IDW-06: Communication in Teams

Lecture 6 - Digital work in teams

Communication

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IDW-06: Communication in Teams
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IDW-06: Communication in Teams

Learning objectives:

  • Explain the selection of appropriate communication technologies based on media synchronicity theory
  • Describe the role of situational awareness in communication settings
  • Appreciate different facets and practical consideration related to communication in teams
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IDW-06: Communication in Teams

GitLab: work where you want, when you want

Read the case of Choudhury et al. (2020) and answer the following questions:

  • What are the main challenges that need to be addressed in all-remote companies?
  • What are the key organizing principles at GitLab?
  • What are the boundary conditions for all-remote approaches?
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IDW-06: Communication in Teams

Communication and media selection

Key question: which communication media are the most effective ones, or should be selected for a task at hand?

Media richness theory (Daft and Lengel, 1986):

  • Communication is essential in organizational information processing to reduce uncertainty and equivocality.
  • Communication media differ in richness, e.g., video calls transmit richer information including gestures and body language.
  • Richer communication media are generally more effective for communicating equivocal issues in contrast with leaner media.

Media synchronicity theory (Dennis et al. 2008)

  • There are different communication tasks:
    • Conveyance refers to the transmission of information.
    • Convergence refers to the process of mutually agreeing on the meaning of information.
  • Communication media differ in their ability to support synchronicity, depending on their transmission or processing capabilities.
  • Communiation performance, essentially, depends on the fit between communication processes, media synchronicity, and appropriation factors.
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IDW-06: Communication in Teams

Communication processes and characteristics

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IDW-06: Communication in Teams

Communication system and media capabilities

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IDW-06: Communication in Teams

Media synchronicity theory (MST)

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IDW-06: Communication in Teams

MST: examples and application

  1. Shared whiteboard in videoconferences: how does it change the media capabilities?
  2. It was a misunderstanding, but one that escalated quickly. Why can asynchronous textual communication (such as email or chat) be problematic in such settings?
  3. When sending out invitations to the weekly video-conference, your colleague emphasizes that he looks forward to seeing you in the call, and greets participants who share their video with a "nice to see you". Do you see any connections to MST?
  4. Take a minute to review the features offered by the Zoom AI assistant. How do they relate to MST?
  5. Consider a setting in which you would like to help your colleague with a challenging programming task. Your colleague works remotely. Which technologies would you select, and how could your choice be connected to MST?
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IDW-06: Communication in Teams

Communication and situational awareness

Endsley's cognitive model of situational awareness provides a useful framework to think about communication.

Situational awareness involves three levels:

  • Perception of data and elements of the environment (communication partners)
  • Comprehension of the meaning and significance of the situation (communication goals)
  • Projection of future states and events (potential communication outcomes)

Decisions and actions (related to communication) create a feedback loop, affecting communication partners, and awareness of changing situations over time.

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IDW-06: Communication in Teams

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IDW-06: Communication in Teams

Situational awareness: examples

Examples of situational awareness in practice:

  • "At what times do you focus, at what times are you available for calls?"
  • "Are you green?"
  • "You have been quiet. What is your view on the issue?"
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IDW-06: Communication in Teams

Practice: Communication at GitLab

Take a few minutes to examine the communication section in GitLab's handbook and take notes on

  • The different communication settings
  • Best practices (potential challenges to keep in mind)

Major items to cover:

Additional items (select the ones you are most interested in):

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IDW-06: Communication in Teams

Summary

  • Discussed media selection and synchronicity
  • Covered the role of situational awareness in communication settings
  • Considered different facets and practical consideration related to communication in teams
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IDW-06: Communication in Teams

References

Daft, R. L., & Lengel, R. H. (1986). Organizational information requirements, media richness and structural design. Management Science, 32(5), 554-571. doi:10.1287/mnsc.32.5.554

Dennis, A. R., Fuller, R. M., & Valacich, J. S. (2008). Media, tasks, and communication processes: A theory of media synchronicity. MIS Quarterly, 32(3), 575-600. doi:10.2307/25148857

Endsley, M. R. (1995). Toward a theory of situation awareness in dynamic systems. Human Factors, 37(1), 32-64. doi: 10.1518/001872095779049543

Moorman, C. and Hinkfuss, K. (2023). Managing the cultural pitfalls of hybrid work. MIT Sloan Management Review. link

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(e.g., conflict, interruption, inclusion). - Distinguish synchronous from asynchronous communication settings. / Distinguish forms of synchronous and asynchronous collaborative content creation and select appropriate technologies.

