Track:
Collaboration Systems and Technology
Minitrack:
Emerging Issues in Distributed Group
Decision-Making:
Opportunities and Challenges
Given the current turbulent state of world economy,
outsourcing is coming under tremendous pressure. Companies are no longer
providing long-term contracts but are renewing them based on deliverables
from outsourced companies. This is putting tremendous pressure on teams to
deliver quality product on time. Team adaptability and team configuration
are becoming crucial to meet deadlines. Teams must be able to adapt
quickly to the changing environment. Agile teams adapt and deliver quickly
and provide maximum customer satisfaction. By definition, however, agile
teams must be co-located. Can distributed teams be agile and adaptable?
This requires careful team configuration. This mini-track examines the
emerging issues related to team configuration and performance in
distributed environment. Some research related to
outsourcing of structured tasks has been done, but research related to
emerging issues like diversity, cohesiveness, agility and adaptability
related to group collaboration across semi or unstructured tasks is still
emerging. In addition, the e (Internet) to m (mobile) transformation
is creating exciting opportunities for groups to make real time decisions
in a mobile environment.
Distributed teams, however, face many
challenges of time, location, infrastructure, language, customs,
socialization and politics. This is further compounded in globally
distributed teams by diversity, nationality and cultural issues. As old
issue are resolved, new challenges emerge that require knowledge from
multiple disciplines such as information systems, social sciences,
international management, leadership and political science. It is almost
impossible for one individual to have expertise in so many domains, which
makes this a very challenging but ultimately rewarding collaborative area
of research. Given the richness and research potential of this area, it is
essential to brainstorm and bring diverse points of view to develop
underlying theory and frameworks. The mini track will attempt to
accomplish these objectives.
The mini track will address emerging
issue such as diversity, culture, adaptability and agility related to
teams in distributed group decision making, as well as the underlying
theories of group dynamics, coordination, communications and
decision-making in distributed environments, in creation of competitive
advantage.
Examples of topics in the discussion of globally
distributed decision making mini-track will include the following (but are
not limited to):
-
Can agile teams be globally distributed?
-
Agile/Adaptable team configuration in globally
distributed teams
-
The e (internet) to m (mobile) transformation of
globally distributed teams
-
Communication and coordination in globally distributed
teams
-
Diversity issues in globally distributed teams
-
Customer satisfaction, performance and trust building
in globally distributed teams
-
Synchronous and asynchronous decision making in globally
distributed teams
-
Comparison of issues across internal, inter-, intra and
offshore distributed teams
-
Turbulent economy and its impact on outsourcing
-
Models of globally distributed agile/adaptable teams
-
Knowledge creation, transfer and integration across
globally distributed teams
-
Leadership/cohesiveness issues in globally distributed
teams
-
Issues related to functional and dysfunctional globally
distributed teams
-
Security, privacy and risk associated with globally
distributed teams
-
Case Studies (success/failures) related to decision
making by globally distributed teams
Minitrack Co-Chairs:
A. K. Aggarwal
(Primary Contact)
University of Baltimore, USA
1420 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21202, USA
Phone:
410-837-5275
Email:
aaggarwal@ubalt.edu
Doug Vogel
City University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
isdoug@cityu.edu.hk
Pekka Makkonen
University of Jyvaskyla
Finland
Email:
pmakkone@cc.jyu.fi
