Differences in Space: Diversity and Virtual Organization Evolution

本项目旨在了解实际和感知的多样性如何与传播媒体相互作用，从而影响虚拟组织的过程和结果。利用技术来支持虚拟团队和组织的一个关键原因是能够包含适当的人员？形形色色的人。研究表明，当多样性创造了一个将个人划分为内部群体和外部群体的环境时，可能会导致表现不佳。相反，当各种观点被公开分享时，多样性会对绩效产生积极的影响。一些研究推测，当在计算机媒介环境中相互作用时，多样性元素将是不可见的。其他研究发现，人们会利用任何可用的信息来对他人进行分类。因此，虽然一些多样性因素的影响可能会减弱，但新的因素可能会出现。使问题进一步恶化的是，对他人和媒体的看法随着时间的推移而演变，这表明在一个时间点学到的东西可能不会在虚拟组织的整个生命周期中始终如一地准确。通过使用调查、访谈和观察数据，本研究试图了解媒体特征、实际多样性和多样性感知之间的相互作用，因为它们影响虚拟组织的过程和结果。随着时间的推移，通过捕获这些数据，所提出的研究将为未来研究虚拟组织演化过程的工作奠定基础。这项工作是第一个在计算机媒介环境中结合客观多样性来研究感知多样性的研究。此外，本研究的背景为研究正在形成的虚拟组织提供了一个独特的机会。这些结果将有助于多样性和虚拟组织的理论，并为希望在虚拟环境中增加多样性和最大化结果的组织（如NSF）提供有用的信息。

This project aims to understand how actual and perceived diversity interact with communication media to influence virtual organization processes and outcomes. A key reason for leveraging technology to support virtual teams and organizations is to enable inclusion of the appropriate people ? a diverse set of people. Research suggests that diversity can lead to poor performance when it creates an environment whereby individuals are classified into ingroups and outgroups. In contrast, diversity can contribute positively to performance when a variety of perspectives are openly shared. Some research has theorized that elements of diversity will be invisible when interacting in computer mediated environments. Other research has found that individuals use any available piece of information to categorize others. Thus, while some diversity elements may become less impactful, new ones may emerge. Further exacerbating the problem is that perceptions of others and of media evolve over time, suggesting that what is learned at one point in time may not be accurate consistently throughout the lifetime of a virtual organization. Through the use of survey, interview, and observational data, the proposed study seeks to understand the interactions among media characteristics, actual diversity, and diversity perceptions as they influence virtual organization processes and outcomes. By capturing this data over time, the proposed study will lay the foundation for future work examining virtual organization evolutionary processes. The proposed work is among the first to examine perceived diversity in conjunction with objective diversity, in a computer mediated setting. Additionally, the context for the study provides a unique opportunity to study virtual organizations as they are being formed. The results should contribute to theory in diversity and virtual organizations and should provide useful information for organizations, such as NSF, that wish to increase diversity and maximize outcomes in virtual settings.