Chat for Teamwork Discussion

Abstract

Chat communication play an increasingly important role within the workplace. Messages can be focused on both work tasks and relationships among colleagues, providing support for teams. The present study aims to identify key elements of the chat communication, through a content analysis of written utterances from teams of engineering and psychology undergraduate students engaged in the development of an application software. Our results show that chat allows teammates to share a common structure of knowledge about task, equipment, roles and relationships (i.e., team mental models). Moreover, both the quantity of interactions and the type of information exchanged show an association with the quality of the task performed. Actually the results of this study emphasize the advantages of the effective use of digital technologies. Implication and future research are discussed.