Investigating the efficacy of techniques affecting information exchange in virtual teams

Abstract

It still remains a challenge for members of a virtual team to share or exchange information with one another. This is despite the benefits of information sharing on a team’s performance, which include overcoming bias and making better decisions. One of the primary reasons for the lack of information exchange might be the difficulty of a team member in eliciting their unique information, which remains tacit. This study aims to examine this issue by testing the efficacy of two cognitive based techniques: Delphi and Repertory Grid, in eliciting such unique information. Our results indicate that groups using either technique (Delphi and Repertory Grid) elicited more unshared/unique information than the control group that was using none. But more importantly, our findings indicate that the Repertory Grid technique helped capture more unique information from members of a virtual team than the Delphi technique.