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The annual instructional virtual team Project X brings together professors and students from across the globe to engage in client projects. The 2020 project was challenged by the global disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper draws on a quantitative dataset from a post-project survey among 500 participating students and a qualitative narrative inquiry of personal experiences of the faculty members. The findings reveal how innovative use of a variety of collaboration and communication technologies helped students and their professors in building emotional connection and compassion to support each other in the midst of the crisis, and to accomplish the project despite connectivity disruptions. The results suggest that the role of an instructor changed to a coach and mentor, and technology was used to create a greater sense of inclusion and co-presence in student-faculty interactions. Ultimately, the paper highlights the role of technology to help the participants navigate sudden crisis affecting a global online instructional team project. The adaptive instructional teaching strategies and technologies depicted in this study offer transformative potential for future developments in higher education.
Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithmic tools that analyze and evaluate recorded meeting data may provide many new opportunities for employees, teams, and organizations. Yet, these new and emerging AI tools raise a variety of issues related to privacy, psychological safety, and control. Based on in-depth interviews with 50 American, Chinese, and German employees, this research identified five key tensions related to algorithmic analysis of recorded meetings: employee control of data versus management control of data, privacy versus transparency, reduced psychological safety versus enhanced psychological safety, learning versus evaluation, and trust in AI versus trust in people. More broadly, these tensions reflect two dimensions to inform organizational policymaking and guidelines: safety versus risk and employee control versus management control. Based on a quadrant configuration of these dimensions, we propose the following approaches to managing algorithmic applications to recording meeting data: the surveillance, benevolent control, meritocratic, and social contract approaches. We suggest the social contract approach facilitates the most robust dialog about the application of algorithmic tools to recorded meeting data, potentially leading to higher employee control and sense of safety.
Artificial Intelligence in Business Communication: The Changing Landscape of Research and Teaching
(2022)
The rapid, widespread implementation of artificial intelligence technologies in workplaces has implications for business communication. In this article, the authors describe current capabilities, challenges, and concepts related to the adoption and use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in business communication. Understanding the abilities and inabilities of AI technologies is critical to using these technologies ethically. The authors offer a proposed research agenda for researchers in business communication concerning topics of implementation, lexicography and grammar, collaboration, design, trust, bias, managerial concerns, tool assessment, and demographics. The authors conclude with some ideas regarding how to teach about AI in the business communication classroom.
Each year, the Virtual Business Professional (VBP) program brings together professors and students from across the globe to engage in client projects. The VBP program of 2020 occurred from the beginning of March through the middle of April. In this article, we share how the COVID-19 pandemic affected VBP participants and their teams. We present post-project survey results (completed by 440 of 530 participants for an 83 percent response rate), professor comments, and student comments to demonstrate how VBP participants overcame many of the pandemic disruptions to work effectively in virtual teams, develop compassion and empathy for one another, and foster more global mindsets.
Natural Language Processing, such as speech-to-text technology, is increasingly implemented in collaboration software that is used by global virtual teams (GVT). GVT collaboration has become ubiquitous and has additionally accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main issues of global virtual teams are technology difficulties, language and time zone differences, and lower levels of psychological safety. Advances in collaboration technology aim at improving collaboration for GVT. But we know little about the acceptance of these technologies. Therefore, the objective of this study is to explore how Millennial and Gen Z members of GVT accept speech-to-text technology; namely, automated captions in virtual conferences and automated meetings transcripts. Particularly, we are comparing antecedents of acceptance across levels of language proficiency and psychological safety. We surveyed 530 users of speech-to-text technology in GVT both before and after they used the technology. The pre-survey was administered before the COVID-19 pandemic hit; when participants completed the post-survey all were under some degree of lockdown. Results suggest that use of the technology reduces anxiety and effort, but decreases performance expectation and hedonic motivation. Non-native speakers rate the technology more positively. The impact of psychological safety is limited to self-efficacy and anxiety.
Virtual teams that use integrated communication platforms are ubiquitous in cross-border collaboration. This study explores the use of communication media and team outcomes—both social outcomes and task accomplishment—in multilingual virtual teams. Based on surveys from 96 virtual teams (with 578 team members), the research shows that the more time spent in rich communication channels, such as online conferences, increased inclusion and satisfaction, whereas the more time spent with written communication that is lower in richness increased the level of task accomplishment. Team members with lower language proficiency felt less included in all collaboration channels, whereas team members with higher language proficiency felt less satisfied with lean collaboration. In addition, limited language proficiency speakers were significantly less likely to view rich tools as helpful for their teams to reach a mutual decision. Our data support media richness theory in its original context for native and highly proficient English speakers. Our study extends the scope of the theory by applying it to the new context of team members with limited language proficiency. Management should implement a collaboration infrastructure consisting of communication platforms that integrate a variety of media to account for different tasks and different communication needs.
