Counting the cost of virtual teams
Communications of the ACM
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Social Loafing in Technology-Supported Teams
Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Understanding social loafing in knowledge contribution from the perspectives of justice and trust
Expert Systems with Applications: An International Journal
Modelling the characteristics of virtual teams' structure
International Journal of Business Intelligence and Data Mining
Should I e-collaborate with this group? A multilevel model of usage intentions
Information and Management
Internet Technologies, ECRM Capabilities, and Performance Benefits for SMEs: An Exploratory Study
International Journal of Electronic Commerce
Journal of Management Information Systems
Emergent roles in decision-making tasks using group chat
Proceedings of the 2013 conference on Computer supported cooperative work
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
Technology-Mediated Collaboration, Shared Mental Model and Task Performance
Journal of Organizational and End User Computing
Let's get together: the formation and success of online creative collaborations
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
International Journal of Information Technology and Management
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Research on group behavior has identified social loafing, i.e., the tendency of members to do less than their potential, as a particularly serious problem plaguing groups. Social Impact Theory (SIT) helps explain social loafing in terms of two theoretical dimensions--the dilution effect (where an individual feels submerged in the group) and the immediacy gap (where an individual feels isolated from the group). In this study, which employed a controlled experiment, we investigated these dimensions of social loafing in the context of group decision making, using collocated and distributed teams of varying sizes. Our results--in line with SIT--indicate that small groups, signifying a small dilution effect, had increased individual contributions and better group outcomes compared to their larger counterparts. However, support for SIT's arguments about the immediacy gap was mixed: Members contributed visibly more when they were collocated, but no significant differences in group outcomes were evident. Regardless of dimension, the quality of the input (ideas generated) determined the quality of the output (decisions made). Also, contrary to the literature on brainstorming, having more ideas to work with resulted in poorer-quality decisions. This apparent paradox is explained using the notion of integrative complexity, which challenges conventional wisdom regarding the relationship between individual inputs and group outputs. The implications of these results for practice and research are examined.