VOSS Collaborative Research: I Want You to Know Who I Am: Identity Communication and Verification in Virtual Teams

VOSS 协作研究：我想让你知道我是谁：虚拟团队中的身份沟通和验证

• 批准号: 1322001
• 负责人: Sherry Thatcher
• 金额: $ 8.12万
• 依托单位: University of South Carolina at Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-08-15 至 2016-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1322001&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: VOSS; Collaborative; Research; Want; Know

The goal of the proposed research is to understand how individual-level identities are communicated and verified in virtual teams, in order to develop technology-design guidelines aimed at improving the identity communication and verification process. Identity communication is defined as the methods that a person uses to convey his/her identity (Thatcher, Doucet, & Tuncel, 2001) and identity verification refers to the process of bringing others to confirm one's identity (Swann, 1983). The technology that facilitates communication in virtual teams can distort individual-level identities by heightening (Walther, 2008) or hiding (Weisband, 2002) them. The technology can thus create a social barrier to participation in virtual teams, negatively influencing a number of individual and group outcomes, including overall team success (Gomez, Huici, Seyle, & Swann, 2009). We adopt a mixed-methods research approach (Venkatesh, Brown, & Bala, 2013) to develop design guidelines for systems that improve identity communication and verification in virtual environments. Data will be collected in three phases, leveraging qualitative and quantitative techniques including interviews, surveys, and experiments.The broader impacts of this project are in four key areas. First, our research will result in specific guidelines for designing information technology to support effective identity communication and verification in virtual environments. We will explain how the characteristics of various communication media influence identity communication and verification. Organizations can use this information not only during the onset of new virtual teams, but also as continuous improvement initiatives or when new members join an existing team. Second, we help organizations understand how to choose among different types and characteristics of communication technology to most effectively manage identity communication and verification. By understanding users' individual and task-related needs, organizations can deploy the best technologies to improve identity communication and verification given these specific characteristics. Third, with the increased use of online learning environments, we expect that the results of this work can be used to enhance both the teaching and learning experience by providing guidelines to enhance identity communication and verification in the educational context. For example, a common criticism of online learning experiences is that students do not feel a connection with their instructors or other students. Understanding how technology can enhance identity communication and verification can go a long way in helping us to develop effective online teaching tools. Fourth, a better understanding of identity communication and verification in virtual teams will have direct implications for NSF-sponsored virtual organizations, enhancing the effectiveness of cross-disciplinary and remote collaborations. Virtual teams offer a cost-effective and practical way to bring together diverse people from cross-disciplinary fields regardless of temporal or spatial restrictions; however, even face-to-face cross-disciplinary teams often experience communication difficulties (Oetzel, 2008), and these difficulties are generally exacerbated in virtual settings. By pointing the way toward more effective and sustainable virtual organizations, our research can thus strengthen the cyber-infrastructure for cross-disciplinary science and engineering research.

拟议研究的目的是了解如何在虚拟团队中传达和验证个体级别的身份，以制定旨在改善身份交流和验证过程的技术设计指南。身份沟通定义为一个人用来传达其身份的方法（撒切尔，杜塞特，＆Tuncel，2001），身份验证是指带他人确认自己的身份的过程（Swann，1983）。促进虚拟团队沟通的技术可以通过增强（Walther，2008）或隐藏（Weisband，2002）来扭曲个人级别的身份。因此，该技术可以为参与虚拟团队的社会障碍，从而对许多个人和团体成果产生负面影响，包括整体团队成功（Gomez，Huici，Seyle和Swann，2009年）。我们采用混合方法研究方法（Venkatesh，Brown和Bala，2013年），为改善虚拟环境中的身份通信和验证的系统制定设计指南。数据将分为三个阶段，利用定性和定量技术，包括访谈，调查和实验。该项目的更广泛影响是在四个关键领域中。首先，我们的研究将为设计信息技术提供具体指南，以支持虚拟环境中有效的身份交流和验证。我们将解释各种交流媒体的特征如何影响身份交流和验证。组织不仅可以在新的虚拟团队发作期间使用此信息，而且可以作为持续改进计划，或者在新成员加入现有团队时使用。其次，我们帮助组织了解如何在通信技术的不同类型和特征中进行选择，以最有效地管理身份交流和验证。通过了解用户的个人和任务相关的需求，组织可以部署最佳技术来改善身份交流和验证，并鉴于这些特定特征。第三，随着在线学习环境的增加，我们希望这项工作的结果可以通过提供指南来增强教育环境中的身份交流和验证来增强教学和学习经验。例如，对在线学习经历的普遍批评是，学生没有与教练或其他学生有联系。了解技术如何增强身份沟通和验证可以帮助我们开发有效的在线教学工具大有帮助。第四，对虚拟团队中身份交流和验证的更好理解将对NSF赞助的虚拟组织产生直接影响，从而提高跨学科和远程协作的有效性。虚拟团队提供了一种经济高效且实用的方式，可以将跨学科领域的不同人聚集在一起，无论时间或空间限制如何；但是，即使是面对面的跨学科团队也经常遇到沟通困难（Oetzel，2008），这些困难通常在虚拟设置中加剧。通过指向更有效和可持续的虚拟组织的道路，我们的研究可以增强跨学科科学和工程研究的网络基础结构。