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include knowledge management, IT enabled organizational forms such as virtual teams and communities,

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This article reviews theories of organizational communication with a special emphasis on theories that have been used to explain computer-mediated communication phenomena. Among the theories reviewed, two—social presence and media richness—are identified as problematic and as posing obstacles to future theoretical development. While shortcomings of these theories have been identified in the past, some of these theories ’ predictions have been supported by empirical evidence. It is argued that this theoretical dilemma can be resolved based upon principles derived from a modern version of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection and the application of those principles to the understanding of human evolution. A new theoretical model called the psychobiological model is developed, which predicts variations in cognitive effort in computer-mediated collaborative tasks. The model proposes that there is a negative causal link between the “naturalness ” of a computer-mediated communication medium, which is the similarity of the medium to the face-to-face medium, and the cognitive effort required from an individual using the medium for knowledge transfer. The model also states that this link is counterbalanced by what are referred to as “schema alignment ” and “cognitive adaptation. ” The schema alignment construct refers to the similarity between the mental schemas of an individual and those of other participant(s). The cognitive adaptation construct refers to an individual’s level of schema development associated with the use of a particular medium. Finally, the model states that the degree to which the medium supports an individual’s ability to convey and listen to speech is particularly significant in defining its naturalness, more so than the medium’s degree of

Ineffective use of text-based synchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC), that is, chats, may affect the quality of communicative exchange compared to effective use and to face-to-face (FtF) communication. Especially in groups making decisions in equivocal judgmental tasks, inappropriate use of the CMC medium often impairs performance. Users need high communication and media competencies to overcome the negative effects brought about by the technology. Without intervention, mutual understanding and satisfaction with the group process are reduced in computer-mediated decision groups. Training that helps participants adapt to the medium should provide them with the needed competencies. The authors found a complex pattern of process and outcome effects with the best performance scores in the FtF condition, performance scores in CMC with training approximating those of the FtF condition, and lowest performance scores in CMC without training.

One widely accepted theory on media use is media richness theory. However, media richness theory was developed without consideration of new electronic media and the many social factors that can influence media selection, communication processes, and outcomes. Recent empirical investigations have raised questions about media richness theory's applicability to these new media. Therefore, this paper presents a new theory called media synchronicity theory (MST) which proposes that all tasks are composed of two fundamental communication processes (conveyance and convergence). Thus, communication effectiveness is influenced by matching the media capabilities to the needs of the fundamental communication processes, not aggregate collections of these processes (i.e., tasks) as tested in examinations of media richness theory. A laboratory experiment was conducted to provide an initial investigation into the theoretical underpinnings of MST. This study examined the influence of different media on conveyance and convergence effectiveness. Results from this study provide preliminary support for the concepts embodied in MST. I.

Software development teams are often geographically distributed from their customers and end users. This creates significant communication and coordination challenges that impact the effectiveness of requirements engineering. Travel costs, and the local availability of quality technical staff increase the demand for effective distributed software development teams. This research reports an empirical study of how groupware can be used to aid distributed requirements engineering for a software development project. Six groups of seven to nine members were formed and divided into separate remote groups of customers and engineers. The engineers conducted a requirements analysis and produced a software requirements specification (SRS) document through distributed interaction with the remote customers. We present results and conclusions from the research including: an analysis of factors that effected the quality of the Software Requirements Specification document written at the conclusion of the requirements process and the effectiveness of requirements elicitation techniques which were used in a distributed setting for requirements gathering. 1.

Abstract. The main thesis developed in this chapter is that in order to make progress in managing network-based group collaboration by means of more or less intelligent IT, a broad concept of what makes groups function needs to be at the basis. In reviewing some of the current collaboration management tools, it is concluded that these are often very good in supporting the problem-solving function of groups. Other functions of groups have been identified in psychological and organisational research and some of the more important findings are reported. As these findings stress the importance of helping group members to monitor the group’s performance, we report the outcomes of two empirical studies that looked into the effectiveness of providing this sort of monitoring information to groups. Various forms of learning in groups are increasingly often employed in net-based scenarios where students ‘meet ’ in ‘virtual ’ form independent of location and – in the case of asynchronous communication – independent of time. Building on an extensive knowledge base that results from many years of experience with group learning forms in classrooms [1, 2] as well as from theory building and research contributions [3], the e-learning

Important and yet very difficult process in software development, requirements engineering is plagued with additional challenges in the emergent dynamics of geographically distributed software teams. Our hypothesis is that a mix of lean and rich communication media are needed towards increasing the effectiveness of meetings in reaching mutual agreement when stakeholders are geographically dispersed. We studied tool-supported remote inspections in six educational global project teams in a multicultural software development environment. In this paper we present the preliminary results from comparing the effectiveness of the requirements negotiations when preceded by the asynchronous discussions to those negotiations with no prior asynchronous discussions. Categories and Subject Descriptors D.2.1 [Software Engineering]: Requirements/Specifications – methodologies, tools; K.4.3 [Computers and Society]: