IS5600

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IS5600

• Virtual Organisations, Work Teams

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The Virtual Organisation

• Depends on a seamlessly integrated federation of
  alliances partnerships with other organisations
• Extract value from partners, with minimal
  investment in staff, assets and capital
• Outsource (often offshore) as much as possible
• Use technology to overcome barriers of time
  space
• May mix n match virtual and face-to-face work.

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Virtual Teams

• Involve
• Temporary membership
• Distributed members (city, region, country)
• Longitudinal tasks (days to months)
• Collaboration cooperation control
• The cross-fertilisation of ideas
• A high degree of dependence on technology
• Telework a new style of work, even a new culture
• The potential for destructive conflict
• Plenty of risks!

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BUT, Humans Prefer Proximity

• Biologically we are coded for it
• Food tastes better when eaten with others
• Our blood pressure rises and heart beat quickens
  when close to others
• We conform more when with others than when alone
• Social habits are often group related cohesive
  groups sit together, socialise,

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Communication is not only words

• Unsurprisingly, we communicate best when in
  proximity with others
• Up to 80 of communication is non-textual/verbal
• Paralinguistic features like tone, pauses,
  gestures, nods, winks all add value
• More complex tasks are even more dependent on FTF
  interaction
• So, is it possible to communicate successfully
  virtually?

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MROs Regional Software Sales

• Sales Managers Executives spread around the SE
  Asia / Greater China Region
• Living in one place, but responsible for a broad
  area (e.g. TWHKMOHI or SGMY or GD)
• No office space provided work from home, road,
  i-café, hotel, airport,
• Boss for all is in Shanghai see him once a
  year, or less.
• Colleagues, data, information are virtually
  there with Lotus SameTime or MS Groove.

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MRO It works, but

• Success depends on
• The right technology, people, attitude
• Success involves
• A new style of work, thinking, sense of
  responsibility
• Success is measured with
• Results, sales not hours or seniority
• A successful culture has to be created and
  maintained

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HICSS Conference Support

• Enhancing the quality of feedback during
  conference presentations
• Simultaneous audience participation online
• Everyone gets a chance to respond
• The audience can share good ideas with itself, as
  well as with the presenter
• See Davison Briggs, 2000, for details

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Boeing-Rocketdyne

• Task To build rockets 100 times cheaper and get
  them to market 10 times faster.
• The experts It cannot be done!
• The team 8 people who had never worked together
  10 months max 15 of each members time on this
  task.
• Outcome success on all accounts

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How?

• By managing their knowledge virtually via a set
  of protocols
• By restructuring their work to fit the virtual
  environment without reducing their ability to be
  creative
• Shared understanding of the problem
• Frequent (virtual) interaction discussion
• Rapid creation (and discarding) of information
• All info shared online with all members all the
  time

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Realisation that

• Collaborative Technologies are Knowledge
  Management Technologies
• But
• They can also be Knowledge Overload Technologies!

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So, the role of IT was to bring order to the
chaos overload

• 89 Virtual Meetings using Internet Notebook a
  custom designed collaborative technology to
  support discussions 651 entries supplemented
  with audiotele-conferencing
• Anytime, anywhere access
• Create, comment, reference-link, search, sort all
  entries
• Sketches, snapshots, hyperlinks, text, templates,
  e-whiteboard
• Coordination protocols to govern CT use
• Project Vault file repository, with shared
  access for team members

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Intel

• Globally, a highly dispersed company
• RD in 10 countries IE, IL, US, RU. IN, MY, PH,
  CN, UK, ES
• Fabrication in 11 locations, assembly in 4.
• 236 offices globally.
• 8300 web-based collaborations weekly
• 71 of employees work with colleagues whose
  mother tongue is different
• 60 of employees are members of 3 teams.
• Distance does not impede team performance, but
  the wide range of collaboration tools does.

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Financial Returns

• ATT increased the number of sales people working
  from home 15-20 more time with customers.
• ATT saved US550M from 1991-1998 by eliminating
  unused office space.
• IBM saved US100M in one US unit through
  telecommuting.
• Perkin-Elmer encouraged telecommuting and shut 35
  branch offices altogether.
• Texaco sees telecommuting as a key to increasing
  competitiveness

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Collaborative Virtual Teams

• In a global society, where timely information is
  the most important commodity, collaboration is
  not simply desirable, it is inevitable

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should be designed carefully

• Who is going to contribute usefully?
• Who will pull their weight?
• Who is just another body?
• Who are the natural leaders, or laggards?
• Do all team members 'fit' together?

