Collaboration in Virtual Worlds: Impact of Task Complexity on Team Trust and Satisfaction

Introduction

Virtual worlds can be defined as three-dimensional (3D), computer-simulated environments that replicate elements of the real world (Chen et al. 2008; Chen et al. 2009; Chen et al. 2012; Eschenbrenner et al., 2008). Specifically, virtual environments include a space for interaction – they offer users the ability to interact with and manipulate objects within the space, and the user’s “presence” is projected into the space using a graphical representation called an avatar. Through the mediation of the avatar (DeWester et al., 2009a, 2009b), virtual worlds facilitate real-time social interaction and collaboration by enabling users to cognitively immerse themselves in a shared virtual space, interact and communicate using text and voice, and work together on projects regardless of the physical proximity of the users in the real world. Virtual worlds have attracted the attention of both businesses and researchers as a new and promising technology for collaborative work (Davis et al., 2009; Schiller et al. 2011).

Virtual collaboration is a key theme in organizational uses of virtual worlds (Kock, 2008). Despite the important role of collaboration and social interaction in virtual worlds, team collaboration in virtual worlds is an underexplored research area (Bosch-Sijtsema & Sivunen, 2013). As is the case with many emerging technologies, users of virtual environments may perceive or assume positive or negative influences of virtual collaboration on team outcomes. However, the mechanisms by which these team outcomes are realized have yet to be fully understood or studied. Furthermore, task has been consistently shown to influence team engagement in shared activities, team perceptions of their interactions and outcomes, and the pace or speed of task completion (Kim et al., 2016; McGrath, 1984; Mennecke et al., 2000; Osatuyi et al., 2016; Stewart & Barrick, 2000).

Certain tasks are argued to be more conducive to virtual teams than others (Ford et al., 2017). For instance, tasks that have more structured timelines and clearly defined outcomes are better suited for virtual teams than tasks that are continuous or vague. While many task characteristics have been examined in the literature, task complexity has been shown to be important (Wood, 1986) in influencing the role of technological support and mediation in various task contexts (Mennecke et al., 2000). In this research, we study the effect of task complexity on team collaboration in a virtual world.

The results of our experiment suggest that higher levels of task complexity result in higher levels of team trust and team process satisfaction. We also found that team trust fully mediates the relationship between task complexity and team process satisfaction. These findings suggest that the design of activities intended to build trust among team members should consider the complexity of the task. More specifically, activities with greater complexity should be utilized for trust-building exercises among teammates.