Affective responses to work process and outcomes in virtual teams : Effects of communication media and time pressure

Purpose – To analyze the direct and combined effects of the communication media and time pressure in group work on the affective responses of team members while performing intellective tasks Design/methodology/approach – A laboratory experiment was carried out with 124 subjects working in 31 groups. The task performed by the groups was an intellective one. A 2 × 3 factorial design with three media (face‐to‐face, video‐conference, and e‐mail) and time pressure (with and without time pressure) was used to determine the direct and combined effects of these two variables on group members' satisfaction with the process and with the results, and on members' commitment with the decision. Findings – Results show a direct effect of communication media on satisfaction with the process, which confirms the prediction of the media‐task fit model, and a negative effect of time pressure on satisfaction with group results and commitment to those results. Most interestingly, the interaction effects for the three dependent variables are significant and show that the most deleterious effects of time pressure are produced in groups working face‐to‐face, while groups mediated by video‐conference improve their affective responses under time pressure. Research limitations/implications – Some limitations are the use of a student sample, so generalizability of the findings is limited, and the use of only one task type. Practical implications – It can help one to know how to design work to improve satisfaction and implication of workers. Originality/value – This paper shows some innovations as the combined effects of media and time pressure, controlling for the task type on group members' affective responses to their work and achievements.