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

Critical thinking in distance education: Developing critical communities in an audio teleconference context

Distance education has long been associated with independent study and delivery of prepackaged learning materials. These characteristics effectively deny distance education students the opportunity to participate in communities of inquiry and, perhaps, opportunities to develop their critical thinking slulls. This paper reviews the theoretical impact of socially situated learning, critical thinking and their implications for distance education. It then presents the results from a study of learners' perceptions while enrolled in two different models of audio teleconferenced delivered, university courses. The study reports quantitative results from a mail survey of these students and the qualitative results from interviews and classroom observations. The impact of the insrmctional design used by the delivering institution resulted in two distinct models of audio teleconference delivery with significant qualitative and quantitative differences in student perception. The paper concludes that learning communities, which support the development of critical thinlang skills, can be created at a distance and that they provide a mechanism for improving the quality of higher level distance education

Opportunities for e-brainstorming in pre-design processes of healthcare projects

Opportunities for e-brainstorming in pre-design processes of healthcare project

An Exploration of Virtual Study Groups Used to Prepare Candidates for a Professional Certification Exam

Professional credentials earned through certification programs are becoming an important way to demonstrate competency within a given discipline. With the globalization of business enterprises and associations, these credentials are eagerly sought by people located throughout the world. Candidates for these credentials often study together using virtual environments to prepare for a certification exam. Through a qualitative analysis of interviews with persons participating in such virtual groups, this study investigates what influences their choices among web-enabled study groups, what perceptions characterize their conception of a good virtual study group, and what limitations are encountered in a virtual study environment. This dissertation argues that confidence drawn from an environment that builds trust is an essential component of a good virtual study group. Further, it illuminates how important moderators and facilitators of these groups are in building trust, and the role participant salience plays in order for trust to develop. Finally, it sheds light on the challenges professionals have in preparing for a high stakes exam within a virtual public venue

Computer-Based Systems for Cooperative Work and Group Decision Making

Application of computer and communications technology to cooperative work and group decision making has grown out of three traditions: computer-based communications, computer:based information service provision, and computer-based decision support. This paper reviews the group decision support systems (GDSSs) that have been configured to meet the needs of groups at work, and evaluates the experience to date with such systems. Progress with GDSSs has proved to be slower than originally anticipated because of shortcomings with available technology, poor integration of the various components of the computing package, and incomplete understanding of the nature of group decision making. Nevertheless, the field shows considerable promise with respect to the creation of tools to aid in group decision making and the development of sophisticated means of studying the dynamics of decision making in groups. © 1988, ACM. All rights reserved

Contextual Framework of Communications Functions Supporting Complex System Governance

The purpose of this research was to develop a systems theory-based contextual framework of communication functions supporting complex system governance using an inductive research design. Communication, as one aspect of Management Cybernetics (communication and control for effective system organization) constructed of channels of communication, provides for the movement of information internally and externally for a system. This flow reflecting new information, decisions, questions, and intelligence is critical for viability of a system. This research looked for communication mechanisms as developed in system theory, communication theory, management theory, and organizational theory. The literature indicates the importance of communications, but a systemic perspective of communication mechanisms and an effect on the viability of a system are not described. This gap in knowledge was addressed by this research. Specifically, the research looked at the description and system functions serviced by the development of content that flows through the channels of communication. The extensive use of grounded theory method enabled a rigorous inductive analysis of literature dealing with channels of communication. The research produced a construct of communication mechanisms that consists of an integrated grouping of the concepts; Direction, Mode, Product, and Technology (Conveyance). A communication design when developed and/or maintained suggests the communication mechanisms are subject to underlying influences; Identity (motive/intent), Variety Attenuation, Variety Amplification, and Transduction that must be recognized with respect to how Channels of Communication support the viability of the system of interest. While system emergence was not directly related to the Communication Mechanism, the role of Channels of Communication in system emergence is evident as the conduit for the emergence process. Identification of the communication functions means that communication mechanisms, beyond the identification provided by Beer (1979) and Shannon (1948) can be described based in systems theory, communication theory, management theory, knowledge management, and organizational theory. From this construct, a face validation in the form of a survey was conducted. The content of the questionnaire was aligned to the communication mechanisms with the intent to support triangulation. There was peer validation of the questions to the subject of communication, for ease of use and exclusion of private personal information. This was followed by a test run of the survey. The actual accomplishment of the survey was through a web service. This research provides a theoretical construct of communication mechanisms when viewing a system of interest to determining the state of the system channels of communication

Using The Intranet Environment For Enhancing Organizational Creativity

The use of intranet has become crucial to support managerial practices increasing organizational creativity. However, it can also generate “creaticidal” effects by reproducing practices hampering creative processes. Based on an in-depth case study at Schneider-Electric (France), this article studies the effects of the intranet usage on creativity within the four departments of the company. The intention of management is to encourage the innovation by stimulating the collaborators’ creativity through the intranet use throughout the departments. Although the intranet is impelled with similar intention, the results reveal that its use has reproduced the already existing managerial practices in departments. The study reveals the importance of reconsidering managerial practices so that the use of intranet that emerges in the human interaction, does not contribute to the “creaticidal” practices in organizational context

Facilitating scientifc collaboration across distance: a user needs analysis of a distributed scientific research group

This paper describes a user needs analysis of a research and development center consisting of scientists at four geographically distributed universities. Observations and interviews with representative members of a research group within the center were conducted to determine the group's current collaboration practices and to assess how technology might facilitate collaboration among group members. Data analysis shows that members collaborate primarily through informal communication with co-located peers, and they rely on formal presentations at videoconference meetings to maintain an awareness of research at other locations. The technology currently in place has helped to build a foundation for collaboration; now, the Center should augment this technology to better facilitate and encourage collaboration. It appears that the Center could benefit from a system that allows for more frequent updates on individual projects to all Center members such as a virtual bulletin board, and a tool that provides a virtual shared drawing space

The Role of Communication in the Process of Forming Market-Oriented Party (Mop): Its Importance and Approaches

This paper discusses the role of communication in the process of market-oriented political modeling. Our theoretical framework benefits from the idea of Lees-Marshment’s model, there are three types of parties that can help meet voters’ needs: product-oriented party (POP), sales-oriented party (SOP) and market-oriented party (MOP). The focus here is MOP, which means developing political policies on the ground of voters’ needs to gain from the voter “market”. The MOP approach relies heavily on effective party-voter communication, before, during and after an election. Specifically, the communication aspect in the process of the MOP approach is discussed, which covers political marketing as a social or communication process in image-building and different approaches in such communication. Various communication modes in gathering voter information are compared in terms of advantages and disadvantages, especially in trust-building and two-way (both verbal and non-verbal) communications. Lastly, a section related to political canvassing is also presented