TY - JOUR
T1 - E-collaboration media use and diversity perceptions
T2 - An evolutionary perspective of virtual organizations
AU - Thatcher, Sherry M.B.
AU - Brown, Susan A.
AU - Jenkins, Jeffrey L.
N1 - Funding Information:
The impetus for this paper comes from work the first two authors have done on National Science Foundation Award OCI- 0838361: Differences in space: Diversity and virtual organization evolution. We would also like to thank Ned Kock for his comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. Sherry M. B. Thatcher is an associate professor of Management in the University of Louisville's Department of Management and Entrepreneurship. She received her Ph.D. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research revolves around teams and focuses on issues of diversity, faultlines, identity, the social effects of computer communication technologies, and team conflict. She has published in a number of journals including The Academy of Management Journal, The Academy of Management Review, Organizational Science, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Group Decision and Negotiation, and Negotiation and Conflict Management Research . She serves on the Editorial Review Boards of The Academy of Management Review and Small Group Research. Susan A. Brown is a McCoy Rogers Fellow and an associate professor of Management Information Systems in the University of Arizona's Eller College of Management. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from Syracuse University. Her research interests include technology implementation, individual adoption, computer-mediated communication, technology-mediated learning, and related topics. Her research has been published in MIS Quarterly, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Information Systems Research, Journal of MIS, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management , Communications of the ACM, and others. She has served or is currently serving as an associate editor for MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of the AIS, and Decision Sciences. Jeffrey L. Jenkins is a PhD student in the Department of Management Information Systems, University of Arizona. He is a National Science Foundation Fellow and a Science Foundation Arizona Fellow. His research interests include e-collaboration, behavioral information security and policy, unobtrusive sensor systems, and persuasive technology. He has published his research in several journals and conference proceedings. Jeffrey worked for several years as a software-engineer and IT analyst in both public and private sectors. He completed his Master’s degree in Information Systems Management and the PhD Preparation Program at the Marriott School of Management, Brigham Young University where he was awarded the outstanding graduate student award.
PY - 2012/4
Y1 - 2012/4
N2 - Virtual organizations enable collaboration and interaction among a diverse set of people regardless of their temporal and spatial dispersion. Throughout the life of a virtual organization, diversity plays an influential role in determining outcomes that ultimately affect the longevity and success of the organization. The goal of this paper is to describe the role diversity plays during different organizational evolutionary approaches, and how e-collaboration media characteristics interact with diversity and organizational evolution to influence outcomes. The authors leverage media synchronicity theory to discuss how the characteristics of different e-collaboration media can reduce or enhance perceived diversity. The role that perceived diversity has in determining outcomes is a function of whether a virtual organization is evolving according to the life-cycle, telelogical, or dialectic evolutionary approaches. Guided by organizational evolution, diversity, attribution, and media theories, the authors propose a theoretical framework with a set ofpropositions. The authors also provide an illustration of how the framework may be implemented by managers of virtual organizations.
AB - Virtual organizations enable collaboration and interaction among a diverse set of people regardless of their temporal and spatial dispersion. Throughout the life of a virtual organization, diversity plays an influential role in determining outcomes that ultimately affect the longevity and success of the organization. The goal of this paper is to describe the role diversity plays during different organizational evolutionary approaches, and how e-collaboration media characteristics interact with diversity and organizational evolution to influence outcomes. The authors leverage media synchronicity theory to discuss how the characteristics of different e-collaboration media can reduce or enhance perceived diversity. The role that perceived diversity has in determining outcomes is a function of whether a virtual organization is evolving according to the life-cycle, telelogical, or dialectic evolutionary approaches. Guided by organizational evolution, diversity, attribution, and media theories, the authors propose a theoretical framework with a set ofpropositions. The authors also provide an illustration of how the framework may be implemented by managers of virtual organizations.
KW - Diversity
KW - E-collaboration
KW - Media characteristics
KW - Media synchronicity theory
KW - Organizational evolution
KW - Social and task outcomes
KW - Virtual organizations
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U2 - 10.4018/jec.2012040103
DO - 10.4018/jec.2012040103
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84870259706
SN - 1548-3673
VL - 8
SP - 28
EP - 46
JO - International Journal of e-Collaboration
JF - International Journal of e-Collaboration
IS - 2
ER -