Online Design Processes and Communication Across Cultures: A Cognitive-Social-Technical (C-S-T) System Approach

Architectural teams are increasingly reliant on remote and flexible working and, because of this, face a growing challenge around their collaborative operations across cultures and spaces. Central to this challenge is the knowledge gap between empirical evidence and practice with respect to cognitive, dynamic perspectives about online teamwork. To address this gap, this chapter proposes a new model for a cognitive-social-technical (C-S-T) system, which can be used to examine team design processes and communication in distributed teams. This model is demonstrated in this chapter using data from a protocol analysis of four design team videoconferences (two mixed-cultural and two mono-cultural teams). This data is used to examine the cognitive characteristics of collaborative design processes. In parallel, the linguistic features of these processes are measured using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count and compared with the protocol analysis results. Specifically, a Language Style Matching (LSM) metric is used to examine the stylistic use of language among different designers. The dual cognitive and linguistic viewpoints reveal previously hidden communication and coordination patterns in online teamwork with varying cultural diversity. One finding is that LSM tends to have a negative impact on a team’s cognitive complexity. Acknowledging its limited sample size, this study contributes to knowledge about the ways architectural teams communicate their design values in online environments.