Current status of information technologies used in support of task-oriented collaboration

Many organizations use information technology (IT) as a way to enable global networking, group negotiations, and expertise sharing amongst end-users in distributed work environments. IT can potentially play a significant role in effective and efficient negotiation and collaboration if it can enhance the quality of communication and coordination between group members asynchronously or synchronously. The paper empirically assesses the pattern of deployment of IT in task-oriented collaboration in US organizations. Data collected from one hundred and nineteen organizations is analyzed to gain insights into adoption and use patterns, and the benefits of seven popular IT approaches that have the capability to support collaboration and negotiation between workgroup members. Our analyses show that e-mail and audio teleconferencing are the most widely adopted and used technologies, while Web-based tools and electronic meeting systems (EMS) have the lowest level of adoption and use. Implications of these findings are discussed, along with some directions for practice and research.