virtual team leadership and media choice

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Darin A. Ladd, Corey J. Perkins 1 VIRTUAL TEAM LEADERSHIP AND MEDIA CHOICE Leaders walk a razor’s edge, balancing multiple roles, problems, and constituencies in an environment of limited resources [1]. Therefore, in an era of increasing technological complexityespecially in communication mediaone might argue that modern leadership is becoming increasingly complicated [2,3]. Witness, for example, the recent explosion in virtual projects and teamsteams displaced by space, time, and culture [4]. One might argue that this increasing complexity of communicating amongst these teams might lead to a decrease in leadership effectiveness. Yet, others support the idea that modern communication mediaor at least its wise userepresents one possible solution to this modern problem. In other words, wise choice of appropriate media for a given task might increase a leader’s effectiveness [5]. This paper intends to explore the idea that effective media choice might enhance effective leadership of virtual teams. The purpose of this paper is to: 1) discuss three key tasks that require special attention in virtual team leadership, 2) discuss three considerations for selecting correct communication media, and 3) offer suggestions for the practicing manager to help him/her apply the three media choice considerations to the three key tasks. Virtual Team Leadership: Three Key Tasks Virtual teams are primarily defined by the fact that they conduct nearly all their interaction via communication media [6]. 1, 2 For the virtual team leader, this creates difficulties in that traditional techniques such as management by wandering around [7] may be literally impossible to apply. Therefore, for a leader used to managing face-to-face, new approaches and techniques may be required. This section will briefly address three key tasks that differ in face- to-face versus virtual environments, and the importance of media choice to properly managing these key tasks, namely: 1) building teams, 2) solving problems, and 3) managing conflict. The first key task a virtual leader must consider is building a virtual team. In many ways, team-building is similar in virtual and collocated teams. For example, teams may follow a team- building process, such as Tuckman’s [8]. Within this team-building framework, six additional considerations are warranted 3 : “new” teams may actually share a previous history that affects their conduct through the phases of team-building many teams may have fluid membership that may alter/regress team-building processes teams have anticipated futures (i.e., of quickly disbanding, or of protracted team existence) numerous organizational borders may be spanned [6] tasks may vary in their level of interdependence [6] tasks may vary in their level of complexity [6] 1 Maznevski & Chudoba [3,2] further define global virtual teams as virtual teams that are “global in their task,” although some might argue that global aspects of virtual teams are simply a matter of degrees rather than overall uniqueness [e.g., differences in time, space and cultures as described by 4]; therefore, this discussion is limited to discussion of virtual teams with the understanding that global virtual teams might have more pronounced/intense experiences. 2 In each case, the nature of virtual team interaction may be either group-based (meetings, document sharing, etc.) or dyadic (individual interaction, document preparation). Group-based interactions may also be characterized as “full group” or “partial group/sub-group;” however, for the purposes of this paper these distinctions are unnecessary. 3 The first three considerations are common to virtual and collocated teams; the final three considerations are exclusive to virtual teams.

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Page 1: VIRTUAL TEAM LEADERSHIP AND MEDIA CHOICE

Darin A. Ladd, Corey J. Perkins

1

VIRTUAL TEAM LEADERSHIP AND MEDIA CHOICE Leaders walk a razor’s edge, balancing multiple roles, problems, and constituencies in an

environment of limited resources [1]. Therefore, in an era of increasing technological complexity—especially in communication media—one might argue that modern leadership is becoming increasingly complicated [2,3]. Witness, for example, the recent explosion in virtual projects and teams—teams displaced by space, time, and culture [4]. One might argue that this increasing complexity of communicating amongst these teams might lead to a decrease in leadership effectiveness. Yet, others support the idea that modern communication media—or at least its wise use—represents one possible solution to this modern problem. In other words, wise choice of appropriate media for a given task might increase a leader’s effectiveness [5].

This paper intends to explore the idea that effective media choice might enhance effective leadership of virtual teams. The purpose of this paper is to: 1) discuss three key tasks that require special attention in virtual team leadership, 2) discuss three considerations for selecting correct communication media, and 3) offer suggestions for the practicing manager to help him/her apply the three media choice considerations to the three key tasks.

