The Impact and Evolution of Group Diversity in Online Open Collaboration

Online open collaboration efforts, such as Wikipedia articles and open source software development, often involve a large crowd with diverse experiences and interests. Diversity, on the one hand, facilitates the access to and integration of a wide variety of information; on the other hand, it may cause conflict and hurt group performance. Although diversity’s effects have been the subject of many studies in offline work groups (with the results remaining inconclusive), its effects in online self-organizing groups are underexplored. In this paper, we examine 648 WikiProjects to understand (1) how tenure disparity and interest variety affect group productivity and member withdrawal and (2) how the two types of diversity evolve over time. Our results show a curvilinear effect of tenure disparity, which increases productivity and decreases member withdrawal, up to a point. Beyond that point, productivity slightly decreases, and members are more likely to withdraw. In comparison, our results show a positive ef...

[1]  Brian S. Butler,et al.  Don't look now, but we've created a bureaucracy: the nature and roles of policies and rules in wikipedia , 2008, CHI.

[2]  Gary L. Lilien,et al.  Location, Location, Location: How Network Embeddedness Affects Project Success in Open Source Systems , 2006, Manag. Sci..

[3]  Nicolas Ducheneaut,et al.  Socialization in an Open Source Software Community: A Socio-Technical Analysis , 2005, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

[4]  Robert E. Cole,et al.  From a Firm-Based to a Community-Based Model of Knowledge Creation: The Case of the Linux Kernel Development , 2003, Organ. Sci..

[5]  Patricia R. Ladd.  The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World’s Greatest Encyclopedia , 2011 .

[6]  L. Terveen,et al.  Becoming Wikipedian : Transformation of Participation in a Collaborative Online Encyclopedia , 2009 .

[7]  Karim R. Lakhani,et al.  Why Hackers Do What They Do: Understanding Motivation and Effort in Free/Open Source Software Projects , 2003 .

[8]  David R. Anderson,et al.  Multimodel Inference , 2004 .

[9]  Ann Majchrzak,et al.  Knowledge Collaboration in Online Communities , 2011, Organ. Sci..

[10]  S. Stewman.  Organizational demography. , 1988, Annual review of sociology.

[11]  Aniket Kittur,et al.  Harnessing the wisdom of crowds in wikipedia: quality through coordination , 2008, CSCW.

[12]  Gerald C. Kane,et al.  Emergent Life Cycle: The Tension Between Knowledge Change and Knowledge Retention in Open Online Coproduction Communities , 2014, Manag. Sci..

[13]  Katherine J. Stewart,et al.  Exploring Complexity in Open Source Software: Evolutionary Patterns, Antecedents, and Outcomes , 2010, 2010 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[14]  Albert A. Cannella,et al.  Top Management Team Functional Background Diversity and Firm Performance: Examining The Roles of Team Member Colocation and Environmental Uncertainty , 2008 .

[15]  Pamela J. Hinds,et al.  Team diversity and information use , 2005 .

[16]  Sandra Slaughter,et al.  Understanding the Motivations, Participation, and Performance of Open Source Software Developers: A Longitudinal Study of the Apache Projects , 2006, Manag. Sci..

[17]  Ivan Beschastnikh,et al.  Community, consensus, coercion, control: cs*w or how policy mediates mass participation , 2007, GROUP.

[18]  Amrit Tiwana,et al.  Special Issue: Information Technology and Organizational Governance: The IT Governance Cube , 2013, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[19]  B. Shneiderman,et al.  The Reader-to-Leader Framework: Motivating Technology-Mediated Social Participation , 2009 .

[20]  D. Harrison,et al.  Beyond Relational Demography: Time and the Effects of Surface- and Deep-Level Diversity on Work Group Cohesion , 1998 .

[21]  Gerald C. Kane,et al.  Online communities: explaining rises and falls from grace in wikipedia , 2011 .

[22]  Aniket Kittur,et al.  He says, she says: conflict and coordination in Wikipedia , 2007, CHI.

[23]  David A. Belsley,et al.  Regression Analysis and its Application: A Data-Oriented Approach.@@@Applied Linear Regression.@@@Regression Diagnostics: Identifying Influential Data and Sources of Collinearity , 1981 .

[24]  Elizabeth A. Mannix,et al.  Should I Stay or Should I Go? , 2003 .

[25]  Atreyi Kankanhalli,et al.  Conflict and Performance in Global Virtual Teams , 2006, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[26]  Blake Ives,et al.  Harnessing the Power of the Crowds with Corporate Social Networking Tools: How IBM Does It , 2009, MIS Q. Executive.

[27]  Kevin Crowston,et al.  The social structure of free and open source software development , 2005, First Monday.

[28]  C. Cramton.  The Mutual Knowledge Problem and Its Consequences for Dispersed Collaboration , 2001 .

[29]  M. Hogg,et al.  Book Review: Social identifications: A social psychology of intergroup relations and group processes , 1991 .

[30]  L. H. Pelled.  Demographic Diversity, Conflict, and Work Group Outcomes: An Intervening Process Theory , 1996 .

[31]  Sherae L. Daniel,et al.  Network Effects in OSS Development: The Impact of Users and Developers on Project Performance , 2008, ICIS.

[32]  John Riedl,et al.  The effects of diversity on group productivity and member withdrawal in online volunteer groups , 2010, CHI.

[33]  W. P. Barnett,et al.  Work group demography, social integration, and turnover. , 1989 .

[34]  Jennifer M Talarico,et al.  A review of 40 years of research , 2018 .

[35]  Aaron Halfaker,et al.  Don't bite the newbies: how reverts affect the quantity and quality of Wikipedia work , 2011, Int. Sym. Wikis.

