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Teams in the Digital Workplace: Technology’s Role for Communication, Collaboration, and Performance (WP-23-28)

Jacqueline Lane, Paul Leonardi, Noshir Contractor, and Leslie DeChurch

This paper addresses the need for theoretical advancements in understanding team processes and the impact of technology on teams. Specifically, it examines the use of digital collaboration technologies by organizational teams and their effect on team communication and collaboration. Using the concept of affordances as a theoretical lens, the paper explores the potential relationships between technology affordances and essential team processes. It also provides an agenda for future research on social technologies and teams as well as novel methodological approaches for better understanding the ways in which digital technologies are affecting team processes and performance in the workplace.

This paper is published in Small Group Research.

Jacqueline Lane, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

Paul Leonardi, Duca Family Professor, Technology Management, University of California, Santa Barbara

Noshir Contractor, Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences and IPR Associate, Northwestern University

Leslie DeChurch, Professor, Communication Studies, Northwestern University

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