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Selecting the Right People for Virtual Work

• It is not just ability to use the technology, but
  also to communicate effectively, sensitively,
  empathetically.
• Heightened cultural awareness is very valuable
  what does silence mean, or polite agreement?
• Which managers can adapt to the virtual world?

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Designing Effective Teams

• Determine Team Structure
• Define team composition
• Members from different backgrounds and
  organisational units
• Specialised expertise
• Necessary competencies
• Different members at different times
• Core members
• Temporary/Full-time/Part-time/ad hoc

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Designing Effective Teams

• Determine Team Structure
• Define team composition
• Define and fill leadership roles
• Emergent or appointed? Credibility?
• Permanent or temporary?
• Facilitates, coaches, and consults
• Undertakes project scope management
• Manages team life cycle
• Encourages (structured) decision making

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Designing Effective Teams

• Determine Team Structure
• Define team composition
• Define and fill leadership roles
• Develop external connections (link to the rest of
  the organisation and beyond)
• Develop Team Capabilities
• Facilitate access to information resources
• Facilitate appropriate technological support
• Facilitate training

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Roles in Virtual Teams

• A multitude are possible, but which are
  essential?

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Task Types?

• Generative, no correct answer tasks
• Tasks that need distributed resources
• Design development tasks
• Products
• Software
• Services
• Coordination tasks

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Technology and Teams

• Great teams dont fear technology, they love it.
• This is equally true for face-to-face teams as
  distributed or virtual teams.

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Technology Support

• Web-based resources such as portals
• Collaborative Groupware Systems
• Audio Video Conferencing
• Email EDI Electronic Data Interchange
• IOS Interorganisational Systems e.g. TradeLink
  connecting trading clients with
• Banks, insurance, govt depts, trade agents, port
  authorities, customs excise, shipping
  companies, etc
• Creative applications / structurations of
  technology (e.g. TALs integrated SCM systems
  extranets)
• Who pays for all of this?

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Web-Based Resources

• Web-Conferencing systems Blackboard, eRoom,
  SameTime, Groove
• Globally accessible repository for
  team-documents, discussions, ideas, library,
• Enables round-the-clock work
• User friendliness varies
• User creativeness and adaptability is essential
• Group Support Systems for
• Un/structured brainstorming, consensus building,
  voting

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Audio- Video-conferencing

• Audioconferencing
• Widely available, reliable and cost effective
• Especially useful when team members know each
  other and focus is on content
• Often used to complement poor audio quality on
  videoconferencing
• Videoconferencing
• Widely available, but reliability cost vary
• Air-time needs to be planned carefully in advance
• Do you really want to know what they look like?

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Critical Success Factors (CSFs)

• What has to go right in order that the virtual
  project is successful, or that the team can
  function effectively?
• CSFs relate to technology, work style and some
  social and cultural issues.
• Does the technology work as desired?
• Can the team members adjust their work style to
  fit the online, virtual medium?
• Does the team have a social life? A culture?

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Technology CSFs

• Speed of connection (inc. bandwidth)
• Freedom of access to information
• Functionality and Ease of Use
• Security, Privacy and Integrity
• Structuration of the technology to fit the teams
  needs
• Are we using the technology as planned by its
  designers, or are we adapting it, and how
  effective is it in consequence?

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Work CSFs

• 'Fit' with existing work practice
• Task orientation/goals
• Coordination, cooperation, control
• Individual initiative/accountability
• Conflict management
• Feedback mechanisms/satisfaction
• Performance measurement

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Social / Cultural CSFs

• Trust and Cohesion
• Is there a sense of belonging in the team?
• Behavioural Norms
• Are we discovering new ways of interacting?
• Are we experiencing resistance to change?
• Humour and Identity
• Do we have a virtual coffee machine or bar?
• Cultural considerations
• Are cultural differences a wall between us, or
  some of us?

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Leadership Participation

• We should focus entirely on the task
• No more nonsense get to the point
• I will only tolerate differences in opinion if
  they contribute to the task
• My role is to get the best results and I define
  the best process

• Let us get to know each other better
• Our own goals are important and should be
  addressed
• Differences in opinion should be heard
• This is a forum for activity
• My role is to facilitate this collective
  experience

What is your leadership style?
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Control, Coordination, Collaboration

• How can we
• manage virtual teams effectively?
• keep virtual teams on track?
• coordinate their work?
• get team members to collaborate with one another?
• measure their performance and work quality?
• and ensure that there is a reasonable level of
  satisfaction at the end of the project?

