5.1. Quantitative Research Findings
The link to the online survey was distributed to the students of a private university in Sunway City Malaysia through Facebook. A total of 126 responses were received and recorded on Google Forms and the usable responses were 99 (78.6%). The quantitative data were analysed using IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) with the standard statistical descriptive analysis of frequencies, percentages and means. Each survey item was calculated to provide information about the frequency of WhatsApp usage, time spent on WhatsApp per day and for academic-related activities per week, uses of WhatsApp for academic-related activities, as well as the perception of students towards WhatsApp usage and its impact on academic performance. The following sections present the findings of the quantitative research.
To address the research question on university students’ uses of WhatsApp, two survey items were analysed using frequency and percentage.
Table 1 shows that almost all of the respondents use WhatsApp several times a day (97.0%) and only three respondents use WhatsApp once a day. This finding indicates that students of this study are frequent users of WhatsApp.
In terms of time spent on WhatsApp,
Table 2 shows that 42.4% of the respondents spent 3–5 h per day, followed by 34.3% of respondents who spent 1–2 h per day and 19.2% of respondents who spent over 8 h per day. This finding indicates that the students are considered heavy users of WhatsApp.
Lastly, three questions from the survey were analysed using frequency, percentage and mean about the time spent on WhatsApp for academic–related activities per week (
Table 3), types of academic–related activities conducted by students using WhatsApp (
Table 4) and students’ perception towards WhatsApp usage and its impact on academic performance (
Table 5).
Table 3 shows the time spent on WhatsApp for academic–related activities per week by university students. The majority of respondents (71.7%) spent less than 5 h per week on WhatsApp for academic–related activities, followed by 23.2% of respondents who spent 5 to 10 h per week, four respondents (4%) spent more than 20 h per week and only one respondent (1%) spent 15 to 20 h per week on WhatsApp for academic–related activities. This finding indicates the students are willing to invest about 20% of their time throughout a week on WhatsApp for academic purposes.
Table 4 displays the academic–related activities conducted by university students on WhatsApp. The findings show that 33 respondents (33.3%) used WhatsApp for group discussion among peers, followed by 30 respondents who used WhatsApp to share resources (30.3%). The other two activities less frequently used with WhatsApp were informing an educational agenda (20.2%) and conducting group studies (16.2%). This indicates that students in this study used WhatsApp for group discussion, sharing resources and an educational agenda, and conducting group studies as part of academic-related activities.
Finally, in examining the perceptions of students of a private university in Malaysia on the uses and impact of WhatsApp on their academic performance,
Table 5 displays the descriptive statistics of means and standard deviation (SD). The findings revealed that the respondents agreed on six statements: that WhatsApp helped pass any information discussed easily (M = 4.34, SD = 0.70), allowed them to academically engage with peers and lecturers (M = 4.11, SD = 0.84), was a good online platform to facilitate group projects (M = 4.03, SD = 0.90) and favoured faster knowledge sharing (M = 4.03, SD = 0.75), as well as their attitude towards their interaction using WhatsApp messaging being understandable (M = 4.02, SD = 0.75) and clear (M = 4.00, SD = 0.82).
Nevertheless, the findings also reveal the respondents’ stance of moderate agreement that the usage of WhatsApp destroys spelling and the grammatical construction of sentences (M = 3.62, SD = 1.20) and leads to a lack of concentration during lectures (M = 3.55, SD = 1.00).
The remaining findings show the students’ slight disagreement on the negative impact of WhatsApp on academic performance. The respondents have a neutral to slight disagreement that WhatsApp distracts them from adhering to their private study timetable (M = 2.37, SD = 1.10), completing their assignments (M = 2.32, SD = 1.02), results in difficulty in balancing online activities (M = 2.27, SD = 1.06) and they procrastinate their academic work due to WhatsApp (M = 2.26, SD = 1.01). This indicates that the students are in favour of using WhatsApp for academic purposes because of its features and it does not negatively affect their academic performance.
5.2. Quantitative Research Discussion
The results from the quantitative survey revealed that 97% of the students are heavy users of WhatsApp as they log on to WhatsApp several times per day for a span of 3–5 h for social and academic purposes. This finding is consistent with [
14] that revealed WhatsApp as one of the most popular mobile messaging applications frequently used by university students because it is convenient and easy to use. When the respondents were asked about the impact of WhatsApp on students’ academic performance, 71% of the respondents use WhatsApp less than 5 h a week for academic–related activities such as group discussions (33%), resources sharing (30%), informing an educational agenda (20%) and for group studies (16%). This finding echoes the study by [
17], which claimed that WhatsApp and its unique features were beneficial when it was used for the exchanging of information and knowledge among students. Specifically, the finding of this study on the habit of students in a Malaysian university using WhatsApp for learning purposes was consistent with prior studies conducted in the Malaysian context [
8,
9,
18].
