Conflict in GSS-based Virtual Teams: Findings from an Experiment

The phenomenon of globalization and the increasing availability of collaborative technologies such as group support systems (GSS) have prompted multinational organizations to use cross-national virtual teams for various tasks. Such virtual teams are usually composed of members of different backgrounds and nationalities who may have differences in opinions, beliefs and orientations. This diversity of team members may enhance the level of group conflict. Unless effectively managed, intragroup conflict has the potential to make group decision making less effective. Using content analysis of group discussions in a set of experimental groups, we identify the positive and negative orientations of each group’s comments, assess intragroup conflict, and examine its impact on group agreement and satisfaction. The paper also examines the influence of the number of threads in the decision making discussion on the perceived participation. The preliminary results are encouraging and the area warrants more research.

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