Souren Paul

Impact of heterogeneity and collaborative conflict management style on the performance of synchronous global virtual teams

Virtual teams cut across organizational cultures, national cultures, and functional areas, thereby increasing group heterogeneity, which may result in increased conflict among team members and less effective performance of the team. Our study explored the relationships that might exist among the heterogeneity of the virtual teams, their collaborative conflict management style, and their performance outcomes. The paper reports the findings of a laboratory experiment in which homogeneous and heterogeneous virtual teams, consisting of subjects from the USA and India, worked independently on a decision task involving the adoption of a computer use fee by an online university. Team members, used a web-based group decision support system (GDSS) that allowed them the opportunity to discuss task options, critique suggestions, and vote on the result. The data analyses suggested that collaborative conflict management style positively impacted satisfaction with the decision making process, perceived decision quality, and perceived participation of the virtual teams. There was weak evidence that links a groups heterogeneity to its collaborative conflict management styles.

An Empirical Investigation of Collaborative Conflict Management Style in Group Support System-Based Global Virtual Teams

Virtual teams cut across national, organizational, and functional boundaries, often resulting in diversity in team composition. This paper presents the results of a laboratory study involving groupware-supported, culturally homogeneous, and heterogeneous virtual teams where collaborative conflict management style, a teams cultural orientation as measured by the degree of individualism-collectivism, and group diversity affect several group performance variables. Collaborative conflict management style was positively related to performance, group diversity was found to have a moderating influence between collaborative style and group performance, and collaborative style was influenced by the individualistic-collectivistic orientations. Consistent with prior research, we found that collectivistic orientations help enhance the level of collaborative conflict management style prevailing in teams. Our research also indicates that the process to motivate team members may differ depending on their orientation.

Collective memory support and cognitive-conflict group decision-making: an experimental investigation

Collective memory is an active research area and researchers have focused on several social psychological perspective of collective memory. A form of collective memory is organizational memory that has emerged as a topic of considerable importance in recent years. Significant work has been appearing about how information technology (IT) can enable and support organizational memory systems to be developed that, in turn, facilitate organizational learning. However, much of the existing work on this area is conceptual or theoretical with very little empirical examination. In this research we discuss how a hypermedia-based prototype of collective memory, was used in a controlled experiment to investigate empirical validity of the consequential effects of using memory support on cognitive-conflict type of decisions. The results indicate that the use of collective memory information provides the study participants focused attention on the cognitive-conflict task domain and leads to faster decision-making. The results also indicate that there may be a potential for collective memory support to lead to encased learning. However, the results do not manifest any effect of collective memory on the perceived decision quality. Implications for research and practice and directions for future research are discussed. A revised, more robust but also more complex model derived from the results of the study is proposed for future research and validation.

Input information complexity, perceived time pressure, and information processing in GSS-based work groups: An experimental investigation using a decision schema to alleviate information overload conditions

Collaboration technology enhances the ability of work groups to acquire and share large volumes of information within a short period. The processing of voluminous information is challenging and may lead to conditions of information overload. The issue of complexity of information processing in collaboration technology supported group work, and the mechanisms to overcome the information overload conditions have not received sufficient attention in the past. In this paper, we attempt to address this gap by building a theoretical model and validating it through a laboratory experiment. Based on prior research on information processing at individual level, we propose that information processing in groups that use group support systems (GSS) is shaped by input information complexity and time pressure. We examine information processing of GSS-supported groups to perform tasks involving cognitive conflict. We demonstrate that information processing has an inverted U-shaped relationship with input information complexity and a positive relationship with time pressure. The study also demonstrates that the inclusion of a decision schema that incorporates aggregate level information gleaned from the work of prior groups engaged in a similar decision situation alleviates the information overload, enabling groups to process larger and more complex information.

Implementation of a group decision support system utilizing collective memory

Collective memory has been characterized as a socially articulated and maintained reality of the past--one form being organizational memory. The collective memory concept can also be specialized to a group level and used to support work groups engaged in repetitive decision-making activities. The advantages of capturing collective memory are many, including simplification of the process, codification of decision strategies, carryover of knowledge when group composition changes, etc. While there has been substantial research in group decision-making, the explicit use of collective memory to support repetitive decision-making has received less attention. This paper describes the development and implementation of a collective memory based enviromnent for support of a multi-attribute, iterative decision process. The environment utilized hypermedia, groupware, and Intranet technologies. Results of its use are encouraging.