Virtual Team Leadership: Three Key Tasks

Virtual teams are primarily defined by the fact that they conduct nearly all their interaction via communication media [6].1,2 For the virtual team leader, this creates difficulties in that traditional techniques such as management by wandering around [7] may be literally impossible

to apply. Therefore, for a leader used to managing face-to-face, new approaches and techniques may be required. This section will briefly address three key tasks that differ in face-to-face versus virtual environments, and the importance of media choice to properly managing these key tasks, namely: 1) building teams, 2) solving problems, and 3) managing conflict.

The first key task a virtual leader must consider is building a virtual team. In many ways, team-building is similar in virtual and collocated teams. For example, teams may follow a team-building process, such as Tuckman’s [8]. Within this team-building framework, six additional considerations are warranted3:

“new” teams may actually share a previous history that affects their conduct through the phases of team-building

many teams may have fluid membership that may alter/regress team-building processes

teams have anticipated futures (i.e., of quickly disbanding, or of protracted team existence)

numerous organizational borders may be spanned [6]

tasks may vary in their level of interdependence [6]

tasks may vary in their level of complexity [6]

1 Maznevski & Chudoba [3,2] further define global virtual teams as virtual teams that are “global in their task,” although some might argue that global aspects of virtual teams are simply a matter of degrees rather than overall uniqueness [e.g., differences in time, space and cultures as described by 4]; therefore, this discussion is limited to discussion of virtual teams with the understanding that global virtual teams might have more pronounced/intense experiences.

2 In each case, the nature of virtual team interaction may be either group-based (meetings, document sharing, etc.) or dyadic (individual interaction, document preparation). Group-based interactions may also be characterized as “full group” or “partial group/sub-group;” however, for the purposes of this paper these distinctions are unnecessary.

3 The first three considerations are common to virtual and collocated teams; the final three considerations are exclusive to virtual teams.

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These considerations are important because they may affect how team structures and norms develop, in turn enabling or constraining individual behavior [9,10].

For a virtual team, it is important to recognize that communication media is a key mediator of team structure and norms, and may enable or constrain its processes [11], which may, in turn, enable or constrain team-building efforts. In other words, even though a virtual team may be newly formed, its members (or sub-groups) may:

have pre-existing attitudes about what types of media are appropriate for use, and how they should be used

introduce new media that disrupt team-building

plan their extent of adoption of communication media based on the perceived longevity of a team’s existence

experience difficulty in transferring files due to different organizational communication standards

experience difficulty in interacting tightly due to time differences (real or perceived)

be forced to utilize tools insufficient to support the complexity of the task at hand

Therefore, to facilitate effective team-building, a virtual team leader must carefully choose communication media and facilitate establishment of norms for their usage in various settings.

The second key task a virtual leader must consider is solving problems in a virtual team environment [2]. Arguably, the leader’s task is not to solve problems him/herself, but rather to structure and facilitate the problem solving process, defined for the purposes of this paper as: 1) intelligence/identification, 2) design/development, and 3) choice/selection [12,13]. In a virtual team, the process remains the same, but its implementation can be either enabled or hindered by communication media. For example, problem identification might be more difficult—especially if a problem exists between two virtual sub-teams or between their areas of responsibility. Solution development may suffer as a team struggles to identify alternatives amongst diverse, separated areas—or worse, participation is limited to members present rather than all those required. Finally, solution selection and implementation might suffer if participation is limited, or if implementation is distributed. Therefore, it is critical that a leader properly structure and facilitate the problem solving process through selection of appropriate communication media.

The third key task a virtual leader must consider is managing conflict in virtual teams. Four sources of conflict that are of special interest in virtual teams are: a) personal differences [14], such as those generated by culture or previous group socialization, b) informational deficiencies [14], such as lack of access to important documents held by a distant-end group or by perceived “cyber-ostracism” by distant-end members; c) incompatible roles [14], especially in the case of overlapping responsibilities by two virtual sub-groups; d) environmental stress [14], for example, perceived acceleration of business processes by one sub-group, working longer hours, and/or erratic scheduling due to time zone differences [15,4]. Conflict can be difficult to manage when face-to-face contact is not feasible; therefore, it is critical that a virtual team leader carefully choose communication media and establish norms for their usage that either reduce these antecedents to conflict, or that facilitate their prompt resolution.

