Previous research in team-based structures and groupware technology has attracted wide interest and led to the research fields of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Computer Mediated Communication (CMC), and Group Support Systems (GSS).
2.2.1 Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Research in the field of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) focuses on issues that influence the work of people using technology; it is especially aiming to understand the characteristics of how people work together in a group or team and how systems should be designed to support mutually dependent team work. This research brings together scientists from different areas such as psychology, anthropology, economics, organizational theory, sociology and computer sciences (Grundin, 1994). Based on the research in CSCW a number of concepts have been identified as relevant for research in the field of virtual teams (Stahl & Hermann, 1999):
Awareness7 is an element of collaborative work describing the need of team members to monitor and support the mutually dependent team activities enabling the work progress (Schmidt, 2002). The understanding here is that for successful collaborative work the multiple participants are required to coordinate their activities (Heath, Svensson, Hindmarsh, Luff, & vom Lehn, 2002). In this context it is, according to Ngwenyama and Bjørn (2008), necessary to distinguish between activities demanding task-oriented awareness and those demanding social awareness. While the first addresses those activities performed in order to accomplish a specific, independent task, the second addresses awareness when the team members are present and engage socially with other team members regularly, and the activities of the team members in the collaborative work setting (Prinz, 1999).
7 As pointed out by Schmidt (2002) ‘awareness’ is one of those English words that can be used to refer to many different things. “Depending on the context it may mean anything from consciousness or knowledge to attention or sentience, and from sensitivity or apperception to acquaintance or recollection.” (Schmidt, 2002, p. 287)
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Coordination or Articulation of work describes the processes of aligning, scheduling, allocating as well as integrating of the single, individual activities with regard to the whole collaborative process. The group or team must subdivide the work load into individual units, distribute them among themselves and after the work has been done integrate the results (Schmidt & Bannon, 1992).
Tailorability covers the adaptation of the team and/or individuals of the used technology/tools to their particular work situation (Schmidt, 1991).
Negotiation is necessary to find consensus in a team regarding cooperation, team goals, and work participation of the different team members (Stahl & Hermann, 1999).
Besides these issues, one of the most important aspects of CSCW research is the understanding that the social context plays an important role in the cooperative team work (compare Lyytinen & Ngwenyama (1992), and Schmidt & Bannon (1992)). This social context includes elements such as culture, beliefs and values as well as unarticulated background assumptions. This social context implicitly guides individual team members in the interpretation of collaborative events and gives meaning in concrete situations (see Ngwenyama & Bjørn (2008), and Orlikowski & Gash (1994)).
2.2.2 Computer Mediated Communication
Communication is at the heart of virtual team work. Therefore research in the field of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) plays an important role for virtual teams. According to Hertel, Geister and Konradt (2005), research in the field of CMC compares the effects of different communication media in different groups (face-to-face, computer mediated).
Research in the field of CMC is, according to Baltes, Dickson, Sherman, Bauer and LaGanke (2002), related to the question on how CMC is affecting the outcome of collaborative team work with regard to, for example, team member satisfaction, team performance, decision quality, or team effectiveness. Also commonly investigated in current research in CMC are factors influencing communication such as ethos, social communication, understanding the other, and technologies in communication (Brewer, 2010).
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2.2.3 Group Support Systems
According to Nunamaker, Briggs, Mittleman, Vogel and Balthazard (1996), Group Support Systems (GSS) are:
interactive computer-based environments that support concerted and coordinated team effort toward completion of joint tasks. Besides supporting information access, GSS can radically change the dynamics of group interactions by improving communication, by structuring and focusing problem solving efforts, and by establishing and maintaining an alignment between personal and group goals.
Historically, GSS covers the “Same time-Same place” technology and is originated in the area of group decision making as supported by the so-called GDSS (Group Decision Support Systems) (Grundin, 1994). According to Grundin (1994) research in this field is closely related to the field of Information Systems, even though there is an overlapping with research in the CSCW and it originated in Business and Management Science.
Figure 3 - 3-by-3 Map to Categorize Groupware (Grundin, 1994)
Meeting facilitation Work shifts Team rooms
Electronic mail Collaborative writing Tele/video/dektop
conferencing
Computer bulletin
boards Workflow
Interactive Multicast seminars Same
Different but predictable
Different and unpredictable
Same Different but predictable
Different and unpredictable
Time
P la ce
University
different authors have different kinds of applications in mind when using this term (Grundin, 1994).According to Krasner, Mclnroy and Walz (1991) groupware is a specific aspect of CSCW relating to the information technologies required to actively facilitate collaborating users. Groupware should enable groups that are geographically and temporally distributed to work together effectively.
Grundin (1994) refers to a 3-by-3-map to categorize groupware software (see Figure 3) based on the space/time categorization of DeSanctis and Gallupe (1987). Hertel et al. (2005) state that groupware can be classified according to the necessary coordination efforts or their necessary interdependence, ranging from low--where only information exchange is supported--to high--where activities in the group are coordinated. Groupware applications in the field of CSCW are often classified according to the CSCW-Matrix first introduced by Johansen (1988) (see Figure 4).
Figure 4 - CSCW-Matrix (Johansen, 1988)
Continuous task
Team rooms, large public display, shift work groupware, project management,...
same place colocatedsame place colocateddifferent place remotedifferent place remote
Taking the cooperation aspect into account, the triangle sourced from Sauter, Mühlherr and Teufel (1994) shows an alternative way to categorize groupware according to the main mode of how interaction in the group is supported (See Figure 5).
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Figure 5 - Categorizing Groupware according to Different interaction modes (Sauter, Mühlherr, &
Teufel, 1994)
Communication Support
Coordination Support
Cooperation Support Conferencing
Systems
Message Systems
Share Information
Spaces Group Editors Workflow
Management Electronic
Meeting Rooms
Based on Briggs (1994), the team theory of group productivity (Nunamaker, Briggs, Mittleman, Vogel, & Balthazard, 1996) proposes a three-by-three-Matrix (see Figure 6) for groupware categorization with a horizontal axis of communication, deliberation, and information access. According to Nunamaker et al. (1996, p. 165), team theory
is a causal model for the productivity of a team. It asserts that team members divide their limited attention resources among three cognitive processes: communication, deliberation, and information access. Team Theory posits that these processes interfere with one another, limiting group productivity.
According to this theory communication addresses the attention that team members pay to choosing words, their behaviors, images, and artifacts, as well as presenting them through a medium to other team members. The term “deliberation” describes the cognitive effort made by team member’s when forming intentions towards accomplishing a goal. This includes the classic problem-solving activities. Finally, the information-access element refers to the demands of finding, storing,
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processing, and retrieving the information needed to support deliberation (Nunamaker, Briggs, Mittleman, Vogel, & Balthazard, 1996).
Based on team theory, the horizontal axis describes the potential of technology/groupware to reduce the cognitive costs or joint effort of the group to achieve a goal. Groups may become less productive if the attention demands for communication, deliberation, or information access are too high. Therefore, Groupware may improve productivity to the degree that it reduces the attention costs of these three processes.
Figure 6 - Groupware Grid (Nunamaker, Briggs, Mittleman, Vogel, & Balthazard, 1996, p. 166)