Computer-Mediated Group Interaction Processes

Abstract

The use of computer-mediated groups has become common particularly in international organizations and global companies. In light of this growing phenomenon, the traditional group interaction should be re-observed. The research questions deal with the interaction between the computer-mediated group members, trying to figure whether (and how) the media change the way people interact, in hope of improving the group interaction using group structure. Based on Bales' IPA model we present an experiment in which subjects, who were grouped, had to share information in order to complete an intellective task. The findings indicate that the positive level of the computer-mediated unstructured group discussions is significantly lower than the positive level of the face-to-face unstructured group discussions. The structure seem to act as a partial solution, since structured group discussions is positive than unstructured group discussions. Therefore, structure should be manipulated in order to reduce the virtuallity influence on the positive level of the discussion. The importance of the theoretical and practical implementation of the research is obvious and will be discussed.