Virtual teams that use integrated communication technologies are ubiquitous in cross-border collaboration. This study explored media use and communication performance in multilingual virtual teams. Based on surveys from 96 virtual teams (with 578 team members), the research showed that more time spent in synchronous communication channels such as online conferences increased inclusion and satisfaction. Team members with lower language proficiency felt less included in synchronous and asynchronous collaboration, whereas team members with higher language proficiency felt less satisfied with asynchronous collaboration. Also, limited language proficiency speakers were significantly less likely to view synchronous tools as helpful for their teams to reach a mutual decision. Our data supports Media Synchronicity Theory (MST) for native and highly proficient English speakers. However, MST needs to be adjusted to account for different levels of language proficiency.
Collaboration platforms for teams, such as Slack, are increasingly used in virtual teams. Conventional wisdom suggests attitudes about adopting these types of platforms is primarily driven by their affordances. Our project emerged from the premise that psychological safety and personality traits can also significantly influence attitudes related to technology adoption. This research of roughly 300 global virtual teams showed that psychological safety influences views of collaboration platforms in terms of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and hedonic motivation. In addition, this research showed that personality traits influence views of collaboration platforms. These findings about psychological safety and personality traits suggest a team-development approach is an integral component of the technology adoption process. Recommendations for future research are provided.
Teams are beginning to rely on smart communication technology that is enhanced by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Yet, we lack understanding of how these smart communication technologies (SCT) influence team collaboration, especially in global virtual teams (GVT). This study empirically investigates how cultural values and practices influence the acceptance of SCT and how the use of this technology impacts communication effectiveness in GVT. We surveyed 643 members of 109 GVT before and after using the SCT. Results showed that team members from individualistic, future oriented cultures generally had more positive expectations towards the performance and enjoyment of using the technology. Uncertainty avoidance increased effort expectancy. After using SCT for communicating in the GVT, most differences disappeared. Regarding communication effectiveness, SCT had a positive influence, which was stronger for performance and future oriented cultures.
Meeting recordings and algorithmic tools that process and evaluate recorded meeting data may provide many new opportunities for employees, teams, and organizations. Yet, the use of this data raises important consent, data use, and privacy issues. The purpose of this research is to identify key tensions that should be addressed in organizational policymaking about data use from recorded work meetings. Based on interviews with 50 professionals in the United States, China, and Germany, we identify the following five key tensions (anticipated boundary turbulence) that should be addressed in a social contract approach to organizational policymaking for data use of recorded work meetings: disruption versus help in relationships, privacy versus transparency, employee control versus management control, learning versus evaluation, and trust in AI versus trust in people.
Research Questions
• What attitudes do professionals hold towards the impact of AI on society and their jobs? How do early adopters of ChatGPT differ in their attitudes towards the impact of AI on society and their jobs?
• In what ways are professionals using ChatGPT? How do these uses differ by managerial status? • What do professional perceive as benefits of generative AI? How do they differ in these views based on level of ChatGPT adoption and managerial status?
• What do professionals perceive as the benefits of organizational policy for the use of generative AI? How do these views differ based on level of ChatGPT adoption and managerial status?
Samples
• Study 1 involved 148 working adults in the United States who had heard of ChatGPT
• Study 2 involved 395 working adults in the United States who had heard of ChatGPT
Research Questions
• What attitudes do professionals hold towards the impact of AI on society and their jobs? How do early adopters of ChatGPT differ from non-adopters in their attitudes towards the impact of AI on society and their jobs?
• In what ways are professionals using ChatGPT? How do these uses differ by managerial status?
• What do professionals perceive as benefits of generative AI? How do they differ in these views based on level of ChatGPT adoption and managerial status?
• What do professionals perceive as the benefits of organizational policy for the use of generative AI? How do these views differ based on level of ChatGPT adoption and managerial status?
Key Findings and Conclusions
• Many US workers in this sample are using ChatGPT for professional purposes. Roughly the following percentages have already used ChatGPT in the following ways: o 42% for researching a topic or generating ideas o 32% for drafting messages o 26% for drafting longer documents, such as reports o 22% for editing text
• Many US workers in this sample believe ChatGPT can help them become better communicators. This is particularly the case for executives and managers. Roughly two thirds of executives (67%) and managers (64%) believe generative AI can help them communicate more effectively.
• Early adopters of ChatGPT in this sample hold much different views of generative AI than do non-users of ChatGPT. Early adopters hold the following distinctive views:
o They are much more likely to think AI is good for society than non-users (64% to 22%) and believe it will make them more productive (82% for early adopters; 26% for non-users); however, they are also more likely to worry about the ethical implications of AI (68% to 55%) in the workplace and worry that their own job will be replaced by AI (41% to 20%).
o They are much more likely to think generative AI will support them in their work. About 85% of early adopters say that ChatGPT can help them generate ideas for work compared to about 50% of non-users. About 73% of early adopters say it can improve the quality of their work compared to 42% of non-users. About 74% of early adopters say it can help them communicate more effectively compared to 41% of non-users. Executives and managers are slightly more likely to be enthusiastic about the benefits.
