scholarly journals Lessons from Laos: selecting appropriate communication media for context

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (03) ◽  
pp. C05
Author(s):  
Wesley Ward
Keyword(s):  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Agricultural Research ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Research Teams ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Funding Agencies

Current agricultural research depends on complex contexts that can impose major barriers for communication within geographically dispersed research teams. Such barriers are multiplied where team members originate from and operate in contrasting cultures and economic circumstances. A case study based in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) showed how to identify such barriers between Lao and Australian scientists using transcripts of 30 interviews with these groups. These were analysed using grounded theory analysis to identify these barriers which were operationalised to construct an assessment tool — I-CHET. This tool was subsequently applied to nine online communication technologies used by the interviewees to identify the technology that displayed the fewest problems regarding these barriers — email, and those with the most problems — websites and Skype. The study highlighted the complexity of communication barriers for international research teams, beyond economic and online infrastructural constraints, to include individual and cultural differences as well as language. By addressing these differences, project managers and funding agencies can maximise the benefits from research completed by international teams that provide vital agricultural knowledge and methodologies for many developing countries worldwide.

IT Project Managers' Perceptions and Use of Virtual Team Technologies

2011 ◽  
pp. 25-43
Author(s):  
Catherine M. Beise ◽  
Fred Niederman ◽  
Herb Mattord
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Fortune 500 ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Team Members ◽  
It Project ◽  
Information And Communication

This chapter presents the results of a case study pertaining to the use of information and communication media to support a range of project management tasks. A variety of electronic communication tools have evolved to support collaborative work and virtual teams. Few of these tools have focused specifically on the needs of project managers. In an effort to learn how practicing IT project managers employ these tools, data were collected at a North American Fortune 500 industrial company via interviews with IT project managers regarding their use and perceptions of electronic media within the context of their work on project teams. In this study, “virtual” describes the extent to which communication is electronic rather than the extent to which team members are geographically separated. Although the number of respondents was limited, the richness of the data collected leads to the conclusion that successful project managers and teams become skilled at adapting a variety of existing communication technologies to match the project task or process, the receiver, their own role as sender, and the content of the message. Groupware designers and developers need to better understand project management methods and best practices in order to provide better tools for practitioners, particularly as organizations expand globally and increasingly outsource various functions of their IT development and operations.

scholarly journals A Business Model Framework to Characterize Digital Multisided Platforms

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Ardolino ◽  
Nicola Saccani ◽  
Federico Adrodegari ◽  
Marco Perona
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Model Framework ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
The One

Businesses grounded upon multisided platforms (MSPs) are found in a growing number of industries, thanks to the recent developments in Internet and digital technologies. Digital MSPs enable multiple interactions among users of different sides through information and communication technologies. The understanding of the characteristics and constituents of MSPs is fragmented along different literature streams. Moreover, very few empirical studies have been carried out to date. In order to fill this gap, this paper presents a three-level framework that describes a digital MSP. The proposed framework is based on literature analysis and multiple case study. On the one hand, the framework can be used to describe MSP as it provides an operationalization of the concept through the identification of specific dimensions, variables and items; on the other hand, it can be used as an assessment tool by practitioners, as exemplified by the three empirical applications presented in this paper.

Knowledge Sharing in Project Environments

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Zinga Novais ◽  
Jorge Vareda Gomes ◽  
Mário José Batista Romão
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Project Team ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Business Operations ◽  
Successful Execution ◽  
Management Project ◽  
A Company

Projects have been increasingly used in the implementation of organizations' business operations. Knowledge sharing has been considered essential in project environment; therefore, the integration of knowledge management within project management becomes crucial for project success. The objective of this research is to study how knowledge sharing is integrated within the context of a project, and what is the perception of project team members about it. A case study was carried out in a company within the financial sector, focused on a project team of the entity. The results revealed that project managers, other professionals in project management, and the organization itself are very much aware of the importance of knowledge sharing. The results also emphasized that, regardless of the lack of incentives by top management, project team members consider that knowledge sharing highly contributes for a successful execution of projects.

Trust in Virtual Multicultural Teams

2008 ◽  
pp. 1292-1308
Author(s):  
Iris C. Fischlmayr ◽  
Werner Auer-Rizzi
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Multicultural Teams ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Team Projects ◽  
Illustrative Case Study

This chapter analyses the phenomenon of trust with regard to its significance for virtual teams. Guided by the existing literature on trust, this chapter presents different kinds of trust and the development of trust over time. The challenges inherent to virtual multicultural teams, thus to working teams, which are geographically dispersed and communicate with the help of electronic media, raise the questions of their consequences on trust. As virtual teams are mostly used in companies operating in different countries all over the world, the different cultural backgrounds of the team members are taken into account as well. To give an example for the relevance of this issue in practice, an illustrative case study on experiences international business students have made during virtual team projects is presented.

scholarly journals Talking a team into being in online workplace collaborations: The discourse of virtual work

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Darics ◽  
Maria Cristina Gatti
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Work ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Discourse Practices ◽  
Computer Mediated

Digital communication technologies led to a revolution in how people interact at work: relying on computer-mediated communication technologies is now a must, rather than an alternative. This empirical study investigates how colleagues in a virtual team use synchronous online communication platform in the workplace. Inspired by the conceptualisation of web-based communication platforms as tool, place or context of social construction, we explore the discursive strategies that contribute to the construction of the team’s shared sense of purpose and identity, a collegial atmosphere and consequently lead to effective collaboration. The close analyses of real-life data from a multinational workplace provide insights into the everyday communication practices of virtual team members. Our findings supplement organisational literature based on etic observations of the effectiveness of virtual work and provide a basis for further theorisations about how communication technologies affect the ecology of and discourse practices in computer-mediated communication at work.

