Preference for Procedural Ordering in Distributed Groups: How Do Media and Repeated Interaction Affect Perceptions and Procedural Structuring?

Groups use procedural structures to organize their efforts in meetings. These structures are affected by group members’ preferences for the degree of procedural order they want in a meeting, as well as by the communication media available in the meeting environment. Analysis of thirty partially distributed experimental groups that met over a series of four sessions was conducted by using two methods. Questionnaires were administered to ascertain perceptions of satisfaction and procedural practices. Content analysis was used to determine actual procedural behavioral patterns. Results indicate that members’ preferences for procedural order do appear to affect the patterns of their actual structuring behaviors, but do not affect their satisfaction with the group process.