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Life in the Virtual Office: The Effect of Gender, Culture, and Ethnicity of Team Members on Productivity. David Dalsky, Kenji Noguchi, Dan Landis Center for Applied Research and Evaluation University of Mississippi
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Life in the Virtual Office: The Effect of Gender, Culture, and Ethnicity of Team Members on Productivity David Dalsky, Kenji Noguchi, Dan Landis Center for Applied Research and Evaluation University of Mississippi This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research under Grant # N00014-98-1-0347 to the third author
Presentation atMilitary Personnel Research Science WorkshopJune 4, 2002Memphis, Tennessee
Disclaimer • "The opinions in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Office of Naval Research, the Department of the Navy, the Department of Defense, or any of their agencies. Any omissions or commissions are solely those of the authors."
Interaction of culture and technology in the lab • Computers and networks • Allow objective measure of performance • Control of proximity • Control of communication effects • Greater experimental control • Manipulate difficulty • Isolate culture and ethnicity • Emulate real world situations
Hypotheses • Steiner and others would suggest that the decremented effect of heterogeneity is due to process loss, which implies face-to-face interaction. • Based on this line of theorizing, McGrath suggested that technology (e.g., the internet) would reduce or eliminate process loss and thereby produce no negative effect of heterogeneity.
Hypotheses • Thus, our major hypothesis is that: in a virtual team situation, there should be no effect due to the perceived culture or ethnicity of the team members (the McGrath hypothesis). In particular, this result should occur when there is NO information about the team members provided • The counter hypothesis is: that process loss will operate as subjects use fantasy and rehearsal to evaluate the characteristics of the team members, even when no information is provided.
Implications for Selection and Classification • Military missions require that members of work teams cooperate and that process loss be kept to a minimum • However, process loss may be very resistant to amelioration. • But, the susceptibility to process loss in team situations may be assessed like any other aptitude • Selection for team work group situations could be made on the basis of such an assessment
Males N=367 Mean Age=19.72 41% in a social fraternity 68% first or second year students 37% had never worked on diverse work team 88% had no or few friends of other ethnic groups Females N=497 Mean Age=19.59 48% in a social sorority 77% first or second year students 43 % had never worked on a diverse work team 87% had no or few friends of other ethnic groups The Sample
Research task: “Sales Call” • Interface based on military decision making research in the 60’s • Properties of computerized version confirmed in Phase 1 of our research • Current version may be run over a network • Output • Objective measure of performance • Group and individual outcomes • Group process questionnaires • Used a variant of the minimal group paradigm—called “virtual group.”
Methodology • Phase 1 • Set the stage for the “internet” context • Demographic and cultural questionnaires • Phase 2 • Learn about Sales Call • Prime for individualistic tendencies • Practice games (no feedback) • “Internet” presentation of teammates (experimental manipulation) • Questionnaires about impressions of teammates (Semantic Differential and Process Variables)—taken three times during game play—beginning, middle, and at end. • Actual game pages (no feedback) • Allocation of reward • Follow-up questionnaires • Debriefing
Phase I Questionnaires • Demographics • Triandis, Chen, & Chan’s (1998) Horizontal/Vertical Individual/Collectivism Scale • Singelis, Triandis, Bhawuk, & Gelfand’s (1995) Horizontal/Vertical Individual/Collectivism Attitudes • Schwartz’ Values Survey • Paulhus’ Balance Inventory of Desirable Responding • Rokeach’s (1968) Value Survey
Examples of culture questions:Singelis, et.al. • Winning is everything • I often do my own thing • I usually sacrifice my self-interest for the benefit of the group • I feel good when I cooperate with others
Experimental Design (replicated by gender) Ethnicity of Team Members Cauc Black Asian None Ind Culture of Team Members Coll None
Physical Arrangement Lime Host Blueberry Tangerine Grape
Production as a function of perceived group characteristics: Males and females shown same gender photos
Production as a function of perceived group characteristics: Males and females shown all male photos
Production as a function of perceived group characteristics: Females shown male/female photos
Strength of the experimental paradigm • Flexibility • Vary subject race and gender • Vary culture • Vary communication (chat) • Impact • Believable manipulation • Involving task • Emulates real-world work situations
Future Directions • Continue analysis of other covariates (e.g., other background data on participants) • Test mixed gender groups (males shown female photos) • Increase impact of teammates’ culture through chat interaction • Explore effects of task accomplishment feedback • Test effects of cultural training intervention (e.g., cultural sensitizer) to reduce effect of ethnicity and culture • Explore the familiarity effect (e.g., replication at institution with more Asian students) • ??????????
Conclusions • The effects of ethnicity, culture, and gender may be independent of each other • Adding cultural information of virtual teammates may enhance performance • Performance of females may be effected by the gender of virtual teammates • The virtual office simulation is a valid method to examine culture, ethnicity, and gender effects on the functioning of small work groups • The virtual office simulation may provide a method for assessing susceptibility to the effects of process loss.
