Culturally heterogeneous vs. culturally homogeneous groups in distributed group support systems: effects on group process and consensus

As global virtual teams become more common, the need to better understand how groups composed of individuals from different cultural backgrounds perform has never been more pressing. This study compares groups from the same cultural background with groups from varied cultural backgrounds when they used two different communication media (face-to-face and an asynchronous conferencing system). Data was collected on 46 groups, which included a total of 268 subjects representing 39 countries. Research questions regarding group process and consensus were addressed specifically as they relate to cross-cultural group work. The results of this study suggest that distributed asynchronous GSS may be effectively used by mixed cultural groups facing a value-based cognitive conflict (negotiation) task.