--- # Break

https://is.theorizeit.org/wiki/Media_synchronicity_theory

don't start with media richness theory (maybe a bit too challenging/differences to MST are more difficult to understand) Task: too broad -> MST: communication processes at a micro-level Media synchronicity theory (Dennis, Fuller, and Valacich, 2006): - An influential theory in IS (citations, best paper awards) - The theory explains communication (and task) performance based on the fit between media synchronicity, communication processe, and appropriation factors **TODO : start with the fit aspect** [[DennisFullerValacich2006]]

# MST: Communication processes - Introduce the elements step-by-step: - Communication processes: conveyance vs. convergence, which are more specific/smaller than tasks (MRT). also distinguish transmission from processing # MST: Media synchronicity - Media synchronicity: synchronous vs. asynchronous (definition) # MST: Media synchronicity requirements - Media synchronicity requirements for different communication processess (table 1, proposition P1) -> importance of **fit** # MST: Appropriation factors - Appropriation factors (**fit**) # MST: Examples I - **TODO : short exercise for the main concepts (communication processes, media synchronicity, appropriation factors, fit and communcation performance)** # MST: Media characteristics - Media characteristics: transmission and processing capabilities: construct figure 2 step-by-step (starting with the simple sender - medium - receiver model and then adding the different elements) # MST: Examples II - TODO : exercise: rate different communication media... # MST: Summary - refer back to HwangKettingerYi2015 and point out that DennisFullerValacich2006 stop at the hypothesis generation step (no empirical study) - Derive implications - TODO : application / exercise (short descriptions of scenarios, such as a team rejecting a certain application) - TODO : collect and discuss best practices (e.g., signalling availability - are you red/orange/green?) / analyze based on MST (?) / don't cover conflict etc. too much - they are in lecture 7 https://convergencelabs.com/blog/2018/01/the-four-cs-communication-coordination-cooperation-and-collaboration/ https://coachbetter.tv/the-difference-between-communication-cooperation-coordination-collaboration/ # Homework Read [external communication](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/communication/#external-communication)

whiteboard: expands the symbol set, e.g., allowing participants to develop sketches or mathematical models. also increases parallelism (audio, video of participants, and video of whiteboard) Video: increase symbol set (visual cues, gestures, reactions) - especially when meetings aim to converge on particular items. Appropriation factors: familiar with the challenges, perhaps even trained to increase video-use, could be due to past experiences, or even norms in the team or organization. AI assistant: several features to transcribe, summarize, or sub-title meetings - improves reprocessability (during and after the meeting) coding: Convergence requires high synchronicity, especially wrt. the symbol set of collaborative coding (synchronous) - e.g., [Visual Studio Live Share](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/de/services/live-share/) https://www.zoom.com/en/products/collaboration-tools/features/

What can the communication outcomes be? e.g., reduce ambiguity, rally support for a project, foster inclusion and trust, discover private information, make decisions, prevent and resolve conflicts Individual and task/environment factors at play (stress/complexity/technology) Key message: - Communication media and practices should be adapted to the situtation (many facets to consider, many potential outcomes to anticipate) - Theories of fit may be particularly suitable, as exemplified by Media Synchronicity Theory propositions...

- we have a short explanation video for that - should we reschedule? should I brief you after the meeting?

In small groups (2-3),

https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/communication/#smart-note-taking-in-meetings https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/communication/#types-of-meetings

Homework: read the product-development workflow in the gitlab handbook # Exercise and homework Preparation: do a git tutorial (provide short/longer and interactive ones) - be prepared for the in-depth session next week (have your questions ready) # Materials - [ ] TODO check: Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success TBD: communities-of-practice (e.g., wikipedia on CSCW: awareness) alternative exercise: TBD: maybe give students 2-3 cases, have brief discussion, have them read different papers (MRT,MST,interruptions,conflict,team-leadership,learning/onboarding), and then discuss the cases from the perspective of different theories Note: possible extensions: - zoom-fatigue (what are the different forms of labor that make videoconferences exhausting?) - Virtual impression management: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01492063231225160