Media Richness, Team Behaviors, and Task Complexity on Team Performance

Abstract

Student groups worked a maze problem in a high or low media rich environment, with distributed or shared materials, with or without training on effective communication. Training did not affect performance, but groups with shared information had greater levels of performance. The media rich environment was debilitating, contrary to expectation. A training and materials interaction suggests that teamwork behaviors can decrease group performance when the task is easy, but increase performance on a more difficult task. Best predictors of performance suggest different types of behaviors have greater impact in different settings, and giving and seeking situation awareness might suggest a group is experiencing problems with the task.