The Effect of Personal Disclosure within Teams: Can Faultlines in Geographically-Dispersed Teams Be Bridged?

Differences between members within teams can align to create potential faultlines. Faultlines have the potential to significantly disrupt performance due to the creation of intergroup bias. In geographically-dispersed teams, due to dispersed locations and other diversity characteristics, potential intergroup bias could be a major issue in Global Virtual Teams (GVT's) that needs to be more fully understood. This study examines whether public self-disclosure via weblogs can alleviate intergroup bias in geographically-dispersed teams by enabling the development of personal relationships. An experimental study of 34 4-person student teams found that public self-disclosure does not have a direct effect on reducing intergroup bias but has a mediated effect through social attraction. That is, as team members disclose their personal information and out-group team members are attracted to such disclosure, perceived in-group and out-group differences are diminished. Overall, findings support the common in-group identity model and highlight the potential benefits of socialization via weblogs in dispersed teams.