Contextual factors, knowledge processes and performance in global sourcing of IT services: An investigation in China

Copyright @ 2011, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Reuse of this article has been approved by the publisher.In this paper, the authors explore the influences of two major contextual factors—supplier team members’ cultural understanding and trust relationship—on knowledge processes and performance in global sourcing of IT services. The authors discuss a joint investigation conducted by a cross-cultural research team in China. Cultural understanding is measured by individualism with guanxi and mianzi, two Chinese cultural concepts, and trust relationship is measured by adjusting trust, a notion reflecting the uniqueness of the Chinese people. Knowledge processes are characterized by knowledge sharing. Performance is measured by the outcomes of global sourcing, which is represented by product success and personal satisfaction. Data are collected in 13 companies in Xi’an Software Park, with 200 structured questionnaires distributed to knowledge workers. The results of quantitative data analysis indicate that cultural understanding influences trust relationship greatly, as well as knowledge sharing and performance in global sourcing of IT services. Trust relationship significantly impacts knowledge sharing, whereas trust relationship and knowledge sharing have no impact on performance. This study suggests that special aspects of the Chinese context have significant direct impacts on knowledge processes while no direct and immediate impacts on performance in global sourcing of IT services.National Natural Science Foundation of China, Program for Humanity and Social Science Research, Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University in China and Brunel University's Research Development Fund

The role of attachment styles in team functioning

This research explored the potential influences on team functioning, from the perspective of adult attachment theory. Attachment styles are seen to reflect internal working models of self, others, and relationships, and influence individuals’ motivations, abilities, and perceptions as regards relationships. The research question explored what the role and influence of an individual’s global and team attachment style may have upon an individual’s experience of a work team. It sought to explain engagement with an individual’s work team, what is the subsequent influence of this on performance and how attachment style contributes to this. The key issues of Team Member Exchange and Team Identification were explored as areas of team functioning. These are the variables used to study and understand an individual’s team experiences, their engagement with the team, and the relationship with their performance ratings. The research found that both adult global and team attachment styles were negatively associated with Team Member Exchange (TMX), Team Identification, job satisfaction, performance ratings and Organisational Citizenship Behaviours (OCB). Using mediation analysis, team avoidant attachment was consistently and strongly associated with the study’s dependent variables and emerged as the key explanatory variable in this research. When all the attachment styles were analysed simultaneously to determine the unique effects of each attachment style, team avoidance style was the most useful in understanding both TMX and Team Identification, job satisfaction, OCB and performance measures. Those with avoidant team attachment styles felt that the experience of team was negative with lower TMX and Team Identification reported. The research has added new insights to the team and attachment literature with the important contribution of team avoidance attachment to TMX and Team Identification

Pengaruh Team Work Dan Disiplin Kerja Pada Multi National Company (MNC) Terhadap Kinerja Karyawan

Companies in achieving optimal performance require team work and work discipline from employees to support their achievements. So this study aims to test and prove empirically: the effect of team work directly on employee performance, the effect of work discipline on employee performance directly and team work and discipline together have a direct effect on performance. This study is an explanatory research with a population of 150 respondents, this study was analyzed through Linear Regression Analysis with the help of SPSS 23 software. The results showed a constant value of -0.77 stating that if the independent variables of team work and work discipline did not exist, then employee performance will decrease by -0.77 units. While the team work coefficient value of 0.617 states that the team work variable has a positive and significant impact on employee performance, or in other words, every 1 increase in team work scores will be followed by employee performance of 0.617 units. The work discipline coefficient value of 0.721 states that the work discipline variable has a positive and significant effect on employee productivity, or in other words, every 1 increase in team work score will be followed by an increase in employee productivity of 0.721 units. So that team work and employee work discipline need to be continuously improved so as to improve employee performance at the multi-national company PT. DS Global to maintain the company's survival

Levels of Cognitive Congruence between Managers and Team Members' Perceptions of Cooperation at Work

