Media Impacts and Performance in Dispersed Teams

ABSTRACT

The use of dispersed teams is prevalent in today’s organizations, and managers and chief information officers (CIOs) face challenges and issues regarding the organization and effectiveness of these types of teams. The objective of this research is to obtain greater understanding and insights of media impacts and dispersed team performance and provide additional clarity of media impacts theories. An experiment involving a team task that required large amount of information sharing and exchange was conducted. Using a combination of analysis of variance (ANOVA) and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), results from a sample of 152 individuals, comprising 50 teams, showed that the media itself did not significantly affect decision quality. Teams communicated poorly or effectively despite the media that were used. The communication media did have a significant impact on the time required to complete the task, on satisfaction with the communication process, and on individuals’ perceptions of their own participation.

KEYWORDS:

• Media synchronicity
• media richness
• dispersed teams
• virtual teams
• social presence

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.