PATTERNS OF TEAM INTERACTION UNDER ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION CONDITIONS

ii Over the last three decades, research on processing of asymmetrically distributed information in teams has been mostly dominated by studies in the hidden profile paradigm. Building on the groundbreaking studies by Stasser and Titus (1985, 1987), almost all studies in the hidden profile paradigm have been conducted under controlled experimental settings, with various design components closely following the original design by Stasser and Titus. In conducting the current research, I pursued two goals. First, I aimed to explore whether relaxing certain assumptions of the hidden profile would impact our understanding of team information processing. I designed my study so that participants did not develop any preferences before joining their team. Additionally, unlike the common design in the hidden profile studies, participants did not start with a clear list of alternatives; instead, they had to generate the alternatives as they progressed in the task. My second goal in conducting this research was to understand what behaviours and interaction patterns could lead to effective processing of asymmetrically distributed information in a team. Data were collected from 28 teams of MB