Silence, Attribution Accuracy and Virtual Environments: Implications for Developers and Facilitators

This research studied virtual teams using an Internet based software tool to collaborate to explore the question: what virtual or physical environment constructs influence the attribution accuracy of silence among virtual team members? Contextual information relating to team members was given to one half the teams and the other half was not given the cues. It was found that team members given the cues made more accurate attributions as to the meanings of silence than the team members using the software without the cues. Based on these findings we make recommendations to designers, facilitators and users of groupware tools.