Effects of Technology In Mediating Telework

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Effects of Technology In Mediating Telework
Virtual Teams

• Michael Workman, Ph.D.

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Proximal
Equivocal
Organic
Uncertainty
Agile Methodology
Mechanistic
Heuristic
Structured Methodology
Non-conformity (i.e. creativity)
Rule-based (programmable)
Virtual
Conformity
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Behaving is interaction! Not isolated

• P-E fit theory, social influence theory, social
  identity theory, theory of reasoned action and
  planned behavior

Person
Environment
Behavior
Banduras (1986) model of triadic reciprocality
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A question of interest (to me)

• What are the effects of technology on behavior?
• Why does this question matter?
• Nearly all professional work involves some form
  (and degree) of technology intermediation.
• How to study this?
• Pure virtual teams can help isolate the effects.

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Virtual team defined

• Collaborative groups with members who work in
  dispersed locations
• Teleworkers are a subset
• Tasks involve cooperation and negotiation
  (interdependence)
• Technology mediates communication

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Estimated 30 million in v.t. 5.2 - 10.4 growth
rate
 
Teleworkers in Virtual Teams Estimates in
Millions
2000 2006 Estimated
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
2003 2004 2005 2006
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Growth drivers

• Maturing technology
• Tax incentives to businesses
• E.g Federal Clean Air Act
• Cost savings
• Employee benefit
• Reduced pollution and gasoline consumption
• Flexible workforce
• Globalization

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Not all are successful

• Research shows 1/5 to 1/2 of the innovations are
  failing!
• Why? What are the factors
• Lets look at some interaction, work context, and
  organizational factors

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People communicate by means of channels

• Linguistic verbal communication.
• Paralinguistic intonations, verbal patterns,
  pauses.
• Non-linguistic eye gaze, posture, gestures and
  signs (e.g. blushing).
• Collectively, they provide shared context.
• For example, a shift in eye gaze is used for turn
  taking or to signal boredom or indicates
  disinterest.

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Communication success depends on

• Articulation express ideas and information
• How well conveyed?
• Negotiation meaningful dialog
• How well understood?
• Consolidation shared conceptions
• How bi-directionally congruent?

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Media affect people both universally and
individually

• How do we know?
• Universal People reliably detect changes in
  technologically rendered visual cues when they
  are consistent as opposed to ambiguous and
  inconsistent.
• Individual Yet people exhibit differences in
  perceptual judgments and differences in
  sensitivity to visual display cues and graphical
  display information.

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Media characteristics
Hertz Frequency or Cycles Per Second 
 
Analog
Low Frequency (low pitch)
 
High Frequency (high pitch)
Digital
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(No Transcript)
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Telephone only 37 of sound the voice can emit
Hertz 20 50 100 300
4,000 10,000 15,000 20,000
Ear
 
Voice
 
Phone
Difficult in some telephone conversations to
detect subtle emotive nuances such as the
difference between excitement and agitation, or
boredom and relaxation -- particularly without a
visual component!
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Some more technology mediated characteristics

• Differences in the sizes and resolution of
  computer screens make some electronic texts more
  difficult to read.
• Lags in time/space dimension of e-mail.
• Reduced formal interaction with supervisors and
  peers.
• Reduced informal interaction that normally takes
  place in a traditional office setting.
• Reduction in virtual coworkers abilities to
  acquire tacit knowledge.

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More characteristics

• Interactions that take place are altered
• This may tend to make people objectify virtual
  others sometimes causing unusual hostility and
  alienation (e.g. flaming effects).
• Other times, unqualified intimacy.
• Fewer cues to form shared context and develop
  understanding.
• Fewer opportunities to share or model coworkers
  approaches to work.

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Virtual teamwork is

• More solitary
• Less (externally supplied) structure
• Increased ambiguity
• Moderated by the use of media with varying
  degrees of richness
• The more a medium resembles face-to-face, the
  richer the medium.
• Leaner the media, the more it constrains
  interaction.

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People report differently about this phenomenon

• Some people report a sense of isolation and
  remoteness
• Other people report a feeling of flexibility and
  freedom
• What accounts for these different perspectives of
  the same phenomenon?

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Cognitive styles

• Not the same as ability or IQ
• Ways of gathering and conceptualizing information
• Part genetic, part environmental as an
  interaction (epigenesis theory)
• Many theories/frameworks, most have died off in
  research except Sternbergs (1997) theory of
  mental self-government ?

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Scope

• Use brain storming, and reciprocal ideational
  generation

Externals
What about this?
But what if thus and so?
Interaction is a means of cognitive priming
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Scope
What about this? But what if thus and so?
Internals
Introspective, deliberative
Interaction is disruptive to their concentration
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Leaning
  Conservative

• Aversion to unfamiliarity
• Like structure and order

Prefer observational modeling methods
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Leaning
Liberal

• Prefer novelty
• Do not like structure

Prefer to take their own courses of action
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Level
The sentence below is true. - - - - - - - - -
- The sentence above is false.
Fuzzy mental representations with thin cognitive
boundaries Thinks in shades of gray
    Global
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Global continued
This dimension correlates with career choices
Information is easily abstracted between
cognitive categories Ambiguous information
corresponds naturally with how they categorize,
compare and process mental structures
e.g. many social science professors
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Level
Derive rigid concepts with thick cognitive
boundaries
Local
Either A is true or A is false.
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Local continued
Uses more information and concrete detail to
construct or compare mental representations


This dimension correlates with career choices
e.g. many accountants
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Workman, M., Kahnweiler, W., Bommer, W. (2003).
The effects of cognitive style and technology
media on commitment to telework and virtual
teams, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 63,
199-219.

• Cognitive styles accounted for 41 of performance
  variance.
• CS x media added an additional 7.
• Internal (B.44), Liberal (B.14), Global
  (B.38) perform the best
• Richer media (e.g. telephone rather than email,
  and video teleconferencing rather than telephone)
  helps Externals and Conservatives, but not
  Locals.

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Quick glance (team-level)

• Two other studies at a glance
• Proximal-Virtual continuum on conflict, cohesion,
  task-relationship orientation, and technical v.
  social skills.
• Socio-cultural structuring and team boundary
  permeability on performance (schedule and
  budget).

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Workman, M. (2007). Virtual team performance and
the proximal-virtual team continuum. Journal of
the American Society for Information Science and
Technology, 58, 729-744.
?R2 .015 plt .000
? .279 plt.000
Cohesion
Task
Relation
Technical
? .184 plt.000
Social
?R2 .006 p .017
Conflict
Proximal ----------------------------------
Virtual
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Workman, M. (2004). Goals, relationships,
information, and processes in global virtual
teams. Journal of Management Decision Making,
5, 348-372
? 1.16 plt .000
Tight control
Process
? .62 p.039
Budget and Schedule variance
More structure
Less structure
Results
? -1.11 plt.000
Loose control
Boundary permeability
NOTE Opposite of proximal results!
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Cognitive style flexibility

• Some people have flexible styles
• They may perform well, but may quit to find more
  a compatible environment.
• Flexibility can be developed.
• Cognitive cueing strategies (redirect the learner
  inward).
• Metacognitive awareness development.
• Socratic dialog.
• ASA Model (people may quit).

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Implications

• Processes must increase structure and
  specificity.
• Processes must support communications.
• Processes must enable boundary permeation.
• Processes must facilitate management and
  oversight.