Communication differences in virtual design teams: findings from a multi-method analysis of high and low performing experimental teams

This multi-method study distinguishes between four high performing and four low performing fully distributed virtual design teams, through an analysis of their asynchronous communication. Results indicate that these teams were similar in terms of the number of messages exchanged, the amount of communication devoted to aspects of design, and the amount and proportion of communication spent on team coordination, supportive commentary, and "other" topics. However, high performing teams were more verbose---they communicated more words. They also spent less time in brainstorming activities. Rather, high performing teams engaged in more critical commentary and active debate, compared to low performing teams. High performing teams conducted more in-depth discussions in the form of argumentation, as ideas were developed through an interactive debate of the pros and cons of issues. This debate resulted in the need for summaries, which served a dual role as they became intermediate steps in the process of writing the report deliverable