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Supporting group collaboration in Wiki by increasing the awareness of task conflict

Kewen Wu (School of Information Management, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China)
Julita Vassileva (Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada)
Qinghua Zhu (School of Information Management, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China)
Hui Fang (School of Computer Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
Xiaojie Tan (School of Information Management, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China)

Aslib Proceedings

ISSN: 0001-253X

Article publication date: 25 November 2013

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Abstract

Purpose

Wiki forms a new model of virtual collaboration. The original wiki is designed to hide content authorship information. Such design may hinder users from being aware of task conflict, resulting in low-efficient conflict management and decreased group performance. This study aims at increasing users' awareness of task conflict to facilitate wiki-based collaboration.

Design/methodology/approach

A visual feedback dialog box is designed to increase users' awareness of task conflict. A survey-based comparative study is conducted by using original wiki and modified wiki (the new design). A total of 301 participants are invited. Structural equation model (SEM) is used to analyze survey data.

Findings

Most users are willing to solve conflict issues, and the dialog box can increase users' awareness of task conflict. Conflict awareness can promote user's participation, gain better conflict resolution and improve group performance. The dialog box can enhance the influence of conflict awareness on user participation and conflict resolution, but reduce the influence of conflict awareness on group performance.

Research limitations/implications

Only undergraduate students are invited, some typical variables are not included. The design needs improvement.

Originality/value

A new wiki tool is designed. The influence of conflict awareness is explored while previous studies largely ignore this variable.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their sincere appreciation to Editor and three anonymous reviewers. This research is supported by the Chinese Social Science Foundation (10ATQ004, 11CTQ008), Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Humanities and Social Sciences project (10YJC870033).

Citation

Wu, K., Vassileva, J., Zhu, Q., Fang, H. and Tan, X. (2013), "Supporting group collaboration in Wiki by increasing the awareness of task conflict", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 65 No. 6, pp. 581-604. https://doi.org/10.1108/AP-05-2013-0046

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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