System structure design and social consequence: The impact of message templates on affectivity in virtual teams.

摘要

Teams whose interactions are mediated entirely via Internet-based communication, virtual teams, are emerging as commonplace in both business and education settings. Researchers have identified trust as a key ingredient necessary for virtual teams to work effectively (Beranek, 2000; Iacono & Weisband, 1997; Jarvenpaa, Knoll, & Leidner, 1998). However, researchers have not identified scalable methods that consistently promote trust within virtual teams.; To address this problem, this study adopted a strategy of modifying the design of a communication system for virtual teams. The purpose of this study was to investigate a potential means of promoting trust within virtual teams while advancing the body of empirical research in this area. Specifically, this study examined the impact of a template-driven messaging system on the development of perceptions of integrity, benevolence, ability and overall trustworthiness with a virtual team setting. These variables compose the antecedents of trust in the Jarvenpaa et al. (1998) model of trust this study adopted.; The study was conducted with a group of 40 MBA students who completed a problem while working in a virtual team. After being randomly assigned to treatment groups, participants completed pre- and post-intervention questionnaires and five participants completed additional interviews. The text of participants' messages, questionnaire results, and interview transcripts were analyzed to understand how the template-driven system affected trust development.; The resulting analysis suggests that participants using the template-driven messaging system authored more messages, read a greater percent of the available messages, and perceived their team members as having a higher level of ability than participants using a regular message system.