Virtual Teams

Author(s):  
Robert M. Verburg

Global market developments and the large-scale use of diverse applications in the area of information and communication technology have been key factors in the emergence of distributed teams. Such teams are often referred to as virtual teams. Virtual teams enable collaboration between people across traditional boundaries and offer tremendous opportunities for various achievements. Businesses are no longer tied to a single time zone and are, for example, able to develop software around the 24-hour clock. The Internet as the almost universal medium for interaction across boundaries has created an infrastructure that enables many organizations to launch virtual teams. Hardly any technical obstacle for communication and collaboration across geographic boundaries remain as these processes are supported by high tech collaboration solutions, such as groupware and other collaborative applications (e.g., videoconferencing, electronic blackboards). Virtual teams have a number of opportunities that are not found with colocated teams, such as involving rare expertise.

Author(s):  
Robert M. Verburg ◽  
J. H. Erik Andriessen ◽  
Joris P.G. de Rooij

Global market developments and the large-scale use of diverse applications in the area of information and communication technology (ICT) have been key factors in the emergence of distributed teams. Such teams are often referred to as virtual teams. Virtual teams enable collaboration between people across traditional boundaries and offer tremendous opportunities for various achievements. Businesses are no longer tied to a single time zone and are, for example, able to develop software around the 24-hour clock. The Internet—as the almost universal medium for interaction across boundaries—has created an infrastructure that enables many organizations to launch virtual teams. Hardly any technical obstacle for communication and collaboration across geographic boundaries remains, as these processes are supported by high-tech collaboration solutions such as groupware and other collaborative applications (e.g., videoconferencing, electronic blackboards). Virtual teams have a number of opportunities that are not found with co-located teams, such as involving rare expertise.


2014 ◽  
Vol 564 ◽  
pp. 733-739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mei Choo Ang ◽  
Kok Weng Ng ◽  
Siti Azfanizam Ahmad ◽  
Amelia Natasya Abdul Wahab

With the ever competitive global market swamped with more choices of high-tech gadgets from smartphones to head-mounted display eyewear like “Google Glass”, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is one of the key factors to engineering and technological advancement and the bridge to the future. In view of such significant importance, the government of Malaysia has been embarking on national policies to prioritise the education and the programmes on ICT to train and produce highly skilled ICT workers to achieve the nation’s ambition to become a developed country. Despite the government efforts, studies have shown that Malaysia is still currently facing shortage of skilled ICT workers. In view of this shortage of skilled ICT worker problem, a systematic engineering problem solving theory known as TRIZ is applied to generate ideas and potential solutions to solve this problem in this research.


Author(s):  
Rosana Silveira Reis ◽  
Ylenia Curzi

The aim of this chapter is to analyse knowledge integration in the creative process of globally distributed teams as they develop new products. Mainstream researches and studies focus on knowledge integration in terms of transference of knowledge; they highlight its relevance with respect to innovation and creativity, and investigate the conditions that assure or inhibit it. The creative process in globally distributed teams is fairly unexplored by academic literature. With only a few exceptions, the literature focuses on virtual teams: i.e., distributed teams where factors such as culture, time zone and language are irrelevant to the development of the activities carried out by team members. The authors concentrate their efforts in looking for how knowledge integration happens in the creative process in globally distributed teams. For this reason, they shall rely on a research method founded on the notions of adequate causation and objective possibility. On this basis, they have compared two empirical cases in order to answer their research question. The authors have thus analysed six global product development projects carried out by globally distributed teams belonging to a Swedish company working with teams in France and Brazil; and an Italian company working with teams in Tunisia. The data has been gathered through participant observations, semi-structured interviews and document analysis from 2007 to 2009. This contribution is grounded in the analysis of the existing literature and in the data collected on the field.


Author(s):  
J. H. Erik Andriessen ◽  
Robert M. Verburg

Presented in this chapter is a model for the analysis of virtual teams. The model is a helpful tool for mapping the different aspects of effective virtual teams and will be explained through several examples from practice. Before the model is introduced, an overview of the main challenges of virtual teams in performing their tasks is presented. There are hardly any technical obstacles for communication and collaboration across geographic boundaries, as these processes are being supported by high-tech collaboration solutions, such as groupware and other collaborative applications. However, these new types of groups create major organizational challenges for both managers and employees. It is the aim of this chapter to give insight into the design and performance of effective (global) virtual teams.


