New Knowledge in Global Innovation Teams

In multinational enterprises (MNEs), global innovation teams are used increasingly to pool knowledge from different international subsidiaries. While it is fairly well described how subsidiaries fulfill product and know-how mandates, how parents and subsidiaries may/should interact and why team diversity is desirable from the corporate standpoint (i.e. to strengthen corporate culture), little is known about the possible innovation and technology knowledge-related benefits global innovation teams offer. In this paper, it is proposed that resources, customer knowledge, knowledge diffusion, and knowledge protection play a crucial role in a MNEs decision to deploy a global innovation team. Results from four case studies and two expert interviews show that there are indeed significant reasons for a global team deployment within innovation projects.Global Teams; Innovation; Knowledge Creation

Agile methods influence on communication in globally distributed it project teams

Agile methods are increasingly used by companies. Although these methods were initially developed for collocated teams, the number of their successful implementation in globally distributed IT project teams is growing. Despite the considerable research on distributed teams and agile methods, little is known about how they influence communication in globally distributed IT project teams. The study aims at examining the relationship between agile methods and communication in such teams. The research question of the study is dedicated to the exploration of agile methods influence on communication in globally distributed IT project teams. Data collection was done with the help of such qualitative research method as a case study in form of ten semi-structured Skype interviews. The results showed that the use of agile methods has a mixed impact on communication in globally distributed IT project teams. On one hand, agile methods facilitate informal communication among team members. However, the use of agile methods may further limit this informal communication, which is ICT mediated. At the same time, agile methods do not offer adequate tools for effective formal communication.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

The Use of Information Systems in Collocated and Distributed Teams: A Test of the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory

Recent academic and policy studies focus on offshoring as a cost-of-labor driven activity that has a direct impact on employment opportunities in the countries involved. This paper broadens this perspective by introducing and evaluating the 24-hour knowledge factory as a model of information systems offshoring that leverages other strategic factors beyond cost savings. A true 24-hour knowledge factory ensures that progress is being made on information systems related tasks at all times of day by utilizing talented information systems professionals around the globe. Many organizations currently implement other variants of offshoring that appear similar but are fundamentally distinct. The typical model is a service provider framework in which an offshore site provides service to the central site, often with two centers and a distinction between a primary center and secondary center. Entire tasks are often outsourced to the lower-cost overseas site and sent back when completed. In contrast, the 24-hour knowledge factory involves continuous and collaborative round-the-clock knowledge production achieved by sequentially and progressively distributing the knowledge creation task around the globe, completing one cycle every 24 hours. Thus, the 24-hour knowledge factory creates a virtual distributed team, in contrast to a team that is collocated in one site, either onshore or offshore. By organizing knowledge tasks in this way, the 24-hour knowledge factory has the potential to work faster, to provide cheaper solutions, and to achieve better overall performance. Previous studies have examined individual teams over time and explored various benefits of distributing work to distant teams, but have not directly compared the effect of collocation versus geographic distribution on the use of information systems and the overall performance over time of two real-world teams working on a similar task in controlled conditions. This paper highlights the concept of the 24-hour knowledge factory and tests the model in a controlled field experiment that directly compares the use of information systems and subsequent performance in collocated and globally distributed software development teams. The central finding is that while collocation versus geographic distribution changes the way teams use information systems and interact at key points during a project, each type of team has the potential to use information systems to leverage its inherent advantages, to overcome disadvantages, and ultimately, to perform equally well. In other words, one organizational structure is not inherently superior nor must structure pre-determine performance. Geographic distance introduces new challenges but these can be overcome – and even leveraged for strategic advantage. In sum, our findings suggest that firms can apply the 24-hour knowledge factory model to transition from a service provider framework in which offshoring is a short-term and unilateral cost-saving tactic to a strategic partnership between centers in which offshoring becomes a core component of a global corporate strategy

Use of Collaborative Technologies and Knowledge Sharing in Co-located and Distributed Teams: Towards the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory

The relocation of knowledge work to emerging countries is leading to an increasing use of Globally Distributed Teams (GDT) engaged in complex tasks. In the present study, we investigate a particular type of GDT working ‘around the clock’: the 24 hours knowledge factory (Gupta, 2008). Adopting the productivity perspective on knowledge sharing (Haas and Hansen, 2005, 2007), we develop 11 hypotheses to compare technology use, knowledge sharing processes, and performance of a 24 hours knowledge factory with a co-located team. We conducted a quasi-experiment in IBM and collected both quantitative and qualitative data, over a period of 12 months, on a GDT and a co-located team. Both teams were composed of the same number of professionals, provided with the same technologies, engaged in similar tasks, and given similar deadlines. We found that they differed in their use of technologies and in knowledge sharing processes, but not in efficiency and quality of outcomes. We show how the co-located team and the GDT enacted a knowledge codification strategy and a personalization strategy respectively; in each case, they grafted elements of the other strategy in order to attain both knowledge re-use and creativity. We conclude by discussing theoretical contributions to knowledge sharing and GDT literatures, and by highlighting managerial implications to those organizations interested in developing a fully functional 24 hour knowledge factory

