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In this paper, I explain how globally distributed software development subunits can coordinate their activities with information systems (IS). The basis of this explanation lies in the contemporary proliferation of global software...
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In this paper, I explain how globally distributed software development subunits can coordinate their activities with information systems (IS). The basis of this explanation lies in the contemporary proliferation of global software development (GSD) activities that suggests an unexplained reality: organizations practicing GSD are somehow regulating there is to cope with increasing and varied uncertainties. Through an empirical example of an organization's subunit's regulating and coping, I make the case that requisite variety in a subunit's information systems is a dependent variable for managing uncertainties leading to optimal coordination. In this example, I show varied uncertainties that faced the subunit, and I explain how variety in its information system was requisite for managing the uncertainties satisfactorily. Based on these explanations, I suggest four characteristics of variety in IS that will be requisite for managing uncertainties in GSD: developers' agility; developers' continuity and traveling; high frequency of communications; and varied communication modes and technologies.
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Learning is a critical capability for virtual group effectiveness. The objective of this study is to understand when learning occurs. Once we understand when learning occurs we are better able to stimulate learning to enhance the ...
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Learning is a critical capability for virtual group effectiveness. The objective of this study is to understand when learning occurs. Once we understand when learning occurs we are better able to stimulate learning to enhance the effectiveness of virtual groups. Additionally, understanding the nature of learning triggers and the results they produce informs how we may achieve desired learning outcomes. This study develops a framework to explain, and empirically studies, when learning occurs in virtual groups. The study employed a single, embedded, qualitative case study designed to study learning triggers in an Open Source Software project. Findings suggest that learning occurs ensuing learning triggers. Learning triggers vary in type and source. The type and source of learning triggers effects whether leaming occurs in the group and the type of learning outcomes the trigger produces.
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This paper explores the management of expertise in offshore outsourcing projects. While the study of expertise development and coordination gained some attention in recent years, much of this research has been on co-located teams....
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This paper explores the management of expertise in offshore outsourcing projects. While the study of expertise development and coordination gained some attention in recent years, much of this research has been on co-located teams. Little is known about the way expertise is managed in distributed contexts and the challenges distributed teams face when attempting to develop and share expertise. To address this gap this paper discusses the notion of expertise management and concludes that it consists of three key processes; namely, development, coordination, and integration. To illustrate the challenges involved in expertise management processes, an in-depth case study of an ABN AMR0 - TCS outsourcing project is outlined. In this case study onsite and offshore teams developed, coordinated, and integrated expertise despite geographical distance, time-zone differences, and different local contexts. Evidence from this case suggests that this outsourcing project jointly developed expertise while coordinating and integrating expertise in a distributed manner. Finally, conclusions are made and implications for research are discussed.
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Building on behavioural leadership theory and structuration theory, we present a two-order theory of leadership. It describes four classes of first-order leadership behaviours (task coordination, substantive task contribution, gro...
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Building on behavioural leadership theory and structuration theory, we present a two-order theory of leadership. It describes four classes of first-order leadership behaviours (task coordination, substantive task contribution, group maintenance and boundary spanning) and defines second-order leadership as behaviour that influences changes in the structure that guides group action. We argue that second-order leadership is enabled by first-order leadership and is therefore action embedded and grounded in processes that define the social identity of the group. We propose that effective virtual teams will exhibit a paradoxical combination of shared, distributed first-order leadership complemented by strong, concentrated, and centralized second-order leadership. We conclude by suggesting future research that might be conducted to test and further elaborate our theory.
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The percentage of young women choosing educational paths leading to science and technology-based employment has been dropping for several years [1, 2]. In our view, the core cause for this phenomenon is a lack of interest and soci...
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The percentage of young women choosing educational paths leading to science and technology-based employment has been dropping for several years [1, 2]. In our view, the core cause for this phenomenon is a lack of interest and social support on the part of the girls and their families and not a lack of ability. The specific aim of this paper is to evaluate the utility of building virtual environments in influencing girls' interest in computer-related educational paths and careers. This is evaluated through an intervention, or action-research, in the form of a class named Gaming for Girls. This class was offered to middle and high school girls three times over the years 2005-2006. We assert playing and developing computer games can lead to the acquisition of tangible IT skills and a higher sense of self-efficacy in terms of computer use. In particular, we discuss intervention methods that aim at changing socialization patterns by bringing girls into an all-girl classroom, reducing game violence by altering the forms of game action, and removing potentially negative character designs by allowing girls to design characters and game interaction themselves. We assert that within the information economy, playing video games is an advantage.
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Firms face an environment changing at an increasingly rapid pace. Unfortunately, the speed at which organizations can adapt their strategies and competencies to exploit such opportunities remains limited. In this paper we weave to...