Author(s):  
N. Raghavendra Rao

The existing ways of doing business are constantly changing. This is due to rapid changes in global economy. The opportunities in the present global markets have to be exploited at a rapid pace. The large centralized organizations which have established themselves over a considerable period may find it very difficult to introduce or diversify their product range in the present globalization scenario. They need to realize that managing technical knowledge, as well as innovative process in conducting business, is the way to remain competitive in the global market. Every business enterprise needs unique challenges to face in its sector. It is high time that they take advantage of the opportunities available across the globe by making use of the expertise of the global virtual teams. This chapter talks about a model for creation of global innovation model by global virtual teams who can design a product through the components of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Schelda Debowski (2006) rightly states that “Virtual Knowledge teams rely on Information technology to communicate” (p. 73).


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
L. V. Tomin

The article is devoted to the analysis of the structure, the peculiarities of functioning and the socio-economic and political effects of the «platform capitalism». The basis of this model is the network effects produced by the integrated information and communication infrastructure, which contribute to the monopolization and the constant expansion of platform companies into new areas. The principle of functioning of this infrastructure is the continuous collection and further monetization of data extracted from the interactions of individuals among themselves or with one of the elements of a digitalized economy or government structures. Such an infrastructure — forms a potential threat of strengthening state and corporate control over citizens. In addition, the activities of platform companies produce negative effects on the labor market, reinforcing the process of precarization of employment. The integrated information and communication infrastructure of platform companies form a system of a kind of «digital Taylorism», which deprives the employee of autonomy and privacy in the workplace. The influence of digitalization, subjected to the technocratic logic of the neoliberal model of governance in democratic countries, strengthens the de-politicization of relations between the citizen and the state and further changes the balance of power between labor and capital in favor of the latter. Large-scale protests of the last years against the companies of “capitalism of platforms” demonstrated the structural contradictions of this model and formed new forms of organization and actions of grassroots workers of the “digital economy”.


2020 ◽  
pp. 75-117
Author(s):  
A.N. Shvetsov

The article compares the processes of dissemination of modern information and communication technologies in government bodies in Russia and abroad. It is stated that Russia began the transition to «electronic government» later than the developed countries, in which this process was launched within the framework of large-scale and comprehensive programs for reforming public administration in the 1980s and 1990s. However, to date, there is an alignment in the pace and content of digitalization tasks. At a new stage in this process, the concept of «electronic government» under the influence of such newest phenomena of the emerging information society as methods of analysis of «big data», «artificial intelligence», «Internet of things», «blockchain» is being transformed into the category of «digital government». Achievements and prospects of public administration digitalization are considered on the example of countries with the highest ratings — Denmark, Australia, Republic of Korea, Great Britain, USA and Russia.


Author(s):  
Jochen von Bernstorff

The chapter explores the notion of “community interests” with regard to the global “land-grab” phenomenon. Over the last decade, a dramatic increase of foreign investment in agricultural land could be observed. Bilateral investment treaties protect around 75 per cent of these large-scale land acquisitions, many of which came with associated social problems, such as displaced local populations and negative consequences for food security in Third World countries receiving these large-scale foreign investments. Hence, two potentially conflicting areas of international law are relevant in this context: Economic, social, and cultural rights and the principles of permanent sovereignty over natural resources and “food sovereignty” challenging large-scale investments on the one hand, and specific norms of international economic law stabilizing them on the other. The contribution discusses the usefulness of the concept of “community interests” in cases where the two colliding sets of norms are both considered to protect such interests.


Urban Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Dolores Brandis García

Since the late 20th century major, European cities have exhibited large projects driven by neoliberal urban planning policies whose aim is to enhance their position on the global market. By locating these projects in central city areas, they also heighten and reinforce their privileged situation within the city as a whole, thus contributing to deepening the centre–periphery rift. The starting point for this study is the significance and scope of large projects in metropolitan cities’ urban planning agendas since the final decade of the 20th century. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the correlation between the various opposing conservative and progressive urban policies, and the projects put forward, for the city of Madrid. A study of documentary sources and the strategies deployed by public and private agents are interpreted in the light of a process during which the city has had a succession of alternating governments defending opposing urban development models. This analysis allows us to conclude that the predominant large-scale projects proposed under conservative policies have contributed to deepening the centre–periphery rift appreciated in the city.


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