Title

A meta-analytic investigation of virtuality and information sharing in teams

Authors

Authors

J. R. Mesmer-Magnus; L. A. DeChurch; M. Jimenez-Rodriguez; J. Wildman;M. Shuffler

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process.

Keywords

Team; Group; Information sharing; Virtual; Virtuality; GROUP DECISION-MAKING; COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION; FACE-TO-FACE; COUNTERFACTUAL MIND-SETS; UNSHARED INFORMATION; SUPPORT-SYSTEMS; SHARED; INFORMATION; GROUP JUDGMENT; WORK GROUPS; KNOWLEDGE; Psychology, Applied; Management; Psychology, Social

Abstract

We uncover new insights on the role of virtuality on team information sharing. A new two-dimensional conceptualization of information sharing (Mesmer-Magnus & DeChurch, 2009) enabled us to reconcile past inconsistencies in the virtual team literature. Recasting the findings of 94 studies (total number of groups = 5596; total N approximately = 19,702) into this framework reveals three key insights. First, virtuality improves the sharing of unique information, but hinders the openness of information sharing. Second, unique information sharing is more important to the performance of face-to-face teams than is open information sharing, whereas open information sharing is more important to the performance of virtual teams than is unique information sharing. Third, the effects of virtuality on information sharing are more curvilinear than linear - such that low levels of virtuality improve information sharing, but high levels hider it. Implications for research and practice are discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Volume

115

Issue/Number

2

Publication Date

1-1-2011

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

214

Last Page

225

WOS Identifier

WOS:000291920100007

ISSN

0749-5978

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