An evaluation of the impact of social presence through Group size and the use of collaborative software on Group member "Voice" in face-to-face and computer-mediated task Groups

Firms that are trying to stay competitive in the current business environment often require the use of groups. The popularity of group work is tied to the promise of improved productivity via the pooling of information, knowledge, and skills. In recent years, group work has been expanded to virtual or distributed environments. However, there are questions about how aspects of group work-specifically group size and social presence-impact group members' ability to voice opinions. This study examines groups of two sizes in three distinct social presence settings: face-to-face, face-to-face using collaborative software, and virtual using collaborative software. This study finds that both group size and social presence affect individual instrumental voice, value-expressive voice, and the group interaction process. The results show that by increasing social presence through the use of collaborative software, it is possible to lessen the negative impact of increasing group size. These results should be of interest to the increasing number of organizations that are implementing virtual group environments.

I. The Voice Effect

A phenomenon commonly observed by organizational researchers is that employees value the notion of having input in decisions even if barriers impede input. The importance of having this perceived “voice” in important decisions is a well-established finding. Folger defines the Voice Effect as having the opportunity to provide input on decisions that will enhance judgments of fairness [10]. These fairness perceptions, in turn, produce higher employee commitment, better work output, and increased organizational citizenship, among other outcomes [11].