Impact of social group processes and functional diversity on communication in networked organizations

Organizational Communication: Challenges for the New Century

“…Hylmoe and Buzzanell (2002) used three cultural lenses to illuminate how and why telecommuting functions paradoxically in organizations; other researchers have examined barriers to communication and identification in this context (e.g., Chapman, Sheehy, Heywood, Dooley, & Collins, 1995). Finally, Riedlinger, Gallois, McKay, and Pittam (2004) studied communication in geographically and professionally diverse networked organizations and found that both the greatest barriers and the greatest opportunities involved the diversity of social identities and the ways in which they were managed to create (or not) an overall identity in the organization.…”

“…There has been much research on basic group processes, but the nature of work groups and teams is changing from relatively homogeneous groups to more diverse ones. The increased diversity within organizations means that communication now occurs across many more boundaries, including cultural and professional ones (Nkomo & Cox, 1996;Riedlinger et al, 2004). Recent studies have adopted an intergroup perspective in organizational contexts (see Haslam, 2000), starting with the seminal work of Ashforth and Mael (1989).…”

Changing Skills in Changing Environments: Skills Needed in Virtual Construction Teams

“…The resulting scores were statistically analysed using a repeated measures ANOVA parametric test to establish the differences between participants' performance on the three tasks (traditional face-to-face design, virtual design using a electronic whiteboard, and virtual design using a high bandwidth 3D virtual world) (Riedlinger, Gallois, McKay, & Pittam, 2004). The results of the ANOVA tests were interpreted using Mauchly's Test of Sphericity which examines the covariance of the dependent samples.…”

Developing an Instrument to Understand the Social-Structural Integration of Diverse Students

“…5,6 The diversification of engineering creates opportunities for social and economic advancement. Increasing the diversity of the students becoming engineers has a variety of tangible benefits including; improved solutions 7,8 , improving communication skills 9 , increased creativity 10 , solutions that are culturally responsible 11 , and an expectation to have diverse peers. 12 The need for more engineers is beyond what can be provided from the conventional population; thus, there is a need to expand the definition of who can be an engineer.…”