Much of the research on the psychological dynamics of performance teams suffers from the following limitations: consideration of only one theoretical framework and analysis of just one perspective (e.g., manager-coach or team member). To address these shortcomings, this study used a Global Cooperation concept that synthesized five psychological frameworks: coordination, cohesion, cooperation, integration, and identification. The objective of this study was to examine the level of congruence-symmetry between the two perspectives and the tendency for managers-coaches and team members to reduce cognitive dissonance in the perception of global cooperation. To this end, 108 managers-coaches and members of performance teams were studied (range: 23−60 years old) using a Cooperative Workteam Questionnaire (CWQ). Results revealed that the greatest amount of asymmetry was observed in Global Cooperation and Emotional Cooperation, while less asymmetry was found in Personal Growth, and good congruence-fit in Conditioned Cooperation. Results are discussed in terms of their theoretical meaning and practical implications for interventions on performance teams

Performance measurement : challenges for tomorrow

This paper demonstrates that the context within which performance measurement is used is changing. The key questions posed are: Is performance measurement ready for the emerging context? What are the gaps in our knowledge? and Which lines of enquiry do we need to pursue? A literature synthesis conducted by a team of multidisciplinary researchers charts the evolution of the performance-measurement literature and identifies that the literature largely follows the emerging business and global trends. The ensuing discussion introduces the currently emerging and predicted future trends and explores how current knowledge on performance measurement may deal with the emerging context. This results in identification of specific challenges for performance measurement within a holistic systems-based framework. The principle limitation of the paper is that it covers a broad literature base without in-depth analysis of a particular aspect of performance measurement. However, this weakness is also the strength of the paper. What is perhaps most significant is that there is a need for rethinking how we research the field of performance measurement by taking a holistic systems-based approach, recognizing the integrated and concurrent nature of challenges that the practitioners, and consequently the field, face

Developing High Performance Teams (HPT) through Employee Motivation, Interpersonal Communication Skills, and Entrepreneurial Mindset Using Organization Development Interventions (ODI): A Study of Selected Engineering Service Companies in Thailand

Abstract Noteworthy transformation of organization design has been observed globally during the past few decades. Distinctive cultural context in each geographic region and industry require a different structure of the organization to function well. Moreover, increasing competition in the rapidly changing business landscape nowadays presents significant challenges for organization restructuring for improved outcomes and performance. Growing transformation around team structure has captured the focal attention of academics and professionals in various cultural contexts and industries. Leading global conglomerates utilize team structure as part of their structure beneficial to improve the company’s performance. This research intends to develop entrepreneurial mindset, employee motivation and interpersonal communication skills to achieve higher performance teams through the organizational development interventions (ODIs) for the selected engineering services company. The ODIs were implemented during January until May 2016 includes the four major interventions; business and communication knowledge training, motivation through job enrichment, team development activities with technical problem solving and entrepreneurial team project and dialoguing with teams and observation. Implementation of the ODIs has created the positive development on employee motivation, interpersonal communication skills, entrepreneurial mindset and team performance. After the quantitative analysis, employee motivation, interpersonal communication skills and entrepreneurial mindset statistically significantly predicted team performance. Furthermore, team performance found to be a positive relationship with the perceived performance by the customer. Keywords: high performance teams (HPTs), team performance, entrepreneurial mindset, employee motivation, interpersonal communication skills, team developmen

The Athletic Profile of Fast Bowling in Cricket : A Review

Cricket is a global sport played in over 100 countries with elite performers attracting multimillion dollar contracts. Therefore, performers maintaining optimum physical fitness and remaining injury free is important. Fast bowlers have a vital position in a cricket team, and there is an increasing body of scientific literature that has reviewed this role over the past decade. Previous research on fast bowlers has tended to focus on biomechanical analysis and injury prevention in performers. However, this review aims to critically analyze the emerging contribution of physiological-based literature linked to fast bowling in cricket, highlight the current evidence related to simulated and competitive in-match performance, and relate this practically to the conditioning coach. Furthermore, the review considers limitations with past research and possible avenues for future investigation. It is clear with the advent of new applied mobile monitoring technology that there is scope for more ecologically valid and longitudinal exploration capturing in-match data, providing quantification of physiological workloads, and analysis of the physical demands across the differing formats of the game. Currently, strength and conditioning specialists do not have a critical academic resource with which to shape professional practice, and this review aims to provide a starting point for evidence in the specific areaPeer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

The European Carbon Market in Action: Lessons from the First Trading Period Interim Report

