DECISION ACCURACY IN COMPUTER-MEDIATED VERSUS FACE-TO-FACE DECISION-MAKING TEAMS

Changes in the way organizations are structured and advances in commun ication technologies are two factors that have altered the conditions under which group decisions are made, Decisions are increasingly made by teams that have a hierarchical structure and whose members have dif ferent areas of expertise, In addition, many decisions are no longer m ade via strictly face-to-face interaction, The present study examines the effects of two modes of communication (face-to-face or computer-me diated) on the accuracy of teams' decisions. The teams are characteriz ed by a hierarchical structure and their members differ in expertise c onsistent with the framework outlined in the Multilevel Theory of team decision making presented by Hollenbeck, Ilgen, Sego, Hedlund, Major, and Phillips (1995), Sixty-four four-person teams worked for 3 h on a computer simulation interacting either face-to-face (FtF) or over a c omputer network. The communication mode had mixed effects on team proc esses in that members of FtF teams were better informed and made recom mendations that were more predictive of the correct team decision, but leaders of CM teams were better able to differentiate staff members o n the quality of their decisions. Controlling for the negative impact of FtF communication on staff member differentiation increased the ben eficial effect of the FtF mode on overall decision making accuracy. (C ) 1998 Academic Press.