Facilitating culturally diverse groups with visual templates in collaborative systems

Abstract

Purpose -The use of visual templates has proven instrumental in supporting group meetings.This study explores whether visual templates enable culturally diverse groups to achieve greater task precision in face-to-face meetings.Design/methodology/approach -Building on Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST), it is argued that visual templates provide structuration for face-to-face meetings, even more so when they are embedded in computer-supported collaborative systems. In particular, it is hypothesized that the higher the degree of structuration imposed by visual templates, the higher the degree of task precision will be. It is also hypothesized that this relationship is positively moderated by group cultural diversity: higher cultural diversity will further sustain the positive effects of visual templates that provide higher structuration.Findings -Results of an experiment with 229 managers from 49 countries confirm that facilitating groups with visual templates embedded in a computer-supported collaborative system significantly increases task precision at high levels of cultural diversity. Research limitations/implications -This study contributes to Positive OrganizationalScholarship (POS) by investigating the use of visual templates as a contingency factor that increases performance -specifically task precision -of co-located, culturally diverse groups.Practical implications -Results indicate that visual templates embedded in a computersupported collaborative system are an effective method for increasing task precision in face-to-face meetings of culturally diverse groups.2 Originality/value -Theories from information systems and visualization are integrated into cross-cultural management with a view to sustaining the effectiveness of culturally diverse groups.The study sample is characterized by highly culturally diverse groups interacting in face-to-face meetings.

The upside of cultural differences

“…The authors conclude that foreignness can be represented as Schrödinger's cat of quantum physics: in a dual state of both asset and liability, until leaders and top management teams act to drive it into a cycle toward net liability or asset. Bresciani and Comi (2017) in their article "Facilitating culturally diverse groups with visual templates in collaborative systems: increasing structuration to improve precision" present an experimental study based on 229 managers from 49 countries and in 56 groups. The authors investigate how structuration through visual templatesgraphic structures and illustrations that help map knowledge in the form of text and imagescan improve groups' task precision.…”

Seeing the bigger picture: Conditions that influence effective engagement of project executives with visuals

“…Studies have highlighted the potential cognitive advantages of presenting information visually (Baadte & Meinhardt-Injac 2019;Bresciani & Comi 2017;Dansereau & Simpson 2009;Larkin & Simon 1987;Nelson, Reed & Walling 1976;Snodgrass & Asiaghi 1977).…”

The Use of Visual Templates for Sharing Knowledge in Team Meetings at Work: A Qualitative Case Study.

“…Finally, it nudges towards progressing the discussion to have at least what is pointed out at with explicit topics written down to be covered and filled during the discussions. Bresciani and Comi (2017) define visual template as 'a graphic structure onto which knowledge, in the form of text and images, can be meaningfully mapped'. Perez and Bresciani (2015) postulate that 'visual templates provide useful support for teams, which lead to higher quality of idea generation and sharing, compared to unstructured meetings'.…”