STATUS DIFFERENTIATION AND INFORMATION EXCHANGE IN FACE-TO-FACE AND COMPUTER-MEDIATED IDEA GENERATION

Two experiments studied the effects of status differentiation on idea generation in four-person groups. One experiment investigated face-to-face interaction; the second examined interaction in a computer-mediated environment. A conceptual framework based on the ''social risk'' of initiating various types of messages provided hypotheses for these studies. In both media, status-undifferentiated (SU) groups generated significantly more ideas than status-differentiated (SD) groups. In addition to ideas, the study examined other message types. The principal finding was that the proportion of ''data/fact'' messages in total messages exchanged was significantly larger in the SD groups in both experiments. Coding of videotapes from the face-to-face groups documented a censoring of ideas in SD groups; in contrast to SU groups, these groups failed to enter ideas in the written records that they had discussed orally. SU groups also were more likely to exchange positive evaluations and to sustain periods of ideation in silence. We discuss the implications of the findings for our conceptual framework and for managing ''process losses'' in idea generation.