Collaboration Technology Support for Knowledge Conversion in Virtual Teams: A Theoretical Perspective

Collaboration technologies (CTs) are making it feasible for organizations to rapidly bring together dispersed Corkers into virtual teams that perform a variety of tasks. Group support systems (GSS) are a type of CT that is often deployed to facilitate virtual team operations, which typically involve an exchange of knowledge among team members. This paper builds on Nonakas theory of organizational knowledge creation, and other research, to present a theoretical framework that links the factors that are most relevant to knowledge conversion in GSS-aided virtual teams. The paper advances some research propositions that suggest a positive contribution of GSS to knowledge conversion and the levels of shared understanding and performance that could emerge in virtual teams. In addition, the propositions indicate positive relationships between member perceptions of the virtual work environment, their willingness to share knowledge, and the processes of knowledge conversion in those teams

Understanding Conflict in Virtual Teams: An Experimental Investigation using Content Analysis

Virtual teams are temporally and geographically dispersed groups, which may have members from varied cultures and backgrounds. Such diversity may cause intra-group conflicts in virtual teams. We analyzed the contents of the transcripts of GSS-based virtual teams and identified the conflict episodes and the approaches followed to resolve intra-group conflicts. The conflict episodes that occurred in the early phases of decision-making were separated from those taking place in the choice phase. The results revealed that conflicts in the choice phase of decision-making were detrimental to global virtual teams. We also found that groups following an integrative conflict resolution style had better performance than those following other conflict resolution approaches, such as a distributive style. While the results contribute towards the understanding of conflict in groups, the area warrants further research.

User satisfaction with system,decision process,and outcome in GDSS based meeting: an experimental investigation

Performance of groups using group decision support systems (GDSS) has been an issue debated over the last two decades. Yet, there is need for more focused research on subjective variables such as the satisfaction of team members with the experience of using a GDSS. This research focuses on different types of user satisfaction in GDSS based meetings: system satisfaction, process satisfaction, and outcome satisfaction; and explores interrelationships among them. The findings from a laboratory experiment demonstrate that group members¿ satisfaction with system impacts the satisfaction with decision process and outcome. Satisfaction with decision outcome is also influenced by satisfaction with decision making process. Another interesting set of findings is the relationships between performance of groups members engaged in GDSS based meetings and their satisfaction with system, process, and outcome. Decision time has negative effect on system satisfaction and positive effect on process satisfaction. Thoroughness of decision making has positive effect on outcome satisfaction. The findings of the research have major implications for planners and facilitators of GDSS based meetings.

The collaborative conflict management style and cultural diversity in DGSS supported fuzzy tasks: an experimental investigation

In todays global economy organizations are increasingly resorting to culturally diverse groups of individuals to cope with the challenges of a global market. Often, group decision support systems (GSS) are utilized in the process. The performance of these technology-assisted meetings might be subject to the impact of the conflict management style that group members adopt and the cultural backgrounds of the participants. This study examines the possibility that cultural diversity may have a moderating effect on the relationship between the collaborative conflict management style and group performance in a distributed GSS (DGSS) environment.

A Question of Timing: The Impact of Information Acquisitions on Group Design Making

Information acquisition and its use frequently are considered critical to the decision-making process, yet related research, especially about the timing of information acquisition, is limited. Our research explores the impact of information acquisition on perceived decision quality and on the time required to reach a decision on a fuzzy task. We found that more information was accessed from a Web-based system in the first part of the group decision-making process, when the decision environment was searched and possible courses of action were analyzed. We also found that the proportion of information accessed in the first part of the meeting was related significantly to the time required to make the decision. More specifically, when most information was accessed in the first part of the decision-making session, the relationship between decision time and amount of information accessed in the early part of the meeting was positive and linear. However, a curvilinear relationship was found between decision time and amount of information accessed in the latter part of the decision-making session. Unlike the findings of a previous study, this earlier access of information is not associated with improved perceived decision quality.