Influence of Status on Group Interaction Processes: Electronic Mail versus Face-To-Face Discussions

Abstract

Experimental studies conducted by Siegel et al. (1986) revealed that members of decision making groups participated more equally in computer-mediated discussions than in face-to-face discussions. These studies dealt with group of peers. The purpose of this study was to test whether computer media has an equalizing affect on participation of members of different formal statuses. The experimental design and procedure were similar to the previous study. The main difference was that each group included one high status member and three low status members and all members were of the same gender, in order to avoid effect of diffusion status. The experiment showed that, as expected, the computer media had equalizing affect on participation of group members of different formal status. While in face-to-face discussions, high status members initiated discussion more frequently, spoke more, and were more task-oriented than low status members, in computer-mediated discussions, these measures did not differ significantly for members of different statuses.