Pamela J. Hinds

Out of Sight, Out of Sync: Understanding Conflict in Distributed Teams

The bulk of our understanding of teams is based on traditional teams in which all members are collocated and communicate face to face. However, geographically distributed teams, whose members are not collocated and must often communicate via technology, are growing in prevalence. Studies from the field are beginning to suggest that geographically distributed teams operate differently and experience different outcomes than traditional teams. For example, empirical studies suggest that distributed teams experience high levels of conflict. These empirical studies offer rich and valuable descriptions of this conflict, but they do not systematically identify the mechanisms by which conflict is engendered in distributed teams. In this paper, we develop a theory-based explanation of how geographical distribution provokes team-level conflict. We do so by considering the two characteristics that distinguish distributed teams from traditional ones: Namely, we examine how being distant from ones team members and relying on technology to mediate communication and collaborative work impacts team members. Our analysis identifies antecedents to conflict that are unique to distributed teams. We predict that conflict of all types (task, affective, and process) will be detrimental to the performance of distributed teams, a result that is contrary to much research on traditional teams. We also investigate conflict as a dynamic process to determine how teams might mitigate these negative impacts over time.

Bothered by Abstraction: The Effect of Expertise on Knowledge Transfer and Subsequent Novice Performance

Although experts should be well positioned to convey their superior knowledge and skill to novices, the organization of that knowledge, and particularly its level of abstraction, may make it difficult for them to do so. Using an electronic circuit-wiring task, the authors found that experts as compared with beginners used more abstract and advanced statements and fewer concrete statements when providing task instructions to novices. In a 2nd study, the authors found that beginner-instructed novices performed better than expert-instructed novices and reported fewer problems with the instructions when performing the same task. In Study 2, the authors found that although novices performed better on the target task when instructed by beginners, they did better on a different task within the same domain when instructed by experts. The evidence suggests that the abstract, advanced concepts conveyed by experts facilitated the transfer of learning between the different tasks.

SUBGROUP DYNAMICS IN INTERNATIONALLY DISTRIBUTED TEAMS: ETHNOCENTRISM OR CROSS-NATIONAL LEARNING?

Abstract Internationally distributed teams are an ideal context in which to understand the formation, dynamics, and effects of subgroups within work teams. Although the members are interdependent, these teams frequently are composed of two or more collocated subgroups. Researchers have observed a tendency for tensions in such teams to coalesce – and escalate – between these subgroups. In this paper, we identify factors likely to promote and mitigate fracturing between subgroups and consider the impact of subgroup formation on task effectiveness. We build on Lau and Murnighan’s (1998) conceptualization of “faultlines,” which suggests that alignment of team members’ demographic attributes increases the likelihood of subgroup dynamics. We extend this work into the domain of internationally distributed teams by showing how differences in location also can heighten subgroup dynamics. The most likely consequence is ethnocentrism, although we show that intergroup learning also is possible. Our analysis highlights conditions under which teams that encounter subgroup differences will be able to overcome the tendency toward ethnocentrism. Teams with an attitude of mutual positive distinctiveness, we argue, will more likely learn from subgroup differences, becoming more sophisticated in their understanding of cross-national relationships and competent in their management of them.

Interpersonal trust in cross-functional, geographically distributed work: A longitudinal study

With increasing globalization and the proliferation of communication technologies, more people are working in cross-functional, geographically distributed teams. Although trust is clearly an important ingredient in these collaborations, little is known about the challenges this new work and social environment creates for the development of trust. Different disciplinary perspectives, different regional or national cultures, and the lack of face-to-face interaction when working at a distance raise significant barriers to developing trust between distant co-workers. We, therefore, posit that traditional models of trust need to be adapted to describe the development of trust between cross-functional, geographically distributed partners. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a longitudinal study of architecture, engineering and construction management students engaged in designing and planning a

Structures that work: social structure, work structure and coordination ease in geographically distributed teams

5 million construction project in distributed teams. Our results suggest that cross-functional, geographically distributed workers may rely on early impressions of perceived trustworthiness when evaluating how their distant partners are delivering on commitments, because reliable information about actual follow-through is lacking or difficult to interpret. Consistent with this, we found that perceived trustworthiness, perceived follow-through and trust were relatively stable over time. We conclude that initial perceptions of trustworthiness are particularly important in cross-functional, geographically distributed work, although research is needed to draw comparisons with traditional work environments. # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Putting the Global in Global Work: An Intercultural Lens on the Practice of Cross-National Collaboration

Scholars have recently argued for flatter, organic organizational structures that enable workers to deal more effectively with dynamic and uncertain environments. In a correlational study of 33 R&D teams, we find that although this network form is associated with more smooth coordination in collocated teams, the opposite is true for geographically distributed teams. In fact, an informal hierarchical structure was associated with more smooth coordination in distributed teams. These results add to the scant literature on networks in teams and provide insight into important differences in the structure of geographically distributed and collocated teams.

Autonomy and Common Ground in Human-Robot Interaction: A Field Study

Collaboration across national boundaries has become increasingly prevalent over the last decade, yet the management literature remains remarkably unhelpful in answering questions about what happens...

Extreme work teams: using SWAT teams as a model for coordinating distributed robots

The use of robots, especially autonomous mobile robots, to support work is expected to increase over the next few decades. However, little empirical research examines how users form mental models of robots, how they collaborate with them, and what factors contribute to the success or failure of human-robot collaboration. A two-year observational study of a collaborative human-robot system suggests that the factors disrupting the creation of common ground for interactive communication change at different levels of robot autonomy. Our observations of users collaborating with the remote robot showed differences in how the users reached common ground with the robot in terms of an accurate, shared understanding of the robots context, planning, and actions - a process called grounding. We focus on how the types and levels of robot autonomy affect grounding. We also examine the challenges a highly autonomous system presents to peoples ability to maintain a shared mental model of the robot

An Embedded Model of Cultural Adaptation in Global Teams

We present a field study of police SWAT teams for the purpose of enabling grounded design of a system to coordinate distributed field robots. The mission-oriented, spatially distributed SWAT environment provides a rich resource for robotics designers that mirrors field robot deployments in key ways. We highlight the processes with which SWAT team leaders create and maintain common ground among team members and coordinate action in these tightly-coupled, distributed teams. We present a system for coordinating distributed robots that we designed based on our SWAT team observations.

Robots, Gender a Sensemaking: Sex Segregation’s Impact On Workers Making Sense Of a Mobile Autonomous Robot

This research examines the process through which globally distributed work teams attempt to adapt to cross-cultural differences while being constrained by the local contexts in which they are embedded. We conducted an in-depth field study of nine software development teams that included 132 ethnographic initial interviews, periods of team observation, 19 follow-up interviews, and team meetings. Inductive analysis of the data led us to develop an embedded model of cultural adaptation in global teams to describe the process we observed as teams attempted to cope with important differences in interpersonal communication styles, preferred approaches to organizational control and authority relations, and work-related knowledge and problem-solving approaches. We show how local embeddedness and interdependence across sites together drive cultural adaptation dialectics as actors attempt to resolve rippling tensions within and across nested social structures. The model of cultural adaptation that we developed as an outcome of our research challenges literature that assumes adaptation can be contained within a team and is distinctive in incorporating a dynamic systems view of culture. We build on and develop theory concerning multilevel structuration dynamics. Our work may have implications for other types of boundary-spanning collaborations such as strategic alliances and multinational corporations.