Selecting Correct Communication Media: Three Considerations

In order to develop appropriate heuristics for selecting communication media, a brief discussion of different theories is offered. This discussion is then applied to three considerations that may help to guide media choice by virtual team leaders: 1) consider structural conditions, 2) consider the purpose, and 3) consider media repertoires.

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A Brief Discussion of Media Choice Theories

An initial attempt at explaining media choice was based on the idea, put forth by Shannon and Weaver [16], that the purpose of communication is to reduce uncertainty. Daft and Lengel [17] expanded this by defining two roles of communication: reducing uncertainty (which they defined as the absence of information) and reducing equivocality (which they defined as ambiguity, or conflicting interpretations). This theory, known as “Media Richness Theory,” further offered that all communication media could be rated/ranked based on the number of information cues available in a given media [18], including non-verbal cues. Therefore, the “richness” of a media, i.e., the number of cues transmittable, might help a manager decide which media to use for a given task—with richer media preferred for equivocal communication tasks, and leaner media preferred for unequivocal communication tasks. This theory explained,

in part, why managers preferred face-to-face settings for problem-solving and decision-making; it also helped predict managerial effectiveness ratings and task performance success (especially when lean media were used) based on that manager’s match of appropriate media to task requirements [18,19]. Finally, it expelled the myth that an effective manager could use any medium to convey a message effectively—encompassed in their exhortation that managers “Send nonroutine, difficult communications through a rich medium—preferably face-to-face” [5].

Unfortunately, numerous problems were identified with ranking media based on the number of cues available: first, new media and media repertoires—consisting of multiple media used sequentially or concurrently—might be capable of generating cues not previously considered; second, the interaction of task with media generates an essentially infinite number of cue-task combinations [20] (whereas, Media Richness Theory would argue that a media’s richness necessarily constrains the tasks that may be performed [21]); third, cues alone do not account for the fact that certain media are historically linked (through norms of behavior) to a certain specific type of discourse (called a genre) [22]. This final point deserves further explanation, because of its link to group norms and structures. For example, if texting is historically used only for a certain function (such as that of a pager, to transmit a “call me” message), then its full capabilities might never be noticed or called on. Therefore, genres mediate media usage—an important point to consider in virtual teams that have prior history (or will develop a shared history).

Therefore, another theory was recently proposed that might better explain the process of media choice in virtual leadership settings. This theory, termed Media Synchronicity Theory [23,24], proposes that “communication performance comes from the matching of media capabilities4 to the communication processes required to accomplish a task, not to the overall task itself.” The strength of this theory is that it recognizes the interaction of media capabilities (replaces cues) at an atomistic level with communication processes (tasks) at an atomistic level, all within a rich environment of appropriation factors (such as social norms) that might constrain media choice. Finally, it recognizes that media can be combined in repertoires to achieve unique results. This theory helps explain what researchers were finding, namely that a combination of factors influences individual norms of communication media choice: a) structural conditions [physical and social], b) purpose of communication, and c) media repertoires [25,26]. It is to these three factors that we now turn.

Consider Structural Conditions

Structural considerations may arise from numerous sources, such as: a) familiarity with a communication medium, b) training (with a medium or with a task), c) past experience (may

4 Appendix A offers a brief analysis of selected media capabilities according to the Media Synchronicity rating criteria.

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include genres), and/or d) social norms [23]. Virtual team leaders must consider structural considerations in selecting media because they may enhance or reduce the effectiveness of any given atomistic communication task. Also important is the point made earlier that structural considerations may change as teams develop; therefore, virtual team leaders must continually readdress these considerations when planning for and/or selecting communication media.

Consider the Purpose of Communication

This refers to the specific purpose of an atomistic communication. According to Media Synchronicity Theory, two main purposes exist of an atomistic communication: conveyance (“. . . to enable a receiver to create and revise a mental model” [23]) and convergence (“. . . discussion of preprocessed information about each individual’s interpretation of a situation . . . requires rapid, back and forth transmission of small quantities of preprocessed information”

[23]).5 Virtual team leaders must consider the purpose of an atomistic communication, or at the least anticipate the mixture of conveyance/convergence tasks required in an anticipated communication sequence. Interestingly, most managers do not necessarily follow this advice. Research shows that accessibility is the most important factor in determining media choice, but

that it might be overridden in certain instances where task characteristics are deemed to be more important than convenience (for example, relationship-building) [20]. Knowing this, it is incumbent on the virtual team leader to carefully decide which communication tasks fit into the second category, or it might become necessary to react to changing communication requirements by using media repertoires.

