（2009）The effectiveness of synchronous computer-mediated communication for solving hidden-profile problems：Further empirical evidence.pdfVIP

Information Management 46 (2009) 83–89 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Information Management jour nal homepage: /locate/im The effectiveness of synchronous computer-mediated communication for solving hidden-profile problems: Further empirical evidence David S. Kerr a,1,2, Uday S. Murthy b,2,* a University of North Carolina at Charlotte, United States b University of South Florida, United States A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: We experimentally compared the effectiveness of face-to-face (FTF) and synchronous computer- Received 10 March 2007 mediated communication when using a chat tool in solving hidden-profile business problems. In such Received in revised form 2 April 2008 problems, information critical to its solution is dispersed among team members and they must share it to Accepted 16 December 2008 solve the problem. Unlike prior research using hidden-profile tasks, our study used a real-world Available online 30 January 2009 business-oriented task, established real rather than ad hoc teams, and imposed a time constraint on them. Hypotheses derived from media richness theory were found to be supported, with the results Keywords: revealing that computer-mediated teams using the chat tool were less successful in exchanging and Computer-mediated communication processi