Cultural diversity and information and communication technology impacts on global virtual teams: An exploratory study.

Modern organizations face many significant challenges because of turbulent environments and a competitive global economy. Among these challenges are the use of information and communication technology (ICT), a multicultural workforce, and organizational designs that involve global virtual teams. Ad hoc teams create both opportunities and challenges for organizations and many organizations are trying to understand how the virtual environment affects team effectiveness. Our exploratory study focused on the effects of cultural diversity and ICT on team effectiveness. Interviews with 41 team members from nine countries employed by a Fortune 500 corporation were analyzed. Results suggested that cultural diversity had a positive influence on decision‐making and a negative influence on communication. ICT mitigated the negative impact on intercultural communication and supported the positive impact on decision making. Effective technologies for intercultural communication included e‐mail, teleconferencing combined with e‐Meetings, and team rooms. Cultural diversity influenced selection of the communication media

Tools for online collaboration: do they contribute to improve teamwork?

In the last decades, the fast growth of Information and Communication Technologies changed our way to communicate and share information. Traditional groups or teams frequently give way to virtual teams, working with tools for online collaboration. Interaction between persons geographically dispersed has become easier. However, the use of new collaboration tools can also bring many challenges. Some technologies, like e-mail, can create delays on reply or even misunderstandings, case the message is not well understood by the recipient. Can these new technologies improve the productivity and enhance the creativity between group members, improving also their confidence and motivation? Although virtual teams have a high capacity to adapt to constant market changes, personal interactions are still important, mainly to clarify tasks and goals. The main purpose of this study is to understand how tools for online collaboration may improve the productivity (and enhance creativity) in teamwork. This study was conducted through an internet platform and the survey was hosted online by SurveyMonkey.com. We intended to verify, among other questions, what users think about different collaboration tools, how often they use these tools, and how they perceive these technologies as adequate ways to communicate, to work with, and to improve productivity. Findings show that e-mail is the most used tool, and personal contact is still more important for teamwork than any tools for online collaboration. Our results contribute to perceive in what extent collaboration tools are indeed an asset or a barrier in teamwork.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Tools for online collaboration: Do they contribute to improve teamwork?

In the last decades, the fast growth of Information and Communication Technologies changed our way to communicate and share information. Traditional groups or teams frequently give way to virtual teams, working with tools for online collaboration. Interaction between persons geographically dispersed has become easier. However, the use of new collaboration tools can also bring many challenges. Some technologies, like e-mail, can create delays on reply or even misunderstandings, case the message is not well understood by the recipient. Can these new technologies improve the productivity and enhance the creativity between group members, improving also their confidence and motivation? Although virtual teams have a high capacity to adapt to constant market changes, personal interactions are still important, mainly to clarify tasks and goals. The main purpose of this study is to understand how tools for online collaboration may improve the productivity (and enhance creativity) in teamwork. This study was conducted through an internet platform and the survey was hosted online by SurveyMonkey.com. We intended to verify, among other questions, what users think about different collaboration tools, how often they use these tools, and how they perceive these technologies as adequate ways to communicate, to work with, and to improve productivity. Findings show that e-mail is the most used tool, and personal contact is still more important for teamwork than any tools for online collaboration. Our results contribute to perceive in what extent collaboration tools are indeed an asset or a barrier in teamwork.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The blurring boundaries between synchronicity and asynchronicity:new communicative situations in work-related Instant Messaging

Instant messaging is one of the most popular communication technologies in virtual teams, enabling interactions to intertwine whole working days, thus creating the sense of copresence for team members who are geographically dispersed. Through close linguistic analyses of naturally occurring data from a virtual team, this article discusses the implications of two novel communicative situations enabled by instant messaging: presence information and the persistence of transcript. The preliminary findings of this study indicate that these new communicative situations require the flouting or rethinking of previously existing interactional norms and that communicative practices employed by the team members are not yet conventionalized/normalized, the expectations and interpretations of interactional rituals and timing vary highly, even within the same virtual team

Decision factors for remote work adoption: Advantages, disadvantages, driving forces and challenges