Consider Media Repertoires

In considering media choice, a virtual leader must consider media, or different preferred combinations of media—called a media repertoire—to achieve a stated objective [25]. It is

important to note that a media repertoire may exist as an individual preference, but that it also exists as a practically-available repertoire in any given situation. In other words, an individual may prefer to use a cell-phone’s text message capability to invite a friend to dinner, and then its voice capability to confirm the arrangements; however, if the individual does not have access to a cell-phone, he/she may be willing to settle for electronic mail or instant messaging with a follow-up land-line telephone call to confirm.

As implied in the previous example, media repertoires can be enacted sequentially (text message, then cell-phone call) or concurrently (e-mail and telephone call at the same time). An

example of a concurrent repertoire is the preference of a manager to send an electronic mail to convey important information to a colleague, but then call that colleague on the telephone immediately before or after pressing “send” on the computer to ask “did you get the message I just sent,” so that additional convergence in understanding can occur as the receiver reviews the message during the telephone conversation.

Within each of these categories of repertoires, additional combinations are possible. First, sequential repertoires can be serial (using a sequential repertoire to send the same message, such as sending out a memo and follow-up electronic mail with the same information) or complementary (shown in the first example by the individual’s preference to use the text messaging/cell-phone repertoire in-sequence to accomplish the entire scheduling activity) Second, within concurrent media combinations, three choices are possible: a) redundant, with the sender using multiple media to send the same message at the same time; b) independent,

with the sender using multiple media at the same time, but for more than one collaborative

5 Note that conveyance reduces uncertainty, while convergence reduces equivocality. See Appendix B for a brief overview of relative ratings of the three key tasks on dimensions of conveyance/convergence.

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activity; c) complementary, as shown in the second example, with the sender using multiple media simultaneously for one collaborative activity [27].

The main recommendation arising from media repertoires research is that individuals first define a goal for the communication, then search for repertoires that are available to them to accomplish that goal. If multiple repertoires are available, then an individual chooses amongst those repertoires to accomplish the goal based on the capability of the repertoires. In an ideal situation, this maximizing calculation selects the best possible of the available repertoires to achieve a given goal; although in practice repertoires may arise spontaneously out of necessity. Some authors suggest that improved communication performance is a result of the measured usage of a variety of media, as opposed to one single medium [23].

Suggestions for the Practicing Manager

As outlined above, media choice can be more effective if guided by theory. Application of the three suggestions offered above to the three key tasks identified earlier are now offered to assist the practicing manager navigate the turbid waters of media choice.

Building a Virtual Team

Concerning structural conditions, teams develop over time; therefore, a virtual team leader must manage the team development process. This means generating an awareness of, and helping to develop, appropriate norms of communication behavior. Every organization has different norms, but perceptions of appropriate usability and use of media channels appears to be highly dependent on perceptions of what these norms are [21]. Because norms are at the convergence of an organization’s culture, individual capabilities, channel capabilities, the task at hand, and are developed over time, considerable thought and effort are required to establish them in a way that furthers organizational goals (rather than hindering them). These norms start at the top, and may require a virtual team leader to modify his/her natural style. For example, research shows that high-level executives are more likely to attempt to match media to their styles and preferences, while low and mid-level managers are more likely to attempt to match their media choices to the styles and preferences of others [20]. In some cases, individuals may struggle to learn new media, or may oppose it for a variety of reasons; therefore, it is essential that virtual team leaders provide media training if they desire faithful usage [28].

One corollary to this discussion is inter-firm virtual teams, where perceived “rich” interaction may enhance relational performance, and therefore satisfaction and loyalty [29]6. Research finds that electronic mail is not enough to build relationships, but may lubricate this process [25].

