A Longitudinal Study of Information Exchange in Computer-Mediated and Face-to-Face Groups

Abstract

Recent research has suggested that groups do not exchange information effectively. This is particularly true of groups using computer-mediated communication systems (CMCS). However, generalizing the findings of these studies to real groups is difficult because they used ad hoc groups and/or the groups did not have experience with the CMCS and were working on novel tasks. In this study face-to-face groups and groups using two types of CMCS completed three information exchange tasks. Information exchange performance and relational links were collected for each task. The results suggest that CMCS groups are not able to exchange information as effectively as face-to-face groups, even as they become familiar with the task and CMCS. In addition, although relational links were slightly related to information exchange performance, they were not as important as communication mode in explaining differences in information exchange performance.