A study on the success of group formation and cohesiveness in virtual teams using computer-mediated communications

While the Internet is a major business tool nowadays, individuals are still challenged to form teams and collaboration virtually. To evaluate the success of team formation in a virtual setting, this research study assessed the role of different computer-mediated communications (CMC) employed on the success of team formation measured by task performance (TP), team cohesiveness (TC), computer skills (CS) and social bond (SB), while assessing the differences on such relationships when controlled for gender, age, education level, academic major, as well as academic year. This research used analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to address the hypotheses proposed. Using three teams and 140 participants, the results indicated that there is a significance difference in the role of CMC levels employed on the level of perception of CS in team formation. Also, there is a significance difference in the role of CMC levels employed on the levels of TP, when controlled for gender. In addition, there is a significance difference in the role of CMC levels employed (No-CMS/F2F, OLS, & OLS+SNS) on the levels of CS, when controlled for education, academic major and academic year. The results of this study contribute to the body of knowledge by helping organizations identify ways to support effective team formations.