scholarly journals Combining Technologies' Properties to Cope with Uncertainty

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile Godé ◽  
Pierre Barbaroux
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Basic Material ◽  
Special Forces ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Text Chat ◽  
Knowledge Processes ◽  
Knowledge Types ◽  
Information And Communication

This article investigates how teams aim at harnessing Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to coordinate under uncertainty. An explorative case study analyses the way NATO Special Forces use text-chat in Afghanistan. The findings suggest that team members combine basic material properties, knowledge processes and knowledge types to cope with various forms of uncertainty. Such combinations might trigger the emergence of unexpected biases which, in turn, generate mitigated final results. Building on the authors' findings, they develop a model of ICTs' uses based on the concepts of emergence and combination.

A Case Study on Educating Engineers for Geographically-Dispersed Design Teams

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
John F. Dannenhoffer ◽  
Barry D. Davidson ◽  
Anthony R. Ingraffea ◽  
Alan T. Zehnder ◽  
Scott L. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Design ◽  
Design Teams ◽  
Launch Vehicles ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Reusable Launch Vehicles ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Asynchronous Communications ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Computer Based

The mantra of industry today is to design products and processes using collaborative design teams. While the potential benefits of such a design philosophy are numerous and significant, many organizations find themselves falling short in the implementation. Sometimes these shortcomings are due to cultural and technical difficulties in the organization, but too frequently they are due to a lack of knowledge as to how to collaborate effectively. Described herein is an educational initiative by Syracuse and Cornell Universities to together teach collaborative design methodologies through a common two-semester, senior-level engineering design course. In the course, not only are the lectures taught to the two cohorts of students using at-a-distance technologies, but the students are teamed in cross-university teams to execute a series of 6-week design challenges, from preliminary through detailed thermal-structural design of the external skins of seconds-generation reusable launch vehicles. An Advanced Interactive Discovery Environment (AIDE), which is a computer-based infrastructure specifically designed for this course, is used to support both synchronous and asynchronous communications amongst the team members and with the faculty. Extensive surveys of the students, together with faculty observations, indicate that proper use of collaboration tools can facilitate effective geographically-dispersed design teams, making them as successful as local design teams.

scholarly journals TRAINING METHODS FOR DEVELOPING PROJECT TEAM MEMBERS

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 01-12
Author(s):  
Majid G. Al-Nabae ◽  
Dania Sammani
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Management Training ◽  
Project Performance ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Training Methods ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Hard Skills ◽  
Case Study Methods

There are many factors determining the success or failure of the projects. Skills and competencies play a critical role in project management and shortage of skilled project managers and workers has become worldwide issue and a crucial risk that hindering the projects in achieving their objectives and increase the opportunities of project successful. There are two types of training methods used to provide soft and hard skills for project managers and team members. The aim of this paper is to specify the training methods that have roles in project teamwork training to enhance project performance. This paper uses a literature survey of the content of the research papers in project management training and training methods, to identify what extent training methods are related to project performance. This paper emphases the significance of the training process to enhance the project performance and reveals that on-the-job training, lectures and case study methods are most commonly used in project management training. This paper contributes to increasing awareness of the importance of training methods in project management as a feasible strategy to improve the performance of the projects and amply highlights the importance of skills in project management.

Trust in Virtual Multicultural Teams

2011 ◽  
pp. 100-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris C. Fischlmayr
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Multicultural Teams ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Team Projects ◽  
Illustrative Case Study

This chapter analyses the phenomenon of trust with regard to its significance for virtual teams. Guided by the existing literature on trust, this chapter presents different kinds of trust and the development of trust over time. The challenges inherent to virtual multicultural teams, thus to working teams, which are geographically dispersed and communicate with the help of electronic media, raise the questions of their consequences on trust. As virtual teams are mostly used in companies operating in different countries all over the world, the different cultural backgrounds of the team members are taken into account as well. To give an example for the relevance of this issue in practice, an illustrative case study on experiences international business students have made during virtual team projects is presented.

scholarly journals The Use of ICT Platforms to Promote Knowledge Exchange in Project-Based Organisations

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anjar Priyono
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Project Teams ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Ict Tools

Abstract This study aims to investigate the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to support knowledge exchange in project-based organisations. The primary ICT tool investigated in this research is WhatsApp, a messaging application that has been widely used since its introduction. An ethnographic case study method was utilised to analyse qualitative data collected from interviews and focus group discussions. Three projects in an Indonesian university with a duration ranging from 8 months to 2 years were examined as object of investigations. Broadly, the findings show that ICT tools are generally useful in supporting knowledge exchange, which ultimately positively affects project performance. The project teams relied on WhatsApp for the success of the projects. Although face-to-face meetings were rare, team communication was highly intensive, supported by WhatsApp. In addition, managers are encouraged to promote knowledge exchange between team members. Through knowledge exchange, there will be knowledge development, which facilitates the invention of new techniques and methods for promoting project success. The most prominent findings are presented using direct quotations to provide first hand insight from the field. At the end of the paper, recommendations regarding what project managers should do during and after the project has been completed are presented. The recommendations are classified based on the knowledge management life cycle, representing a structured method to manage knowledge in project-based organisations.

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