Information Quality in Wikipedia: The Effects of Group Composition and Task Conflict
Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 27, No. 4, 2011
University of Alberta School of Business Research Paper No. 2013-100
Posted: 24 May 2013 Last revised: 27 Jun 2013
Date Written: May 1, 2010
Abstract
The success of Wikipedia demonstrates that self-organizing production communities can produce high-quality information-based products. Research on Wikipedia has proceeded largely atheoretically, focusing on (1) the diversity in members’ knowledge bases as a determinant of Wikipedia’s content quality, (2) the task-related conflicts that occur during the collaborative authoring process, and (3) the different roles members play in Wikipedia. We develop a theoretical model that explains how these three factors interact to determine the quality of Wikipedia articles. The results from the empirical study of 96 Wikipedia articles suggest that (1) diversity should be encouraged, as the creative abrasion that is generated when cognitively diverse members engage in task-related conflict leads to higher-quality articles, (2) task conflict should be managed, as conflict -- notwithstanding its contribution to creative abrasion -- can negatively affect group output, and (3) groups should maintain a balance of both administrative- and content-oriented members, as both contribute to the collaborative process.
Keywords: co-creation, cognitive diversity, collaboration, community-based production, group composition, information quality, task conflict, Wikipedia
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