Tracing the development of ideas in distributed, IT-supported teams during synchronous collaboration

Interaction in teams brings together team members’ knowledge and drives innovation by shaping and reshaping ideas transiting through phases of collaboration. Organisations increasingly rely on teams in the hope that collaboration improves problem-solving or decision-making, especially in highly dynamic environments which require quick and reliable development, sharing, and application of knowledge. This paper investigates small group interaction in distributed, IT-supported teams during synchronous collaboration. It aims to understand the dynamics of interactions by tracing ideas to help improve processes and outcomes of team collaboration. The paper enriches a method of collaboration process analysis with the concept of idea trace, i.e. the aggregation of communication actions related to the same topic. Using idea traces, we suggest an approach to identify phases of collaboration, which are afterwards described with process interaction metrics. The metrics are used to analyse the team’s behaviour shaping development of ideas. The usefulness of the concept of idea trace and of the process interaction metrics is showcased in a case study with six teams of 27 professionals conducted in July 2013 in a medium-sized telecommunication company. The paper contributes to our understanding of collaborative development of ideas and the design of supportive IT to foster team collaboration.