Team Climate and Media Choice in Virtual Teams

Abstract

As work teams become more distributed, effective computer-mediated communication is increasingly impacting their performance. This study investigates how team climate influences communication frequency among team members and their use of different communication media. Data were collected in two information systems courses offered at an Austrian university in which 50 student teams developed web-based applications and conducted usability tests. A team climate framework based on task and social orientation was used to assess the teams' performance and communication patterns. We found that both task and social dimensions of team climate were positively related to higher communication frequency as well as objective and subjective performance. Among other things, the results suggest that a task-oriented climate is especially linked to the use of e-mail, while social orientation is linked to the use of face-to-face meetings. We also found differences in communication patterns and performance across four different types of team climates (fully functioning, cozy, cold, and dysfunctional). The results underscore the importance of both task and social dimensions for a team to perform well. Our study contributes to both the academic literature that investigates factors affecting media choice and the practitioner literature that examines how to manage virtual teamwork effectively.

Performance in Virtual Teams: Towards an Integrative Model

“…ICT enables VT members to access, store, retrieve, and exchange information across time and space boundaries [57,58]. Furthermore, communication through technological tools can be registered, duplicated, and repeated at any time by any team member around the world [51,59,60]. Finally, the ability to electronically capture, store, and retrieve the team's process and outcomes contributes to the organizational knowledge and learning development, and ultimately may increase VT effectiveness [58,61].…”

Virtual team learning: The role of collaboration process and technology affordance in team decision making

“…When communication processes are aligned with technology, outcomes are generally expected to be positive (DeSanctis & Poole, 1994). But it can be hard to match technology to a task because some media are more suitable for particular work than others (Figl & Saunders, 2011). For example, research on military training found that alternatives such as text-based chat may fall short in providing critical verbal and gestural communication cues such as uncertainty and urgency that are clearly available in face-to-face contexts (Budlong, Walter, & Yilmazelb, 2009).…”

The Relationship of Collaboration Technologies and Cognition and Affect

“…However, the intensive use of CT also imposes major challenges. While technology usage encompasses certain impediments [5], CT further causes interpersonal interactions implying challenges for the human brain and human behavior. The Harvard Business Review even circumscribes these with a "Collaborative Overload" [2].…”