Chat for Teamwork Discussion: An Exploratory Study in a Training Course

Chat communication plays an increasingly important role within the workplace. Messages can be focused on both work tasks and relationships among colleagues, providing support for teams. The present study aims to identify key elements of the chat communication through a content analysis of written utterances from teams of engineering and psychology undergraduate students engaged in the development of an application software. The results show that chat allows teammates to share a common structure of knowledge about task, equipment, roles, and relationships (i.e., team mental models). Moreover, both the quantity of interactions and the type of information exchanged show an association with the quality of the task performed. The results of this study emphasize the advantages of the effective use of digital technologies. Implications and future research are discussed.