Status Differentiation and Information Exchange in Face-to-Face and Computer-Mediated Idea Generation

Communication in virtual supply chain teams

“…Low status members often do not offer and are not asked to give information wbicb only they have, even if it is crucial to the task. Low status participants are also extremely unlikely to express their ideas in front ofthe group (Silver et al, 1994). Thus one key to tecbnological innovation is for companies to establish joint authority teams rather than traditionally-structured ones.…”

The impact of status and audio conferencing technology on business meetings

“…Not only does it con"rm previous "ndings regarding the impact of status constraints in face-to-face meetings, but it reveals a new and unexpected "nding that multimedia communications technology can in fact magnify status inequalities. In contrast, lab studies of text-based communications technology have shown the technology to have little or no e!ect on status-di!erentiated group communication (Silver et al, 1994;Weisband et al, 1995), or to reduce the dominance of the high-status group member (Dubrovsky et al, 1991). These contrasting "ndings highlight the varying impacts of the di!erent types of technology investigated (single channel text communication vs. multiple channel conferencing) but also emphasize the importance of carrying out research in the "eld where real communication tasks and organizational roles are under investigation.…”

“…Status could thus inhibit information sharing in groups which could be problematic for certain types of groups, such as problem-solving and innovative groups, which rely on open and unconstrained information sharing (Carletta et al 1998a). Lower status individuals may contribute less as they are more apprehensive of having their ideas evaluated negatively (Silver et al, 1994) and they accord greater weight to the views and opinions of high status group members (Berger, Cohen & Zelditch, 1972;Humphreys & Berger, 1981;Silver et al, 1994). It is not, however, clear whether mediation by technology is making lower status group members more reluctant to participate or higher status members more verbose.…”

<title>Virtual collaboration: face-to-face versus videoconference, audioconference, and computer-mediated communications</title>

“…For the "generating" task, a number of studies have shown that CMC groups engaged in brainstorming activities produce a higher number of options with more novelty (Fjermestad, 2003;Siau, 1995;and Dennis & Valacich, 1993) This effect may be due to members' ability to type simultaneously without waiting for "the floor". Also, CMC members are less inhibited and apprehensive about how they will be evaluated than FTF participants (Silver, Cohen & Crutchfield, 1994). In some cases, the wider variety of options generated in CMC can improve group judgment tasks.…”