Shared Realms of Consideration in Virtual Teams: Some Field-Based Experiences

Research on media effects suggests that the collaborative technologies (CTs) used by teams influence intervening group processes and ultimately team effectiveness. While much of the work on media effects has not occurred in a field setting, we believe it can be useful in explaining how choices about technological capabilities help or hinder the relational development and task outcomes of teams. We conducted a field-based, longitudinal study of three virtual teams. Over a six month period we captured data about their relational development, technology awareness and choices, and their performance. From this data we draw inferences about how members’ individual awareness of various technologies affected group choices about technology used to execute group tasks. Further, we develop a new concept, the realm of consideration, a cognitive list of functionalities embedded in various collaborative technologies from which the user selects alternatives, to aid our understanding of the group technology choice processes and their outcomes.