The Impact of Pre-Task Games on Group Communication and Group Members Engagement in Virtual Teams

This research investigates whether processing a brief, attractive game before a team-based activity can improve communication and group bonding in a virtual team. Virtual teams often suffer from different communication issues, which can lead to less effective teamwork and inefficient collaboration. The study randomly assigned sixteen teenagers (ages 1518) into four virtual teams: two control virtual teams that did not play a pre-task game, and two experimental virtual teams that played "Draw Something" before solving a collaborative "Situation Puzzle". The researchers measured communication frequency and task performance by counting utterances and using a T-test to measure the difference between control groups and experimental groups.The results showed that teams that played the pre-task game had impressively improved on total utterances, collaborative utterances, and even off-topic utterances compared to the control teams (p<0.05). These findings suggest that brief interactive games can help to reduce the feeling of isolation, encourage participation, and enable more active cooperation, although they may also lead to an increase in casual conversation. While the study was limited by a small sample size and poor experimental conditions, it demonstrates the potential for gamification as a simple, low-cost method for improving communication in cooperative work environments.