Abstract
Groupware technology, such as electronic communication systems, discussion databases, collaborative writing tools, and workflow applications, has been viewed by both scholars and practitioners as having the potential to facilitate productive teamworkandenableanorganization’stransitiontotheso-callednetworkdesign. Networkedorganizationsrelyonmultiparty cooperative relationships across structural and geographic boundaries, yielding dense, flexible communication patterns. Because groupware systems provide a platform on which teams can support their communication needs and shared work obligations, teams which use groupware should experience improved information exchange and fewer coordination problems than those that do not. Further, organizations that invest in groupware systems should make more rapid progress toward a network form than those that do not. The added value of groupware, relative to more primitive forms of communication support, should increase as team members become more facile in new technology use and modify their work practices to accommodate computer-mediated collaboration.
Recommended Citation
DeSanctis, Gerardine; Dickson, Gary; and Poole, Marshall, "The Dynamics of Teams and Technology: A Field Study of Groupware in a Network Organization" (1996). ICIS 1996 Proceedings. 31.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis1996/31