Facing one of the most challenging pandemics for organizational modus operandi (COVID-19), organizations are struggling for operational and strategic support. The adoption of remote work (RW) is increasing. For economic reasons, competitive advantage, or even as a pandemic response (business continuity plan), RW is a domain worth further investigation. However, the literature lacks insight regarding RW adoption. A design science research methodology was adopted, including a systematic literature review to elicit RW advantages, disadvantages, challenges and driving forces, as well as their relation. To evaluate and demonstrate findings, 129 qualitative interviews were performed with RW professionals. In the end, 57 decision factors were elicited, and 16 relations were validated. The authors concluded that cost-reduction and flexibility to promote work–life balance is the most positive outputs, while communication and technical problems, as well as management issues, are what most concerns professionals. Moreover, positive relations are more recognized among professionals over negative ones.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Tools for Online Collaboration: Do they contribute to Improve Teamwork?

In the last decades, the fast growth of Information and Communication Technologies changed our way to communicate and share information. Traditional groups or teams frequently give way to virtual teams, working with tools for online collaboration. Interaction between persons geographically dispersed has become easier. However, the use of new collaboration tools can also bring many challenges. Some technologies, like e-mail, can create delays on reply or even misunderstandings, case the message is not well understood by the recipient. Can these new technologies improve the productivity and enhance the creativity between group members, improving also their confidence and motivation? Although virtual teams have a high capacity to adapt to constant market changes, personal interactions are still important, mainly to clarify tasks and goals. The main purpose of this study is to understand how tools for online collaboration may improve the productivity (and enhance creativity) in teamwork. This study was conducted through an internet platform and the survey was hosted online by SurveyMonkey.com. We intended to verify, among other questions, what users think about different collaboration tools, how often they use these tools, and how they perceive these technologies as adequate ways to communicate, to work with, and to improve productivity. Findings show that e-mail is the most used tool, and personal contact is still more important for teamwork than any tools for online collaboration. Our results contribute to perceive in what extent collaboration tools are indeed an asset or a barrier in teamwork. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s4p51

Working in a post Covid-19 world : towards a conceptual framework for distributed work

CITATION: Henry, M. S., Le Roux, D. B. & Parry, D. A. 2019. Working in a post Covid-19 world : towards a conceptual framework for distributed work. South African Journal of Business Management, 52(1):a2155, doi:10.4102/sajbm.v52i1.2155.The original publication is available at https://sajbm.orgPurpose: Against the backdrop of the increased prevalence of telework practices as a result of Covid-19, the purpose of the present article is to address the conceptual confusion, overlap and ambiguity characterising much of the published literature in this domain through the development of an integrated conceptual framework describing distributed work practices at various levels of organisations. Design/methodology/approach: To develop the framework, a collection of definitions for distributed work concepts were systematically selected and reviewed. These concepts include telework, remote work, distributed work and virtual work, as well as telecommuting, virtual teams, virtual organisations and distributed organisations. The reviewed definitions were systematically analysed to elicit the key principles underlying each concept, and then integrated to produce the conceptual framework. Findings: Our analysis suggests that virtuality and distributedness can be defined as distinct continua which, when combined, can be used to describe particular work settings. Additionally, we identify four factors which impact organisational policy in terms of virtuality and distributedness: interdependence of tasks, nature of work, technological environment and temporal distance. Practical implications: The framework offers managers a foundation for establishing distributed work policies and determining policy implications. Additionally, researchers conducting empirical investigations of distributed work practices can utilise the framework to differentiate between and describe particular work settings. Originality/value: The conceptual integration of virtuality, distributedness and organisational levels present a novel and important development. As organisations adapt to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the framework we propose serves as a useful artefact to support and inform their decision making.https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/2155Publisher's versio