[36]  John Riedl,et al.  Using intelligent task routing and contribution review to help communities build artifacts of lasting value , 2006, CHI.

[37]  Francesco Rullani,et al.  Skills, Division of Labor and Performance in Collective Inventions. Evidence from the Open Source Software , 2004 .

[38]  Deborah G. . Ancona,et al.  Demography and Design: Predictors of New Product Team Performance , 1992 .

[39]  D. van Knippenberg,et al.  Work group diversity. , 2007, Annual review of psychology.

[40]  J. K. Murnighan,et al.  Demographic Diversity and Faultlines: The Compositional DYnamics of Organizational Groups , 1998 .

[41]  Satish Nambisan,et al.  Different Roles, Different Strokes: Organizing Virtual Customer Environments to Promote Two Types of Customer Contributions , 2010, Organ. Sci..

[42]  Jan de Leeuw,et al.  Introducing Multilevel Modeling , 1998 .

[43]  Daniel Stewart.  Social Status in an Open-Source Community , 2005 .

[44]  Sonali K. Shah.  Motivation, Governance, and the Viability of Hybrid Forms in Open Source Software Development , 2006, Manag. Sci..

[45]  Ed H. Chi,et al.  The singularity is not near: slowing growth of Wikipedia , 2009, Int. Sym. Wikis.

[46]  Utpal M. Dholakia,et al.  Open Source Software User Communities: A Study of Participation in Linux User Groups , 2006, Manag. Sci..

[47]  Gerald C. Kane,et al.  The Shoemaker's Children: Using Wikis for Information Systems Teaching, Research, and Publication , 2009, MIS Q..

[48]  Benjamin Schneider,et al.  The ASA framework: An update. , 1995 .

[49]  Gerald C. Kane,et al.  Membership Turnover and Collaboration Success in Online Communities: Explaining Rises , 2011, MIS Q..

[50]  X. Zhang,et al.  Group Size and Incentives to Contribute: A Natural Experiment at Chinese Wikipedia , 2010 .

[51]  John Riedl,et al.  WP:clubhouse?: an exploration of Wikipedia's gender imbalance , 2011, Int. Sym. Wikis.

[52]  Clay Shirky.  Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations , 2008 .

[53]  Christophe Boone,et al.  Top Management Team Diversity and Firm Performance: Moderators of Functional-Background and Locus-of-Control Diversity , 2009, Manag. Sci..

[54]  Robert E. Kraut,et al.  Mopping up: modeling wikipedia promotion decisions , 2008, CSCW.

[55]  Linus Dahlander,et al.  Progressing to the Center: Coordinating Project Work , 2011, Organ. Sci..

[56]  Katherine J. Stewart,et al.  The Effects of Diversity in Global, Distributed Collectives: A Study of Open Source Project Success , 2013, Inf. Syst. Res..

[57]  C. D. De Dreu,et al.  Work group diversity and group performance: an integrative model and research agenda. , 2004, The Journal of applied psychology.

[58]  G. V. D. Vegt,et al.  Learning and performance in multidisciplinary teams: The importance of collective team identification , 2005 .

[59]  John Riedl,et al.  Searching for the goldilocks zone: trade-offs in managing online volunteer groups , 2012, CSCW.

[60]  M. Markus.  The governance of free/open source software projects: monolithic, multidimensional, or configurational? , 2007 .

[61]  Frances J. Milliken,et al.  Searching for Common Threads: Understanding the Multiple Effects of Diversity in Organizational Groups , 1996 .

[62]  Brian S. Butler,et al.  A N A TTRACTION –S ELECTION –A TTRITION T HEORY OF O NLINE C OMMUNITY S IZE AND R ESILIENCE 1 , 2014 .

[63]  Anthony S. Bryk,et al.  Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods , 1992 .

[64]  Katherine J. Stewart,et al.  The Impact of Ideology on Effectiveness in Open Source Software Development Teams , 2006, MIS Q..

[65]  Georg von Krogh,et al.  Open Source Software and the "Private-Collective" Innovation Model: Issues for Organization Science , 2003, Organ. Sci..

[66]  Tammy L. Rapp,et al.  Team Effectiveness 1997-2007: A Review of Recent Advancements and a Glimpse Into the Future , 2008 .

[67]  Lucy Gilson,et al.  Virtual Teams: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go From Here? , 2004 .

[68]  Dan Cosley,et al.  What's mine is mine: territoriality in collaborative authoring , 2009, CHI.

[69]  C. Cramton.  Finding common ground in dispersed collaboration. , 2002 .

[70]  S. K. Horwitz,et al.  The Effects of Team Diversity on Team Outcomes: A Meta-Analytic Review of Team Demography , 2007 .

[71]  Arthur G. Bedeian,et al.  On the Use of the Coefficient of Variation as a Measure of Diversity , 2000 .

[72]  D. Harrison,et al.  What's the difference? Diversity constructs as separation, variety, or disparity in organizations. , 2007 .

[73]  Traci Carte,et al.  A Capabilities-Based Theory of Technology Deployment in Diverse Teams: Leapfrogging the Pitfalls of Diversity and Leveraging Its Potential with Collaborative Technology , 2004, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[74]  Katherine J. Stewart,et al.  An Absorptive Capacity Perspective of Open Source Software Development Group Performance , 2006, ICIS.

[75]  C. Earley,et al.  Creating hybrid team cultures: An empirical test of transnational team functioning. , 2000 .

[76]  Chen Zhang,et al.  Emergence of New Project Teams from Open Source Software Developer Networks: Impact of Prior Collaboration Ties , 2008, Inf. Syst. Res..

[77]  Brian Fitzgerald,et al.  Why Hackers Do What They Do: Understanding Motivation and Effort in Free/Open Source Software Projects , 2007 .