The Situated Nature of Virtual Teamwork: Understanding the Constitutive Role of “Place†In the Enactment of Virtual Work Configurations

The time-space configurations of place and space are used to ground an analysis and discussion of the constitutive role of place, or virtual team members’ respective local contexts, in the conduct of virtual teamwork. In contrast to the majority of current virtual teams research, which emphasizes the “spatial,†or virtual aspect of virtual teamwork, this study uses an extended example, the establishment of a computer-conferencing infrastructure, to show the constitutive role played by local institutionalized rhythms, relationships, rules, politics, and resources in the enactment of virtual team tasks. Implications for studying, designing, and managing virtual teams are discussed

Local Motives and Virtual Team Success: Inverting the Normative Views of Team Goal Commitment and Hidden Agendas

This paper challenges the normative conception of the relationships of team goals and hidden agendas to team performance. In a 23-month participant observation study of a successful multi-organizational virtual team, I found that the members’ actions were consistently motivated by local considerations. Based on these findings, I argue that team goal commitment may be an inappropriate goal for many virtual teams and offer an alternative model for the relationship between a virtual team goal and team performance

Theorizing the Unintended Consequences of Instant Messaging for Worker Productivity

Instant messaging (IM) is one of the newest and fastest-growing communication technologies in the workplace today, yet little is known about its real implications for worker productivity. We have taken the particular affordances of instant messaging as the basis for extrapolating from and linking prior studies of email use, polychronic communication, and task interruptions to develop propositions regarding the unanticipated individual-level productivity implications of widespread IM use in the workplace. We argue that while instant message communication may accelerate particular tasks and decision processes, unstructured IM use will likely contribute to erosion in individuals’ overall productivity due to an increase in users’ communicative workloads, engagement in polychronic communication, and an increase in the frequency of interruptions. We intend our proposed model and propositions as an impetus for further study of both the benefits and challenges of workplace instant messaging

Collective Hermeneutics in a Systems Development Process

The inherent complexity of information systems development presents significant impediments to the achievement of shared meaning among the members of a development team. In addition to the technical requirements of systems development, its intensely social nature challenges project teams to unite around a collective understanding of the processes and objectives that they pursue. How then do software development teams resolve questions of shared meaning in the development process? In this study, we build upon observations of a large platform development team to identify the ways in which team members converge around shared meanings through a repertoire of interpretive techniques. Specifically, we develop a model of interpretive team interaction that is based on the concept of a collective hermeneutic process. The collective hermeneutic model extends the hermeneutic tradition in IS research by addressing the ways in which an interpretation takes shape not simply within the mind of an individual but also through collaboration with others. Finally, we discuss implications of this theoretical perspective for the design of systems development environments and the prospect for additional research on the interpretive processes of development teams

\u27Invisible Whispering\u27: Instant Messaging in Meetings

We use Goffman’s characterization of front and backstage interaction practices to analyze how the use of instant messaging in both face-to-face and technology-mediated meetings alters the spatial, temporal, and social configurations of meetings. In an interview study of workers in two organizations, we found that workers used instant messaging during face-to-face meetings and telephone conference calls (1) to participate concurrently in front and backstage interactions, (2) to participate in multiple, concurrent, backstage conversations, and (3) to manage and influence front stage activities through concurrent backstage conversations. These interactions would be either physically impossible or socially constrained without the use of instant messaging. We draw on psychology, GSS, and communication studies to consider the implications for group work

Using Synthetic Worlds for Work and Learning

Synthetic worlds [Castronova 2005] are graphically-rich, three-dimensional (3D), electronic environments where members assume an embodied persona (i.e., avatars) and engage in socializing, competitive quests, and economic transactions with globally distributed others. Frequently categorized as technologies of play, synthetic worlds range from massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) such as World of Warcraft, to virtual reality environments such as Second Life. Increasingly, educators, researchers and corporations are recognizing these 3D online spaces as legitimate communication media, thereby blurring the lines between work and play, and between reality and virtuality. In this panel, presented at the 2007 International Conference on Information Systems, we explore how the fluid work-play and reality-virtuality boundaries are negotiated and managed in practice. The panelists will rely on their research, conducted in educational, corporate and game environments, to address questions about learning, working and playing in these new media spaces

The myth of spontaneous connection : an ethnographic study of the situated nature of virtual teamwork

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2001.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 241-247).This thesis reports the findings of an exploratory 23-month multi-site participant-observation study of one multi-organizational virtual team in the automotive industry. Observing and interacting with the team members in their local work sites and in team meetings, I investigated the influence of virtual team members' situation in their respective local work contexts on the work, communication, and participation patterns observed at the team level. I found that the team members' local work worlds directly influenced both their capacity and their incentive to contribute to the team. In addition, I found that the participation patterns observed at the team level reflected, in large part, the unintended cumulative consequence of the members' respective locally-advantageous strategies for responding to local events and conditions. Using Giddens' structuration theory, I show how the members' consistent application of these local world management strategies under changing local circumstances accounts for contrasting participation patterns observed at the team level between the first and second years of the study. The thesis contributes to the virtual team literature by extending the analytic focus to include virtual team members' local work contexts, bringing to light aspects of virtual collaboration that have heretofore been largely matters of speculation and, consequently, opening new avenues for further research.by Julie A. Rennecker.Ph.D