Decision factors for remote work adoption: A critical analysis

Remote Work adoption is increasing among organizations. For economic reasons, competitive advantage or even as part of the business continuity plan, Remote Work is a domain worth of further investigation. However, the literature lacks further insights and consensus regarding the decision factors that organizations may consider before and during Remote Work adoption. Design Science Research Methodology was adopted. A thorough and rigorous Systematic Literature Review was performed to elicit the main decision factors (Advantages, Disadvantages, Challenges and Driving Forces) and their relation that influence the Remote Work adoption and its implementation. Plus, a conceptualization of Remote Work domain is presented, and the main decision factors were investigated. A list for each decision factor as well as how they relate among them is also presented and a critical analysis performed. Dozens of factors were identified and related. Those were proven to be extremely important to consider before any Remote Work adoption. This research is a strategic tool for organizations willing to implement Remote Work and a base for further academic developments in the field. In the extent of its complexity, researches from other fields (team management, governance, business process management, among others) are incentivized so valuable inputs may be provided and complement the field.A adoção do Trabalho Remoto está a aumentar entre as organizações. Por razões económicas, vantagem competitiva ou mesmo como parte do plano de continuidade de negócios, o Trabalho Remoto é um domínio que vale a pena investigar mais a fundo. No entanto, a literatura carece de mais conhecimentos e consenso relativamente aos fatores de decisão que as organizações podem considerar antes e durante a adoção do Trabalho Remoto. Foi realizada uma revisão sistemática da Literatura minuciosa e rigorosa para obter os principais fatores de decisão que influenciam a adoção do Trabalho Remoto e a sua implementação. Além disso, é apresentada uma conceptualização do domínio do Trabalho Remoto, e os principais fatores de decisão foram investigados. Também é apresentada uma lista para cada facto de decisão, bem como a forma como se relacionam entre eles, e é realizada uma análise crítica. Dezenas de fatores foram identificados e relacionados. Estes provaram ser extremamente importantes a considerar antes de qualquer adoção do Trabalho Remoto. Esta investigação é uma ferramenta estratégica para organizações dispostas a implementar o Trabalho Remoto e uma base para futuros desenvolvimentos académicos no campo do trabalho. Na medida da sua complexidade, as investigações de outros campos (gestão de equipas, governação, gestão de processos empresariais, entre outros) são incentivadas, pelo que podem ser fornecidos contributos valiosos e como tal ajudar a complementar o campo

Sempre alerta para servir: a importância das tecnologias na dinâmica do escutismo

Numa era em que a tecnologia está tão presente na vida das pessoas, o movimento escutista não é excepção. Ainda que o método escutista possa não fomentar a utilização frequente da tecnologia, os destinatários do método, crianças e jovens, são hoje nativos digitais que convivem diariamente com as TIC e social media. Deste modo, importa perceber qual o papel das tecnologias na dinâmica do escutismo em dois níveis: na aproximação dos jovens ao método escutista e na sua utilização para rentabilizar o tempo disponível para a preparação e realização das actividades. Para tal, a investigação levada a cabo, composta por duas fases, exploratória e inferencial, permitiu a recolha de dados, com recurso à aplicação de um questionário, a 264 participantes. Os dados recolhidos permitiram concluir que se reconhece a importância e utilização das TIC e social media, contudo não são o meio preferencial para por em prática as actividades e transmitir a informação, nomeadamente ao nível do sistema de progresso. A utilização das TIC e social media por parte do movimento escutista, poderá facilitar a aplicação do método escutista, sem descuidar a sua essência, não se trata de substituir as actvidades escutistas por tecnologia, mas utilizar a tecnologia em prol das actividades que são essenciais ao desenvolvimento dos jovens, que são os adultos do futuro. Trata-se de melhorar as condições em que estamos "Alerta", para Servir melhor.In an age where technology is so present in people's lives, the scout movement is no exception. Although the scout method may not encourage frequent use of technology, the method's target, children and young people, are today digital natives that coexist daily with ICT and social media. In this way, it is important to understand the role of technologies in the dynamics of scouting at two levels: the approach of young people to the scout method and its use to monetize the time available to prepare and make the activities. To do so, the investigation, which consisted of two phases, exploratory and inferential, allowed the data collection, through a questionnaire, with 264 participants. The data collected allowed to conclude that the importance and use of ICTs and social media are recognized, but they are not the preferred means of putting the activities into practice and transmitting information, especially at the level of the progress system. The use of ICT and social media by the scout movement, may facilitate the application of the scout method, without neglecting its essence, it is not a matter of replacing the scouts activities by technology, but using technology in favor of the activities that are essential to the young people, who are the adults of the future. It is about improving the conditions in which we are "alert" to better serve