A Process Model for Virtual Collaboration: Theoretical Synthesis and Empirical Exploration

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When individuals collaborated in virtual settings, communication is medicated through a variety of communication technologies, and is associated not only with communication effectiveness but also with socio-emotional interactions among group members. In this regards, scholars have examined how technology-mediated communication systems can be designed and used to facilitated communication interaction. However, the empirical results of the previous studies have revealed inconsistencies in the effects of communication media on users' behavioral or attitudinal responses, and on their viable effectiveness in organizations. Some studies claim that computer-mediated communication(CMC) is task-oriented but not suitable for emotional expression since it hinders close interpersonal interaction. On the other hand, some studies argue that individuals are able to develop interpersonal relationships more effectively in a CMC environment than in an FtF-environment. Due to the different perspectives, a theoretical gap exists, and it leads to the inconsistent research findings. The purpose of this paper is to combine the two different perspectives into single unified model, thereby providing a more realistic and comprehensive understanding about virtual collaboration. The present study here sought to answers the following questions with organizational communication perspective: What are the major components of virtual collaboration? What factors affect the performance of virtual collaboration? And what kind of managerial efforts should organization make in order to facilitate CMC media effectiveness in virtual collaboration? Although there is a certain belief that new media, namely technology-mediated communication support would create new opportunities, the problem of "how" or "why" has been an important question that is still not fully addressed. In this regards, we collectively reexamined previous literatures with major issues which are still controversial and integrated various theoretical activity within computer-mediated communication domain: task-oriented approach, socio-emotional approach, and evolutionary psychological approach. Our first contribution is to develop a framework for virtual collaboration by combining two different perspectives into a single unified model, providing a more realistic and comprehensive understanding. The second main contribution is the joint modeling of both social presence and cognitive effort, and the effects on two distinct but important communication outcomes(i.e., take performance and relational development). We tested the research hypotheses which were developed based on the various CMC theories using data gathered through a self-administered mail survey of 127 individuals of 69 virtual workgroups. The proposed model was supported, providing preliminary evidence that the tension between two opposite view should be integrated. The results show that the individual's psychological processes(social presence and cognitive effort) in a virtual environment significantly mediated the effect of CMC inputs (media richness, user adaptation, and shared contest) on the CMC outputs (task performance and relational development). Furthermore, this study shows that the lack of perceived media richness of CMC media can be complemented by user adaptation and shared context. Based on the results, we discuss how communication system should be designed and implemented so as to promote virtual interaction as well as how a virtual workgroup should be composed to complement the lack of media richness. A virtual collaboration using CMC media may create new value by overcoming the logistical constraints. On the other hand, it may also generate various managerial risks such as communicational depersonalization, process dissatisfaction, and low cohesion. Therefore, this study suggests that organization managers should carefully choose the CMC mediums and monitor individual member's cognitive and affective psychological processes during virtual collaboration to reduce potential risks in virtual collaboration.