might employ more than one method of communication each with different frequency of use. Figure 11 shows the taxonomy of communication events developed for this research. The purpose of this taxonomy is to simplify the classification and processing of messages in the simulation. The communication can be asynchronous or synchronous depending on the media used (See comparison in Table 12). Also, each communication event is classified by its intent, content, and message.
The communication intent
indicates the purpose of the message. The communication intent is either to transfer, request, or acknowledge information. The communication content refers to the type of message to be transferred or requested. The content could be information, a decision, or an action.
The message specifies the information, decision, or action of the
communication event. The communication media defines the process used to transfer the message; and the combination of intent, content and message defines the actions taken by the receiver to process it. For example, a team member could send an e-mail to his supervisor asking him to confirm his next task assignment. In this case, the media is asynchronous, the intent is to request, the content is a decision, and the message is the request itself. In the model, teammates communicate for the following general purposes: •
To send information about a task
•
To request information about a task
•
To solve a conflict emerging when two members are assigned to the same task.
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