However, the findings of this study differ from the study by [
16], which claimed adverse impacts of the use of WhatsApp such as poor time management, procrastination and a lack of concentration because, in their study, the majority of the students used WhatsApp for leisure purposes instead of academic purposes. In
Table 5, the mean scores show that the respondents of this study have a neutral to disagreeing response in terms of WhatsApp distracting them from adhering to their private study timetable (M = 2.37, SD = 1.10) and completing their assignments (M = 2.32, SD = 1.02), and that it results in difficulty in balancing online activities (M = 2.27, SD = 1.06) and procrastination about their academic work due to WhatsApp (M = 2.26, SD = 1.01). This can be interpreted that the students of a private university at Sunway City, Malaysia, have high self-discipline and they are able to manage their time well in using WhatsApp for academic-related activities, which brings a positive impact to their academic performances.
5.3. Qualitative Research Findings and Discussion
The qualitative data collected from two focus group sessions were audio and video recorded with a smartphone and video camera. The two sessions conducted with 12 participants (six participants in each group) took 61 and 67 min, respectively, in a meeting room at the private university campus. The focus group interviews were transcribed and manually analysed through three phases of a thematic analysis method. During the first phase, answers for each question were summarised into codes and themes. Next, participants’ responses were analysed and compared, and finally, the thematic analysis method ends with the compilation of themes that answer the research question on the uses and impact of WhatsApp on the effectiveness of student hybrid teams.
Table 6 displays the demographic profiles of the focus group participants. The participants comprised of four males and eight females, and they were adequately homogenous in their studied programme and their year and semester of study. All six participants of Group A and two participants of Group B possess leadership positions and this opened the opportunities to explore the differences in the usage of WhatsApp between leaders and team members.
Firstly, the three questions asked of the focus group participants were their frequency of WhatsApp usage, purposes of usage and the features of WhatsApp used. Participants said that WhatsApp is used daily in both teams for collaborating; however, the frequency varies according to the team’s needs and norms. Participants from Group A were found to use it to collaborate more consistently as P4 asserted: “When it comes to operations, we communicate with WhatsApp daily, like every day”. P6 said that due to their weekly meetings, it is a necessity to use WhatsApp more frequently. This consistency of using WhatsApp in a frequent manner may be explained by how the club operates—it is guided by professional principles to perform consistently when the members communicate. For Group B, the members echoed P4 and P6 on the frequent use of WhatsApp in their team communication. P8 said that they use WhatsApp “every hour, every week”. This finding illustrates the pervasiveness of WhatsApp among students for collaboration within teams. The frequency of WhatsApp usage is affected by the workload of the members or if they are engaged in a project. For example, both P6 and P10 saw an increase in frequency when their teams were engaged in projects.
In terms of the purpose of usage, WhatsApp is used by both groups for five reasons: (1) ubiquity of usage, (2) accessibility to communicate and collaborate, (3) efficiency in collaboration, (4) inclusivity in collaboration and (5) communicating matters of low complexity. P3, P8 and P11 support the availability of WhatsApp as a factor to use in their clubs because “
everyone has WhatsApp” (P8) and “
It’s the most common messaging app” (P11). This finding corresponds with the strong presence of WhatsApp as the most popular application [
15]. The next reason for WhatsApp usage is the accessibility, which allows team members to communicate and collaborate with each other. According to P3, WhatsApp is available for use at most times and with little difficulty stating, “
it’s very accessible to everybody and it’s quick”. P10 claimed that WhatsApp is accessible as it creates an opportunity to collaborate with others when they are geographically dispersed, relating to the principal nature and needs of how geographically dispersed teams rely upon computer-mediated communication to collaborate [
28].
The efficiency in collaboration referred to by members of Groups A and B denotes WhatsApp’s ability to streamline collaborative processes and minimise the time required for collaboration through rapid feedback. P4 believes that WhatsApp streamlines how team members collaborate by removing the necessity to use other systems or means to communicate information. Both P4 and P6 stated that the application reduces the time needed to collaborate by allowing team members to receive quick responses and feedback on conversations, decisions and consensus and providing an effective alternative to slower and less utilised channels. The use of WhatsApp due to the rapidity of feedback is preferred by P2 as she made a comparison to the inadequacies of how email as an asynchronous channel requires a period of time to reply and that team members do not check their email often, to create the optimal response time for collaboration that WhatsApp could. In contrast, P11 did not support rapid feedback as a reason for WhatsApp usage due to how the message response time is greatly contingent on how rapidly team members themselves can reply, nullifying rapid feedback for efficiency in collaboration.
The fourth reason for WhatsApp’s use in teams is that it fosters inclusive and transparent collaboration. P2 views that WhatsApp is able to effectively keep members in the loop and promote shared understanding and transparency. According to P6, WhatsApp can also transcend between teams through a larger encompassing group and eases collaboration in ways that would be otherwise difficult or inconvenient, stating “team members would know what the other member is doing, we can collaborate easier”. Finally, participants of Groups A and B reasoned that WhatsApp is used because they require it to collaborate and communicate matters of low complexity or ambiguity, where WhatsApp is the most convenient means to do so. Fulfilling tasks of low complexity or ambiguity do not require face-to-face interaction, which would be inconvenient for hybrid teams. According to P5 and P7, tasks of lower magnitudes of importance or complexity such as task delegation or updating team members produce little interpretation in meanings; therefore, WhatsApp is considered an appropriate option to be used.
