Fine-Tuning Group Collaboration Environments: How Differences in General Causality Orientation and Performance Targets Shape Interaction and Performance

Abstract

Technology-supported work teams are increasingly used by organizations to support various business processes. Previous literature has examined the influence of various factors on team performance, yet, differences in participants' individual motivational orientation have received little attention. In this study, we aim to understand the effects of differences in motivational orientation on performance, this will allow for the design of information systems to account for such individual differences, increasing performance within the context of computer-mediated collaboration. Using computer-mediated idea generation as an instantiation of collaboration systems, we test the interacting effects of performance targets and differences in motivational orientation in a controlled laboratory experiment. Overall, our results provide support for the importance of considering individual differences in the design of human-computer interfaces of collaboration environments, and we conclude our study with a discussion of implications for the design of human-computer interfaces for computer-mediated collaboration.