GVT Week 1

social categorization

extent to which teams are divided in subgroups which creates ingroups based on perceived differences between members

team

a bounded and stable set of individuals interdependent for a common purpose

global virtual team

temporary, culturally diverse, geographically dispersed, and electronically communicating work groups

why are global virtual teams useful

• better utilization of talent

• staffing flexibility

• pooling insights

• better problem solving

• enhanced communication across different time zones

implications of intergroup bias

dislike, distrust, stereotype, de-individualize, apply dispositional vs contextual attributionand promote in-group favoritism.

fault lines

situation when differences in a team are aligned in such a way that makes easy division in subgroups possible

implications of social categorization

reduced identification, lack of trust, increased interpersonal conflict, lack of cooperation

mutual knowledge problem

interactants lack a shared understanding of relevant informationthat is critical for effective communication and collaboration.

3 mechanisms of mutual knowledge problem

• Direct knowledge

• Interactional dynamics

• Category membership

consequences of failure to establish mutual knowledge problem

• Reduced information elaboration

• Incomplete information

• Reduced coordination

• Biased decision making

direct knowledge

first hand experience; one can make informed guesses about what they know on the basis of experiences from firsthand observation

interactional dynamics

direct knowledge can be established through interaction; groups that meet face to face tend to dwell on commonly held information and overlook uniquely held information

category membership

people make assumptions about others’ knowledge on basis of social categorization

5 problems observed in Cramton (2001)

• Failure to communicate/retain contextual information

  • Differences in organizational context

• Unevenly distributed information

• Differences in salient information

• Differences in speed of access to information

• Interpreting meaning of silence

attribution theory

theory of how people perceive the causes of their own and others’ behavior and attributing it to internal or external factors

fault lines according to Polzer et al. (2006)

hypothetical dividing lines that split a group into subgroups

Polzer et al. (2006) summary

• Team members experience more conflict with and less trust in distant teammates who belong to homogeneous subgroups than distant teammates who belong to heterogeneous subgroups

• Fault lines → situation when differences in a team are aligned in such a way that makes easy division in subgroups possible

• Found that geographic fault lines heightened conflict and reduced trust

hidden profiles in teams from Cramton (2001)

members often have different/unique information regarding an issue, yet are not aware that this is the case

implications of “Us vs. them”

• Reduced identification with team as a whole

• Lack of trust

• Increased interpersonal conflict

• Lack of cooperation

Cramton (2001) summary

• difficulty gathering and remembering information about contexts within which their distant partners worked

• failed to communicate important information

• failure to recognize differences

• organizational conflicts

• errors in online communication

• writers assumed what was salient to them was also salient to readers

• slower rates of communication via computer-mediated communication

cognitive load

process of acquiring schemas in long term memory from the working memory