COMPUTER-SUPPORTED WORK GROUP POTENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS - THE ROLE OFTRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP, ANONYMITY, AND TASK INTERDEPENDENCE

Organizational researchers and practitioners have become interested in exploring relations between drivers of group potency and effectivenes s in computer-mediated environments. The authors conducted a longitudi nal experiment to examine effects of leadership style, anonymity, and task interdependence on group potency and effectiveness of 36 undergra duate student work groups performing two creativity tasks using a grou p decision support system. Results indicated main effects of leadershi p style on group potency and effectiveness, a Leadership Style x Task Interdependence interaction effect on group potency, and a Leadership Style x Anonymity interaction effect on group effectiveness. These res ults are consistent with theories of computer-aided work groups and gr oup potency and effectiveness and suggest directions for future resear ch. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.