Enhancing creativity in global virtual teams : the relationship between communication tools, conflict and creative output

Abstract

This master thesis examines the relationship between the media richness and frequency of communication on the creative output in global virtual teams. Two thirds of international organisations utilise virtual teams, to solve complex and creative tasks. Through a study of 770 student teams spread over 42 countries, we find that increased communication is not always conducive to creative output. Rather, we find that an increase in synchronous high richness communication positively relates to the creative output in global virtual teams, while increasing asynchronous low richness communication yields the opposite relationship. Our findings also suggest that increased low richness communication shares a stronger positive relationship with relationship conflict than does high richness communication. We therefore suggest that global virtual teams should place a greater emphasis on synchronous high richness communication rather than low richness communication when solving complex tasks.