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Communication differences in virtual design teams: findings from a multi-method analysis of high and low performing experimental teams

Published: 31 January 2008 Publication History

Abstract

This multi-method study distinguishes between four high performing and four low performing fully distributed virtual design teams, through an analysis of their asynchronous communication. Results indicate that these teams were similar in terms of the number of messages exchanged, the amount of communication devoted to aspects of design, and the amount and proportion of communication spent on team coordination, supportive commentary, and "other" topics. However, high performing teams were more verbose---they communicated more words. They also spent less time in brainstorming activities. Rather, high performing teams engaged in more critical commentary and active debate, compared to low performing teams. High performing teams conducted more in-depth discussions in the form of argumentation, as ideas were developed through an interactive debate of the pros and cons of issues. This debate resulted in the need for summaries, which served a dual role as they became intermediate steps in the process of writing the report deliverable

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      cover image ACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems
      ACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems  Volume 39, Issue 1
      Febuary 2008
      62 pages
      ISSN:0095-0033
      EISSN:1532-0936
      DOI:10.1145/1341971
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      Association for Computing Machinery

      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      Published: 31 January 2008
      Published in SIGMIS Volume 39, Issue 1

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      Author Tags

      1. computer-mediated communication
      2. creativity
      3. distributed software development
      4. innovation
      5. software design
      6. software requirements analysis
      7. virtual teams

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