Working smarter: Using technology-enabled processes to leverage virtual group member intelligence

Abstract

Organizations use information and communication technologies (ICT) to enable remote work, yet the performance of groups using ICT varies widely. Individual intelligence is a strong predictor of individual job performance, yet research shows that when groups use ICT to support decision making tasks, group performance is not influenced by the combined intelligence of group members. Thus, group performance may be unpredictable because ICT inhibits the ability of intelligent team members to influence team outcomes. We completed two studies that examine whether an ICT-based technique for structuring collaboration to improve information integration and organization can help groups leverage the intelligence of group members. Results show that the performance of groups that used traditional commercial ICT was not related to the average intelligence of group members. In contrast, the performance of groups using our proposed technique was related to the average intelligence of group members. Thus, the more structured approach to ICT use enabled groups to perform at the level of their intelligence.