The participants identified four features of WhatsApp that were considered most salient for teams’ collaboration, which are: group chats, emojis, read receipts and quote message/reply. Group chats are used in most of the communication among team members for distributing information and gathering opinions. P7 claimed that information can be efficiently distributed to all members through group chats, which allows Group B to gather opinions from its members through their responses posted in the group chat, and P4 expressed that multiple group chats are made within the club based on different portfolios or position. Emojis are another feature frequently used by both group members to enrich text-based communication on WhatsApp by adding or creating the tone of the conversation, to facilitate language deficiencies and support relationship building among members during collaboration. Consequently, P3 stated “emojis underscore the layered tone”, which allows other team members to have a better understanding of the tone of his messages, while P8 asserted emojis are used in order to express better. Notably, for team members who have a poorer command of language to articulate meanings or inability to extensively articulate feelings through words, emojis are used to easily convey those feelings.
Two other features that are frequently used by the participants are read receipts and quote message/reply functions. Read receipts are markers that indicate the state of a message’s delivery and reception [
42]. This feature is used by both teams’ members to enforce accountability and responsiveness among members by keeping track of the read receipt status on their messages. The President of Group A (P1) reasoned: “
when we send texts to anyone, we expect replies from them so we constantly focus on the read receipts”. P9 further stated that members can gain insight on the precise timing on when messages are delivered and how long it takes for recipients to reply, which creates accountability. In the process of team collaboration, P11 believed that its use allows members to reprimand others who are not timely or are unhappy with messages. Lastly, message quoting in a reply is effectively used to respond to specific messages with precision and to reduce message spamming in group chats. P3 posited that this feature of message/reply quoting reduces spamming in group chats as quoted messages abridge the original referred message, which occupies less space in a chat screen. Responding to messages with clarity and specificity is important to reduce confusion in group chats by minimising the clutter of lengthy and repeated messages, as according to P11:
“especially in a group chat, once people start replying nonstop, you see a whole bunch of messages keep going and suddenly out of a sudden, at the end of the day you open it, it’s the only time you’re free to read them, you’ll see a flood of messages… this feature allows you just to reply to that message so that people know what you are replying to, know what context you’re answering”.
In answering the remaining questions about participants’ opinions on team cohesion, team openness and the impact of WhatsApp usage on team effectiveness, three participants from Group A (P3, P4, P5) and one participant from Group B (P10) believe that their association with the team is harmed due to WhatsApp or they do not necessarily feel that they are a part of their team. Specifically, P4 stated that team members disassociate themselves from Group A when using WhatsApp due to the overwhelming volume of messages that they are faced with in the group chat; P5 further mentioned they do not feel a part of the team because there is a lack of obligation for members to communicate online due to the lack of a physical presence that produces the necessary pressure to interact; P3 expressed his feelings of disassociation from the team as he found members to be more irritating on WhatsApp than face-to-face stating “
I feel withdrawn sometimes and disengaged… there are spammers, sharers, people talk a lot and people who keep sharing pictures… sometimes it gets annoying”; and P10 claimed feeling distanced from the team when conversations in groups do not apply to her as discussions within these group chats are pushed to all members. Overall, the participants of Group A felt more strongly than Group B on the ill effects of WhatsApp on team cohesion. The lack of cohesion means that team members are less likely to share team knowledge that allows them to be more effective in a particular task, thus limiting the ability of members to benefit the team’s performance [
30,
32].
The affordances of WhatsApp enable users to perform desired communication tasks to further enhance interaction, collaboration and learning [
5] and create groups to exchange messages and facilitate group communication [
11] within student hybrid teams. The participants of both groups believe that all members are encouraged to openly express their opinions using WhatsApp and being involved in decision making improves the team’s effectiveness due to the willingness of team members to share information and be more predisposed to learn and see other members’ views. P3 concurred that it is easier for members to express their opinions to each other without regards to their positions in the club through WhatsApp, while P10 believed that her team culture on using WhatsApp has naturally caused members to express themselves openly, thus, increasing team effectiveness.
Finally, the participants of the focus group interviews were asked to comment on the impact of WhatsApp usage on team effectiveness. In general, the participants of both groups believed that WhatsApp greatly contributes to the effectiveness of the teams. P1, P2, P3 and P4 of Group A viewed WhatsApp as having a positive impact on their team effectiveness by streamlining team operations into a single platform; increasing personal convenience through its accessibility of usage; maintaining relationships among team members when they are separated in time and distance; and aiding team planning. Similarly, P9 and P10 of Group B stated that WhatsApp positively impacts their team effectiveness because it promotes collaboration among team members by easing access to other collaborative systems such as Google Drive and centralises communication into one place. However, there were some criticisms of the use of WhatsApp in which P4 argued that teams find it difficult to separate socialisation from productivity, detracting from the communication activities’ collaborative purposes. This mixed usage of socialisation and productivity is explained by the repurposed nature of WhatsApp for collaboration [
22]. In addition, P1 believed that communication in WhatsApp is damaging team effectiveness as messages may be untrue in their intents and emotions in terms of messages possibly misleading and manipulating team members’ understanding of the meanings.