The Effects of Communication Media & Conflict on Team Identification in Diverse Teams

This paper explores the effects of communication media and conflict on team identification in diverse teams. Communicating either face-to-face (FTF) or via computer-mediated communication (CMC), participants performed a simulated foundation activity in 4-person teams that were diverse in terms of both social category and informational diversity. Results indicate that CMC teams had lower team identification than FTF teams. However, communication media moderated the relationship between conflict and team identification such that conflict had a negative effect on team identification in diverse FTF teams but had no effect on team identification in diverse CMC teams. These findings suggest that CMC can help diverse teams manage their intragroup conflict by attenuating the negative effect of conflict on team identification, making CMC an effective medium for decision-making in diverse teams.