Once teams are established, research shows that effective virtual teams seem to follow a pattern of relatively intense face-to-face meetings, followed by a period of work apart [6]. For this reason, leaders may consider periodic face-to-face interactions with a culture- or team-building focus. Next, as a team matures, managerial overhead required to establish and maintain media channels may decrease for two reasons: first, experience with a specific group of co-workers, a specific message topic, or an organizational context might increase perceptions of media channel richness [30]; second, initial perceptions of lower communication effectiveness in virtual groups vs. face-to-face groups may disappear over time [31]. Finally, because communication genres may be culturally defined, their influence may increased in established teams [32]—a point that re-emphasizes the importance of establishing these norms early.

Concerning the purpose of communication, interdependent tasks may require more communication, and increased complexity may require more complex interactions; however, the

6 Although the link to performance appears to be minimal [30], suggesting that the effects are maximal early in a relationship (like during the early phases of team-building where trust is developed).

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strength of shared view tends to moderate this [6]. Therefore, as before, the virtual team leader must foster a culture in which the shared view prevails. As noted earlier, a virtual team leader wishing to combat the general preference of accessible media to appropriate media will want to

maximize the availability of appropriate media and facilitate development of norms for their use.

Concerning media repertoires, virtual team leaders must foster awareness of their existence, and norms of usage7. This may require experimentation and advocacy of useful repertoires. For example, one drawback of virtual collaboration is reduced social presence in virtual versus face-to-face groups [31]; however, within these groups, social presence is not constant. Experimenting with repertoires, researchers added an electronic meeting system (EMS) to a face-to-face meeting, which lowered perceptions of social presence. They then added an EMS to a distributed teleconference did not lower social presence [33]. Overall, this experimentation

found that the repertoire of EMS with teleconference might prove useful. Virtual team leaders may make similar comparisons with common repertoires in their environment to discover useful combinations.

Solving Problems in a Virtual Team Environment

With respect to structural conditions, the recommendation is procedural: establish both a common problem-solving process and a process-supportive repertoire. Recommendations for facilitating this process—as well as repertoire concerns—are combined in the next paragraphs, framed in terms of the three-step problem solving process established earlier.

Concerning problem identification, both conveyance and convergence requirements are high; therefore, virtual team leaders may consider use of a media with high synchronicity (such as video teleconferencing, or a pre-recorded message/animation). Multimedia presentation of tasks that are difficult to analyze (in other words, problem definition) might lead to a perception of decreased equivocality, and may result in perception of additional trust in the message sender [34]. Note that this phase will likely require multiple repertoires to fully engage diverse members in compiling a comprehensive problem statement.

Concerning problem development, one repertoire that has received broad support is that of group decision support systems8 (GDSS) in the brainstorming process; namely that they help generate more ideas [33]—even outperforming the venerable nominal group technique [35]. Anonymity [36,37], training, and process facilitation [38] appear to enhance these results. The quality of ideas can likewise be improved with additional process restriction, such as the multiple-dialogue technique [39]. Because GDSS are configurable, a leader can choose how and when to allow inputs, discussion, and choice to occur. Finally, GDSS can be used to select solutions and in related negotiations [40]. The point here is not to mandate use of a specific tool set, but rather to offer that a tool set, properly configured and facilitated, might enhance any

team’s problem-solving process—including virtual teams. Further, because GDSS are easily scalable in a virtual environment, their applicability to virtual teams is high—considering the alternatives.

Concerning solution selection, research indicates that in ethical decision making tasks, face-to-face groups reached decisions faster than GDSS-supported groups; however, the overall decision quality was not significantly different [41]. In other tasks, GDSS increased overall decision quality, but face-to-face and geographically-dispersed teams did not have significantly different decision quality [33]. In other words, there appears to be no need to think that virtual

7 See Appendix C for a brief overview of repertoire usage options.

8 Group decision support systems may be stand-alone, or require multiple independent systems; therefore, they are grouped under the term “repertoire” in this usage context.

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teams are at a disadvantage when it comes to solving problems—as long as an appropriate repertoire is chosen.

Managing Conflict in Virtual Teams

Because of the unique nature of conflict, this section primarily discusses conflict antecedents. Structural conditions were discussed in-depth in the team-building section; therefore, this section discusses the purpose of communication and media repertoires together.