• Employees in organizations with generative AI policies view these policies positively. Those who are aware of an organizational policy about generative AI generally believe it has supported more comfort in using ChatGPT for work, has improved trust, has improved efficiency, and has provided legal protections. Those who are early adopters are generally more positive about each of these benefits of organizational policy than those who are non-users of ChatGPT.
• Most early adopters of generative AI in organizations without generative AI policies want more guidance about ChatGPT use. Most early adopters believe an organizational policy would make them more comfortable using ChatGPT (61%), that it would increase trust (56%), and that it would improve efficiency (66%).
Key Recommendations
• Develop generative AI policies that support innovation and efficiency while putting into place legal safeguards for organizations and their employees.
• Use a social contracts approach to develop generative AI policies.
Psychological safety, the feeling of being comfortable to express one’s ideas or opinions in teams, is a key determinant of successful global virtual teams. Even though there exists considerable knowledge about its antecedents, it is unknown how team-based (e.g., clarification of deliverables and deadlines) and technology-based (e.g., digital reminder nudges/ DRN) interventions foster psychological safety given cultural variations of team members. Based on a survey involving 148 participants, our data shows that both team-based interventions (TBI) and digital nudges foster psychological safety in global virtual teams. TBI are even more effective for high-context, indirect communicators than for low-context, direct communicators. However, digital nudges were equally effective across cultures for building psychological safety. These findings contribute to the literature on psychological safety as we show that not all antecedents hold equally across cultures and to the literature of digital nudges as we show the effectiveness of technology-based interventions in a team context.
The Challenges and Opportunities of AI-Assisted Writing: Developing AI Literacy for the AI Age
(2023)
Generative AI may significantly disrupt the teaching and practice of business communication. This study of 343 communication instructors revealed a collective view that AI-assisted writing will be widely adopted in the workplace and will require significant changes to instruction. Key perceived challenges include less critical thinking and authenticity in writing. Key perceived benefits include more efficiency and better idea generation in writing. Students will need to develop AI literacy—composed of application, authenticity, accountability, and agency—to succeed in the workplace. Recommendations are provided for instructors and administrators to ensure the benefits of AI-assisted writing can outweigh the challenges.
Virtual meeting recordings have become a common part of virtual and hybrid workplace environments. Meeting recordings offer potential benefits (speedy transcript production, expedited information sharing, searchable information, inclusion of visual and tonal expressions) and drawbacks (difficulty discussing sensitive issues, employee privacy, limited off-the-record capabilities, and employee concerns over sharing recordings). Given this variance, policies for virtual meetings are a necessity. Managers can successfully implement a policy by co-creating policy preferences with employees in open-ended and nonjudgmental conversations that openly discuss potential benefits, drawbacks, and employee concerns. Topics such as when to record, when not to record, how to gain consent, and who will have administrative and sharing rights should be covered. Accessibility concerns, use or rejection of software features, for how long and where meeting recordings should be stored, and emerging issues such as use of virtual reality meetings and AI tools are areas of less urgency that may be part of the conversations. Managers should deliver policy preferences to a group of representatives from Human Resources, Information Technology, and the executive team to compose the policy, request a legal review, then introduce and implement it in the organization.
Virtual team meetings are increasingly supported with advanced technology. This study investigates the extent to which Al-enabled speech technology can be useful for global virtual teams (GVT). A survey was conducted in GVTs in 2020 and 2021, when people's lives were primarily dominated by the pandemic. A transcription software was used to support the collaboration. A total of 530 survey responses were analyzed using a structured approach- qualitative content analysis. The data was structured using the SWOT framework that aimed at comprehensively answering the research question "To what extent is the use of Al-supported speech technology in GVTs useful?". Al-generated transcripts are helping to overcome language and time zone barriers in GVT. Yet, they also cause misunderstandings and impact openness of communication. Further results and implications for GVT are discussed.
As generative AI (GenAI) becomes increasingly integrated into the professional workplace, offering significant productivity gains according to emerging research evidence, professionals and students need to build competencies to thrive in this new environment. In higher education, curricula must incorporate GenAI literacy to help students engage with this important and evolving technology. This research introduces results from a mixed-method study conducted among organisational practitioners, with the goal of creating an understanding of GenAI literacy needs across broad organisational contexts. We develop a Diamond Model of GenAI literacy for higher education to support curricular transformations needed to help students entering the GenAI-infused workplace. The suggested Diamond Model advocates for refining educational approaches to equip graduates with the capabilities to apply GenAI, maintain accountability, ensure authenticity and exercise agency in GenAI-driven workplaces.
Many experts project generative AI will impact the types of competencies that are valued among working professionals. This is the first known academic study to explore the views of business practitioners about the impacts of generative AI on skill sets. This survey of 692 business practitioners showed that business practitioners widely use generative AI, with the most common uses involving research and ideation, drafting of business messages and reports, and summarizing and revising text. Business practitioners report that character-based traits such as integrity and soft skills will become more important. Implications for teaching business communication are discussed.