THE ROLE OF VIRTUAL WORLDS AS A COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENT FOR PARTIALLY DISTRIBUTED TEAMS
Open Access
- Author:
- Pursel, Barton Keller
- Graduate Program:
- Workforce Education and Development
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 05, 2009
- Committee Members:
- Edgar I Farmer Sr., Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Edgar I Farmer Sr., Committee Member
Dr Brian Smith, Committee Member
Rosalie Ocker, Committee Member
Andrea H Tapia, Committee Member
Rose Marie Baker, Committee Member - Keywords:
- virtual worlds
virtual teaming
partially distributed teaming
video games
online worlds - Abstract:
- With the emergence of information technology tools, organizational teams often work virtually, relying on IT tools to successfully complete assignments (Lipnack & Stamps, 1997). Early reports indicated that many of these partially distributed teams (PDTs) experience difficulty, particularly in the areas of geographic distance, temporal distance and cultural distance (Ocker, Kracaw et al., 2008). To date, the common tools used to facilitate PDT communication and coordination are email, instant messenger, conference calls, and collaborative Internet environments such as Basecamp, Drupal, and others that have features such as wikis, message boards and shared file space (Aldrich, 2005; Martz & Reddy, 2005; Ocker, Zhang et al., 2008; Otondo, Van Scotter et al., 2008). With the emergence of 3D virtual environments, the technology is present to begin a new era of experiments in PDT collaboration. Millions of people are interacting in online virtual worlds, such as Second Life and World of Warcraft, every day (Schultze & Rennecker, 2007). The Gartner Group, a research group, predicts that by the end of 2011, 80% of active Internet users will have an avatar with some form of presence in an online, virtual world (Pettey, 2007). Hundreds of universities are experimenting with virtual worlds to enhance teaching and learning, while dozens of Fortune 500 organizations are also experimenting with virtual world use, ranging from advertising and marketing to employee training and collaboration (Rose, 2007). This research study examined PDTs collaborating in primarily 2D, text-based environments to PDTs collaborating in both 2D environments and a 3D virtual world, ProtoSphere. Data were collected around nine different dependant variables pulled from virtual teaming literature, as well as usage data on various types of media employed to collaborate. Significant findings were found relating to three variables: • Conflict • Shared Identity • Social presence Due to limitations in the experimental design of this study, drawing conclusions or implications from the data is difficult. Interesting trends, specifically around conflict, were identified but need more rigorous exploration before drawing conclusions on the use of virtual worlds for partially distributed team collaboration.