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Firms face an environment changing at an increasingly rapid pace. Unfortunately, the speed at which organizations can adapt their strategies and competencies to exploit such opportunities remains limited. In this paper we weave together an external perspective on market-facing with an internal perspective on competency development and marshalling to describe the organizational activities necessary for firms to cooperate within a virtual organization. We argue that firms can address their individual limitations through a systematic process that we call "competence rallying," with which they can access market opportunities and additional needed competencies. Specifically, we present a local process theory of how one network of firms reliably engineers and delivers manufacturing projects using an inter-organizational process that works to meet short-term market opportunities. Our theory is grounded in the experiences of the Virtuelle Fabrik project, an organized network for regional cooperation in the manufacturing industry around the Bodensee in Europe. The success of manufacturing projects in a virtual organization is predicated on specific organizational activities in four phases of the competence rallying process: 1) identification and development of competencies, 2) identification and facing of market opportunities, 3) marshalling of competencies, and 4) a short-term cooperative effort.
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More and more people take part in virtual environments in which they present a "virtual self"—an online profile that indicates key information about them to other participants and viewers. This research investigates how people pr...
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More and more people take part in virtual environments in which they present a "virtual self"—an online profile that indicates key information about them to other participants and viewers. This research investigates how people present themselves in the virtual yet work-related environments of occupational online forums. To do so, the research analyzes the profiles of more than 300 registered users of an online forum dedicated to issues of interest to bankers. These profiles are interpreted in relation to Goffman's (1959) seminal ideas of mystification (allowed by the separation between backstage and public action) and presentation of self and of Turkle's (1995) ideas of multiple, interrelated, online and offline selves. This research builds a grounded categorization of profiles. The four categories of profiles that emerged from the data correspond to clearly distinct ways participants in the online forums present themselves. Over time, two categories have become dominant while another has dwindled. This research holds implications for the understanding of the presentation of self in virtual but work-related environments. It shows how participants in online forums build their virtual self by playing with the mystification inherent of the virtual environment. It also shows an interplay between the virtual and the offline when some participants "de-mystify" their profile. Finally, the increasing prevalence of two categories of profiles suggests that, over time, social norms of presentation of self emerge and condition socially accepted virtual selves in occupational online forums.
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Massively-multiplayer online games, or "synthetic worlds," represent a rapidly-growing industry with far-reaching social, technical, and economic implications. In this position paper, we draw on literature from anthropology, socio...
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Massively-multiplayer online games, or "synthetic worlds," represent a rapidly-growing industry with far-reaching social, technical, and economic implications. In this position paper, we draw on literature from anthropology, sociology, and film to challenge long-standing misconceptions of "games" and "work" and of "virtuality" and "reality" as dualisms that have obscured synthetic worlds from serious consideration by IS scholars. Building on this work and recent reports of businesses, nonprofits, entrepreneurs, and educational institutions incorporating synthetic worlds into their day-to-day practices, we argue that synthetic worlds represent a legitimate arena for IS research. We begin by offering a framework for characterizing the nature and structure of the social activity occurring in the diverse array of synthetic worlds currently available. Then we illustrate our position by considering synthetic worlds from the perspective of organizational communication, a substantive area with a rich tradition in IS research. Employing a genre lens as an illustrative example, we identify phenomena and raise research questions the IS community is uniquely positioned to explore.
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Firms are increasingly embedded in networks of relationships with other organizations that are of strategic importance. An organization's participation in a network may provide access to information, resources, markets, and techno...
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Firms are increasingly embedded in networks of relationships with other organizations that are of strategic importance. An organization's participation in a network may provide access to information, resources, markets, and technologies, or it may lock it in unproductive relationships from which it may be difficult to extricate. Therefore, it is no longer adequate to analyze firms' conduct and performance by examining firms in isolation from their network partners. Strategy research has investigated inter-organizational alliances for some time. However, the primary focus of this research has been to examine the antecedents of network formation and relatively lesser attention has been paid to the implications of alliances and networks on a firm's performance. Since virtual organizations are conceptualized as strategic networks and alliances among organizations, we examined literature on virtual organizations to understand what has been done in inter-organizational context. We found 34 papers out of a total of 117 papers on virtual organization that examined virtual organizing at inter-organizational level. We classified each of the short-listed papers by virtual organizing type (network membership, network structure, tie modality, and time-frame), performance, and dilemmas of virtual organizing. Our analyses showed that inter-organization virtual organizing strategy varied with the goals of virtual organizing. Across the short-listed papers we found a pattern of organizing that depended on whether organizing was for abstract resources (knowledge, skills, competencies, etc.) or for specific goals (outsourcing key components). Virtual organizing for abstract resources tended to exhibit decentralized network structure and collaborative ties with partners, while virtual organizing for specific goals tended to exhibit centralized network structure and opportunistic ties. We found a lack of empirical literature examining the process of inter-organization virtual organizing strategy and its consequences.
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An increase in demand for software services has led to development of software from different dispersed locations. This has brought in complexities to managing software projects. This research work focuses on the development of a ...
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An increase in demand for software services has led to development of software from different dispersed locations. This has brought in complexities to managing software projects. This research work focuses on the development of a process maturity model that balances different perspectives in one organization that is carrying out software sustenance work from geographically dispersed locations.
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