Synchronous Collaboration Technology Use in Teamwork

As project teams have become dispersed and communication technology has evolved, organizations have increasingly moved towards usage of synchronous communication technologies such as video/web/audio conferencing and instant messaging to facilitate collaboration among team members although usage of asynchronous communication technologies such as electronic mail, wikis, blogs, and social networks continue to play an important role in the exchange of information within teams. Little however is known about the relationships among a team member's task characteristics, the member's task outcomes, and extent of usage of such contemporary collaboration technologies. To explore this gap in literature, this paper draws upon media richness theory to understand the impacts of a project team member's task characteristics on the member's task outcomes and extent of usage of synchronous collaboration technologies. This paper also has practical implications that guide the adoption and use of collaboration technologies in organizations.