Abstract and PDF report are also available on the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change website (http://globalchange.mit.edu/).The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is the largest greenhouse gas market ever established. The European Union is leading the world's first effort to mobilize market forces to tackle climate change. A precise analysis of the EU ETS's performance is essential to its success, as well as to that of future trading programs. The research program "The European Carbon Market in Action: Lessons from the First Trading Period," aims to provide such an analysis. It was launched at the end of 2006 by an international team led by Frank Convery, Christian De Perthuis and Denny Ellerman. This interim report presents the researchers' findings to date. It was prepared after the research program's second workshop, held in Washington DC in January 2008. The first workshop was held in Paris in April 2007. Two additional workshops will be held in Prague in June 2008 and in Paris in September 2008. The researchers' complete analysis will be published at the beginning of 2009.The research program “The European Carbon Market in Action: Lessons from the First Trading Period” has been made possible thanks to the support of: Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, BlueNext, EDF, Euronext, Orbeo, Suez, Total, Veolia

The development of a culture-based tool to predict team performance

The effect of national culture on the performance of teams is becoming an increasingly important issue in advanced western countries. There are many interlinked reasons for this, including the increasing globalisation of companies and the use of joint ventures for the development of expensive platforms. A further issue relates to the export of complex sociotechnical systems, where a culture clash between designer/manufacturer and user can lead to significant problems. This report describes research work that was carried out to analyse the cultural factors that influence the performance of teams (including researchers, designers, operators and crews), and to determine whether these factors could be captured in a tool to provide assistance to team managers and team builders. The original point of interest related to the development of increasingly complex sociotechnical systems, for example nuclear power stations, oil refineries, offshore oil platforms, hospital systems and large transport aircraft. Answers that might be sought, in particular by the senior managers of global companies, include (1) the best teams (or best national locations) for fundamental research, industrial research & development, product/system improvement and other key activities, and (2) the implications for system performance and, as a result, for system design, of targeting an eastern Asian market, a South-American market, etc. A literature review was carried out of the effects of culture on team performance, of culture measures and tools and of task classifications; in addition, empirical evidence of the validity of measures and tools was sought. Significant evidence was found of the effects of culture on teams and crews, but no national culture-based team performance prediction tools were found. Based on the results of the literature review, Hofstede's original four-dimension cultural framework was selected as the basis for the collection and analysis of empirical data, including the results of studies from the literature and the researcher s own empirical studies. No team or task classification system was found that was suitable for the purposes of linking culture to team performance, so a five-factor task classification was developed, based on the literature review, to form the basis of the initial modelling work. A detailed analysis of results from the literature and from the author s pilot studies revealed additional culture-performance relationships, including those relating to cultural diversity. Three culture-performance models were incorporated into software tools that offered performance prediction capabilities. The first model was primarily a test bed for ideas; the second model incorporated a task/behavioural approach which achieved limited success; the third and final model was evaluated against a range of team and crew performance data before being tested successfully for acceptability by users. The research results included the discovery that the effects of cultural diversity must be sought at the individual cultural dimension level not at the composite level, that the effects of national culture on team performance are consistent and strong enough to be usefully captured in a predictive culture tool and that the relation¬ship between culture and behaviour is moderated by contextual factors

Implicit Coordination in Two-Agent Team Problems; Application to Distributed Power Allocation

The central result of this paper is the analysis of an optimization problem which allows one to assess the limiting performance of a team of two agents who coordinate their actions. One agent is fully informed about the past and future realizations of a random state which affects the common payoff of the agents whereas the other agent has no knowledge about the state. The informed agent can exchange his knowledge with the other agent only through his actions. This result is applied to the problem of distributed power allocation in a two-transmitter $M-$band interference channel, $M\geq 1$, in which the transmitters (who are the agents) want to maximize the sum-rate under the single-user decoding assumption at the two receivers; in such a new setting, the random state is given by the global channel state and the sequence of power vectors used by the informed transmitter is a code which conveys information about the channel to the other transmitter.Comment: 6 pages, appears as WNC3 2014: International Workshop on Wireless Networks: Communication, Cooperation and Competition - International Workshop on Resource Allocation, Cooperation and Competition in Wireless Network