An Inside Look: Rich Communication Through Lean Media in a Virtual Research Team

Abstract

This study describes the formation of a dispersed team and the communication processes to evolve in this team. The authors examine how the members of such a team actually used email for communication instead of starting from assumptions concerning the richness or leanness of the communication medium being used. Aspects of group formation and group composition are considered, and team member behaviors in an occasional face-to-face meeting are described. Observing how communication actually unfolds will allows the authors to review media richness theory’s claim that teams need face-to-face communication or another allegedly rich communication medium for effective communication about complex problems or equivocal tasks. The team to be described is a international group of researchers who joined a mailing list dedicated to preparing a research proposal that was to be funded by the EU.

Keywords: Virtual group, email communication, collaboration, media richness

JEL Classification: O31, L96