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The 1 Challenge for Virtuality

• Coordination
• Coordination costs can be huge, because of the
  reliance on technology
• Many internal and external relationships, all of
  which have to be managed across time and space
• Coordination also involves culture cultural
  differences between team members can lead to
  chaos.

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Cultural Differences

• Style of working
• Last minute or well in advance
• Follow the rules or break the rules
• Selfish/individualistic or for the benefit of the
  team
• Initiative taking or blind following
• Control can be achieved through setting interim
  deadlines, being firm about procedures in
  advance, enforced mutual dependence,
• Coordination is then usually enhanced

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What are the key characteristics of your cultural
values?
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Language Issues

• First language? Usually not English.
• Local language for sub-groups.
• Proofreading of reports
• When is a native speaker not a native speaker?!
• Slang jokes
• Dont translate well.
• Frustrations gtgt impoverished coordination
  collaboration

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What do they mean?

• I hear what you say
• Not bad
• Quite good
• By the way
• Very interesting
• I will think about it
• It is my fault
• What an original idea!

• I disagree
• Very good
• Disappointing
• Most importantly
• Rubbish!
• I will forget it as fast as possible!
• It is your fault!
• You must be crazy!

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Motivation Involvement

• Assumptions are dangerous
• Cultural and personal differences abound
• Control activities to enforce involvement and
  stimulate motivation
• Videoconference sessions to create sense of
  presence
• Self-assessment mutual dependence
• Prizes for the best teams
• Free collaboration or controlled interaction?

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Trust Dependence

• Absence of trust makes collaboration impossible
• Trust can stimulate participation
• Violated trust (e.g. free-riding) leads to
  frustration and destructive conflict
• Too much trust can also be counter productive!

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Trust Leadership

• Trust is critical, yet extremely hard to build
  effectively (with lots of distrust).
• This is particularly true in the more
  individualistic cultures
• where there is also a tendency to blame others,
  and
• the lack of face-to-face interaction
  facilitates explosions!
• Should leaders emerge from the team, or be
  appointed?

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Temporal Rhythms The Shaping of Space and Time

• Face-to-face (and also virtual) meetings are
  characterised by peaks of intense activity,
  whereas other times are marked by troughs.
• Sequences of peaks and troughs.
• Decision processes match the rhythm.
• Performance best measured by decision quality,
  action quality, member commitment cohesion
• Leaders set the pace for the rhythm

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Harmony or Conflict?

• Some harmony is essential in Distributed Teams
• For team effectiveness and efficiency
• For self-control self-coordination
• Harmony depends on many things
• Trust, motivation, mutual-dependence, respect for
  cultural differences,
• Language can be a major barrier especially if
  some team members use 1st language, others 2nd or
  3rd.
• Productive conflict can be an excellent catalyst
  for the development of new ideas

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The Role of Subgroups

• Local subgroups within a global context often
  emerge
• Most of us prefer FTF work, which a subgroup
  arrangement permits.
• Allocation of work to the HK-team.
• Coordination of subgroups at the end.
• Potential problems?
• Is this what virtual means?

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Eight Solutions

• Rhythmic interactions meetings are useful
• Synchronisation time zones
• Standardisation of communication protocols
• Build an awareness infrastructure work hours,
  breaks, holidays, weekends
• Netiquette acknowledgements and urgency
• A cohesive team culture is very beneficial
• Real-time communication is still important
• Put warmth into cold email

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Strategic Considerations?What might go wrong?

• Team dynamics
• Conflicts (culture, interpersonal)
• Leadership Trust
• Consensus, Satisfaction,
• Technology (will go wrong!)
• VTs can swallow a huge amount of time for few
  useful outcomes, as well as plenty of
  dissatisfaction
• Executive oversight is essential

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And to Discuss

• Virtual Work in Hong Kong
• Does it happen? How? Why? Where?
• Telecommuting? Multi-site teams?
• Video/audio conferencing? Skype? NetMeeting?
• HK-China teams? Regional or Global Teams?
• Virtual Knowledge Management?

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References

• Davison, R.M. and Briggs, R.O. (2000) GSS for
  Presentation Support Supercharging the Audience
  through Simultaneous Discussions during
  Presentations, Communications of the ACM, 43, 9,
  91-97.
• Malhotra, A., Majchrzak, A., Carman, R. and Lott,
  V. (2001) Radical Innovation without Collocation
  A Case Study at Boeing-Rocketdyne, Management
  Information Systems Quarterly, 25, 2, 229-249.