Effects of instant messaging on the management of multiple project trajectories

We present a study of the effects of instant messaging (IM) on individuals' management of work across multiple collaborative projects. Groups of four participants completed four web design tasks. Each participant worked on two tasks, each task with a different partner who was either co-located or remote, connected via IM. In one condition, each participant had one co-located and one remote partner. In a second condition, both partners were remote. We examined communication, division of labor, and task performance as a function of condition. The results indicated that nearly all participants divided their time unequally between projects, but less unequally in the remote/remote condition. In the co-located/remote condition, participants favored the task with the co-located partner. The results show that the effects of IM differ depending on people's multiple tasks are distributed across space. We propose a new IM interface that promotes awareness of multiple collaborators on multiple tasks.

[1]  R. W. Root,et al.  Informal Communication in Organizations: Form, Function, and Technology , 1990 .

[2]  James D. Herbsleb,et al.  Introducing instant messaging and chat in the workplace , 2002, CHI.

[3]  Gloria Mark,et al.  Why distance matters: effects on cooperation, persuasion and deception , 2002, CSCW '02.

[4]  S. Weisband Maintaining Awareness in Distributed Team Collaboration: Implications for Leadership and Performance , 2002 .

[5]  Audris Mockus,et al.  Distance, dependencies, and delay in a global collaboration , 2000, CSCW '00.

[6]  James D. Herbsleb,et al.  What is chat doing in the workplace? , 2002, CSCW '02.

[7]  John C. Tang,et al.  Piazza: a desktop environment supporting impromptu and planned interactions , 1996, CSCW '96.

[8]  Bonnie A. Nardi,et al.  Interaction and outeraction: instant messaging in action , 2000, CSCW '00.

[9]  James D. Herbsleb,et al.  The geography of coordination: dealing with distance in R&D work , 1999, GROUP.

[10]  Robert E. Kraut,et al.  Relationships and Tasks in Scientific Research Collaboration , 1987, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[11]  Pamela J. Hinds,et al.  Maintaining Awareness in Distributed Team Collaboration: Implications for Leadership and Performance , 2002 .

[12]  Jonathan Grudin,et al.  Meeting at the desktop: An empirical study of virtually collocated teams , 1999, ECSCW.

[13]  Peter Ljungstrand,et al.  Awareness of presence, instant messaging and WebWho , 2000, SIGG.

[14]  J. G. Hollands,et al.  Engineering Psychology and Human Performance , 1984 .

[15]  Mary Czerwinski,et al.  Effects of instant messaging interruptions on computing tasks , 2000, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[16]  Ian Smith,et al.  Taking email to task: the design and evaluation of a task management centered email tool , 2003, CHI '03.

[17]  Steve Whittaker,et al.  The character, functions, and styles of instant messaging in the workplace , 2002, CSCW '02.

[18]  Pamela J. Hinds,et al.  Distributed Work , 2002 .

[19]  Robert E. Kraut,et al.  Relationships and tasks in scientific research collaborations , 1986, CSCW '86.

[20]  Pamela J. Hinds,et al.  The Place of Face-to-Face Communication in Distributed Work , 2002 .

[21]  Pamela J. Hinds,et al.  What Do We Know about Proximity and Distance in Work Groups? A Legacy of Research , 2002 .

[22]  Kevin Crowston,et al.  The interdisciplinary study of coordination , 1994, CSUR.

[23]  Judith S. Olson,et al.  Distance Matters , 2000, Hum. Comput. Interact..

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

[25]  Jakob E. Bardram,et al.  Temporal Coordination –On Time and Coordination of CollaborativeActivities at a Surgical Department , 2000, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

[26]  Wendy A. Kellogg,et al.  Babble: suporting conversation in the workplace , 1998, SIGG.

[27]  Bonnie A. Nardi and Steve Whittaker The Place of Face-to-Face Communication in Distributed Work , 2002 .

[28]  Wai Fong Boh,et al.  Managing Expertise in a Distributed Environment , 2002, ICIS.

[29]  Thomas J. Allen,et al.  The Influence of Communication Technologies on Organizational Structure , 1987 .