The 24-Hour Knowledge Factory Paradigm: The Evolving Model for Offshoring based on Strategic, Economic, Legal, Health, Technical, and Other Considerations

The 24-Hour Knowledge Factory paradigm involves 3 (or more) collaborating centers, each located in a different continent. Individuals at each center work from 9 am to 5 pm in that country, and then pass the work-in-progress to the next collaborating center to enable round-theclock performance in a manner somewhat akin to the deployment of three shifts in the manufacturing sector. The 24-Hour Knowledge Factory is relevant for structured and semi-structured applications in many knowledge-based industries including accounting, legal, design, and development. There is a growing array of examples from healthcare and other domains where off-site professionals have been able to provide better results than on-site professionals, thereby validating that many tasks can be more effectively performed using the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory approach. The gradual adoption of this paradigm is motivated by several considerations. In 2007, the World Health Organization concluded that working at night is a probable cause of breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men. Attempts by US state governments and even the federal government to discourage outsourcing are unlikely to succeed for multiple reasons, and the notion of “hybrid outsourcing” will gain momentum over time. Plus there are the advantages of developing products and services in a shorter timeframe; furthermore, these products and services can command broader appeal in the global marketplace. A detailed study was conducted at IBM to compare the performance of a co-located team and a distributed team, and the performance of the latter team exceeded initial expectations. The key results from this study will be discussed in this session

A Framework to Analyze Knowledge Work in Distributed Teams

This article presents a framework to analyze knowledge work in the changing context of new ways of working. Knowledge work increasingly takes place as collaboration from different and changing workplaces due to mobility, multilocational, and geographical distribution of participants. We define the framework based on five key factors that pose challenges to the performance and productivity of knowledge work performed in distributed teams. The framework extends and integrates traditional performance models of task, team structure, and work process, with context factors like workplace, organization policy, and information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure. The framework is applied in a qualitative comparative cross-case analysis to eight globally distributed teams in two Fortune 100 high-tech companies. We conclude with a series of specific challenges for each factor when studying distributed knowledge work. It is shown that due to changing contexts knowledge workers, teams, and organizations need to constantly adapt, readjust, and realign according to the five factors

The Mirroring Hypothesis: Theory, Evidence and Exceptions

The mirroring hypothesis predicts that the organizational patterns of a development project (e.g. communication links, geographic collocation, team and firm co-membership) will correspond to the technical patterns of dependency in the system under development. Scholars in a range of disciplines have argued that mirroring is either necessary or a highly desirable feature of development projects, but evidence pertaining to the hypothesis is widely scattered across fields, research sites, and methodologies. In this paper, we formally define the mirroring hypothesis and review 102 empirical studies spanning three levels of organization: within a single firm, across firms, and in open community-based development projects. The hypothesis was supported in 69% of the cases. Support for the hypothesis was strongest in the within-firm sample, less strong in the across-firm sample, and relatively weak in the open collaborative sample. Based on a detailed analysis of the cases in which the mirroring hypothesis was not supported, we introduce the concept of actionable transparency as a means of achieving coordination without mirroring. We present examples from practice and describe the more complex organizational patterns that emerge when actionable transparency allows designers to 'break the mirror.'Modularity, innovation, product and process development, organization design, design structure, organizational structure, organizational ties

Agile vs. structured distributed software development: A case study

In globally distributed software development, does it matter being agile rather than structured? To answer this question, this paper presents an extensive case study that compares agile (Scrum, XP, etc.) vs. structured (RUP, waterfall) processes to determine if the choice of process impacts aspects such as the overall success and economic savings of distributed projects, the motivation of the development teams, the amount of communication required during development, and the emergence of critical issues. The case study includes data from 66 projects developed in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The results show no significant difference between the outcome of projects following agile processes and structured processes, suggesting that agile and structured processes can be equally effective for globally distributed development. The paper also discusses several qualitative aspects of distributed software development such as the advantages of nearshore vs. offshore, the preferred communication patterns, and the effects on project quality