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.

拟议研究的目标是了解如何在虚拟团队中传达和验证个人级别的身份，以便制定旨在改进身份通信和验证过程的技术设计指南。身份通信被定义为一个人用来传达其身份的方法(Thatcher, Doucet, & Tuncel, 2001)，身份验证是指让他人确认自己身份的过程(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）个人层面的身份来扭曲个人身份。因此，该技术可能会对参与虚拟团队造成社会障碍，对许多个人和团体的成果产生负面影响，包括团队的整体成功（Gomez、Huici、Seyle 和 Swann，2009）。我们采用混合方法研究方法（Venkatesh、Brown 和 Bala，2013）来开发系统设计指南，以改善虚拟环境中的身份通信和验证。数据将分三个阶段收集，利用包括访谈、调查和实验在内的定性和定量技术。该项目的更广泛影响体现在四个关键领域。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通信和验证。我们将解释各种通信媒体的特征如何影响身份通信和验证。组织不仅可以在新的虚拟团队成立期间使用此信息，还可以将其用作持续改进计划或当新成员加入现有团队时。其次，我们帮助组织了解如何在不同类型和特征的通信技术中进行选择，以最有效地管理身份通信和验证。通过了解用户的个人需求和与任务相关的需求，组织可以根据这些特定特征部署最佳技术来改进身份通信和验证。第三，随着在线学习环境的使用增加，我们期望这项工作的结果可以通过提供指导来增强教育环境中的身份沟通和验证，从而增强教学和学习体验。例如，对在线学习体验的常见批评是学生感觉不到与教师或其他学生的联系。了解技术如何增强身份沟通和验证对于帮助我们开发有效的在线教学工具大有帮助。第四，更好地理解虚拟团队中的身份通信和验证将对 NSF 资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有效且实用的方式，可以将来自跨学科领域的不同人员聚集在一起，不受时间或空间的限制；然而，即使是面对面的跨学科团队也经常会遇到沟通困难（Oetzel，2008），而这些困难在虚拟环境中通常会加剧。通过为更有效和可持续的虚拟组织指明道路，我们的研究可以加强跨学科科学和工程研究的网络基础设施。