Physical Proximity Effects on Computer-Mediated Group Idea Generation

An experimental study measured the idea generation performance of groups offour and eight members in both proximate and distributed conditions using the same synchronous computer-mediated communication system. Proximate groups worked with all members in the same room. Distributed groups worked with all groups in separate, distributed offices. In terns of the total number of unique, total quality, and number of high-quality ideas generated, distributed groups outperformed proximate groups. A group size by proximity interaction was predicted to result in a higher rate of performance gainsfor increased group size within distributed groups, yet no interaction wasfound. The implications ofthese results for researchers and organizations contemplating the adoption of computermediated support technologies is discussed.