In conflict situations, both conveyance and convergence requirements are high; likewise, the task is complicated by the emotional component inherent to conflict [14]. This increases the importance of repertoires increasing media synchronicity—especially in environments where text communication is the accepted norm. The virtual team leader must understand that benign text, once distantiated (“Separated in time and distance” [42]) from its creator, might enact

meaning in its receiver that is troublesome; therefore, repertoires must be created that reiterate the original meaning of text—lest autonomization (“Text taking on a life of its own” [42]) occur [42]. For example, research shows that electronic mail may precede face-to-face conflict resolution, but rarely is the preferred method for solving conflict [25]. Further, communication itself, while a necessary precondition for collaboration, is not sufficient to produce it [4]. This indicates that convergence processes are a primary consideration in facilitating collaboration. Finally, team output/outcome success appears to be related to the amount of time teams spend in ‘collaboration’ phase of team performance [4]. Therefore, the virtual team leader wishing to promote collaboration may consider enacting norms that encourage repertoires de-emphasizing text alone, and maximizing convergence potential, in conflict resolution.

Conclusion

As this paper discussed, virtual teams require special leadership considerations—and effective media repertoire choice might enhance effective leadership of virtual teams. To that end, this paper: 1) discussed three key tasks that require special attention in virtual team leadership, 2) discussed three considerations for selecting correct communication media, and 3) offered suggestions for the practicing manager to help him/her apply the three media choice considerations to the three key tasks. It is hoped that the analysis provided and recommendations offered will assist modern managers achieve effective virtual team leadership in today’s (and tomorrow’s) challenging business climate.

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APPENDIX A

Table 1: Analysis of Selected Media Capabilities According to the Media Synchronicity Rating Criteria

Media (Channel)

Type9

Media Capabilities[23]

Transmission Velocity Parallelism Symbol Sets Rehearsability

Reproces-sability

Face-to-face ***** * ***** ** *

Video Conferencing **** **** **** ** *

Telephone **** * *** *** *

Voice Conferencing **** **** *** *** *

Group Meeting ***** ** ***** *** **

Voice Messaging **** * *** *** ***

Group Gathering **** ** ***** ** *

Charts/graphs * ** * ***** *****

Computer Report ** ** * * *****

Document/report ** ** * ***** *****

Memos * ** ** ***** *****

Electronic Mail *** ***** ** ***** *****

Facsimile ** * *** ***** *****

Handwritten Note * * *** ***** *****

Letter/Message * * ** ***** *****

Text Messaging **** ** ** ***** ****

Instant Messaging **** *** ** ** ***

Electronic Meeting Systems

*** ***** *** **** ***

Group Support System *** ***** ** **** ***

Groupware *** **** ** ***** ***

Desktop Video Conferencing

**** * **** ** *

Ratings: * lowest, ***** highest

Definitions

Transmission Velocity: “the speed at which a medium can deliver a message to intended recipients.”

Parallelism: “the number of simultaneous transmissions that can effectively take place.”

Symbol Sets: “number of ways in which a medium allows information to be encoded for communication.”

Rehearsability: “the extent to which the media enables the sender to rehearse or fine tune a message during encoding, before sending.”

Reprocessability: “the extent to which the medium enables a message to be reexamined or processed again, during decoding, either within the context of the communication event or after the event has passed.”

9 First 15 items rank-ordered according to Rice’s [19] analysis, based on the information richness and social presence scales. Final 6 items are new since Rice’s analysis.

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APPENDIX B

Table 2: Virtual Team Leadership Functions

Task Conveyance Convergence

Building Effective Teams/Teamwork [8]

1) Forming *** *

2) Storming ** **

3) Norming * *****

4) Performing **** ****

Solving Problems [12][13]

1) Intelligence/identification *** *****

2) Design/development *** *

3) Choice/selection ** *****

Managing Conflict [14]

1) Personal Differences ***** *****

2) Informational Deficiencies ***** *

3) Incompatible Roles **** ****

4) Environmental Stress *** **

Ratings: * least important, ***** most important

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APPENDIX C

Table 3: Repertoire Choices for Communication Goals10

Generic communication goals (one medium

deemed insufficient)

Repertoire Type

Sequential Concurrent

Serial Complementary Redundant Independent Complementary

Message Acknowledgment

Over time x

At the start x

Enhance Mutual Understanding

Over time x

At the start x

Multiple communication actions concurrently

x

10 Table created from Belanger and Watson-Mannheim [27].