, decision time, consensus change, or communication satisfaction. Use of media providing fewer cues (i.e., computer mediated communication) led to slower decisions and more so for the less equivocal task. In short, the results found no support for the central proposition of media richness theory; matching media richness to task equivocality did not improve performance.

This paper describes a new theory called a theory of media synchronicity which proposes that a set of five media capabilities are important to group work, and that all tasks are composed of two fundamental communication processes (conveyance and convergence). Communication effectiveness is influenced by matching the media capabilities to the needs of the fundamental communication processes, not aggregate collections of these processes (i.e., tasks) as proposed by media richness theory. The theory also proposes that the relationships between communication processes and media capabilities will vary between established and newly formed groups, and will change over time.

No abstract

No abstract

T o understand the impact of social capital on knowledge integration and performance within digitally enabled teams, we studied 46 teams who had a history and a future working together. All three dimensions of their social capital (structural, relational, and cognitive) were measured prior to the team performing two tasks in a controlled setting, one face-to-face and the other through a lean digital network. Structural and cognitive capital were more important to knowledge integration when teams communicated through lean digital networks than when they communicated face-to-face; relational capital directly impacted knowledge integration equally, regardless of the communication media used by the team. Knowledge integration, in turn, impacted team decision quality, suggesting that social capital influences team performance in part by increasing a team's ability to integrate knowledge. These results suggest that team history may be necessary but not sufficient for teams to overcome the problems with the use of lean digital networks as a communication environment. However, team history may present a window of opportunity for social capital to develop, which in turn allows teams to perform just as well as in either communication environment.

Research has consistently found nominal group brainstorming (in which members work separately without communicating) to be superior to brainstorming in which group members interact verbally. This article presents the results of an experiment that found the reverse to be true for computer-mediated electronic brainstorming. In this experiment, 12-member electronically interacting groups generated more ideas than did 12-member nominal groups, and there were no differences between 6-member electronic and 6-member nominal groups. The authors attribute these results to the ability of electronic brainstorming to introduce few process losses (production blocking, evaluation apprehension, and free riding) while enabling process gains (synergy and the avoidance of redundant ideas).