The Influence of National and Organisational Culture on Knowledge Sharing in Distributed Teams

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerstin Siakas ◽  
Elli Georgiadou ◽  
Dimitrios Siakas

In today's competitive business environment increasingly large numbers of organisations use distributed teams in their international operations. This paper provides a basis for discussion and analysis of knowledge sharing between distributed team members working in a global context in different organisational and national cultures. Examining the different cultural values and perceptions related to knowledge sharing, the authors aim at making more explicit the human and cultural dynamics that bear on knowledge sharing and knowledge management success. A lifecycle for knowledge creation and sharing is discussed. The use of Cultural and Organisational Diversity Evaluation (CODE) is proposed for assessing the fit between national and organisational culture. The objective of using the CODE model is to raise awareness of the cultural values and attitudes in distributed teams and in combination with the life-cycle to ensure an effective process quality management and foster a knowledge sharing culture within distributed team members.

Author(s):  
Kerstin Siakas ◽  
Elli Georgiadou ◽  
Dimitrios Siakas

In today's competitive business environment increasingly large numbers of organisations use distributed teams in their international operations. This paper provides a basis for discussion and analysis of knowledge sharing between distributed team members working in a global context in different organisational and national cultures. Examining the different cultural values and perceptions related to knowledge sharing, the authors aim at making more explicit the human and cultural dynamics that bear on knowledge sharing and knowledge management success. A lifecycle for knowledge creation and sharing is discussed. The use of Cultural and Organisational Diversity Evaluation (CODE) is proposed for assessing the fit between national and organisational culture. The objective of using the CODE model is to raise awareness of the cultural values and attitudes in distributed teams and in combination with the life-cycle to ensure an effective process quality management and foster a knowledge sharing culture within distributed team members.


Author(s):  
Kerstin Siakas ◽  
Elli Georgiadou

In today’s competitive business environment, increasingly large numbers of organisations use virtual distributed teams in their operations. This chapter provides a basis for discussion and analysis of knowledge sharing in culturally diverse networked organisations. Examining the different cultural values and perceptions related to knowledge sharing, we aim at making the human and cultural dynamics that bear on knowledge sharing and knowledge management success more explicit. The objectives are to foster an effective knowledge-sharing culture within virtual distributed teams. The chapter provides mechanisms for understanding the potential for conflict, for knowledge sharing, and building of trust among culturally diverse team members. Guidelines for successful knowledge sharing in the global environment are developed providing indications of the expected benefits for the organisation and the individuals involved. An outline of future trends and further work complete the chapter.


Author(s):  
Kerstin Viola Siakas ◽  
Elli Georgiadou ◽  
Dimitrios Siakas

Recent trends in the world economy, including globalization and advances in ICTs and social media, have enabled networking as a business model. As a result, distributed teams have emerged. This chapter provides a basis for discussion and analysis of knowledge sharing between distributed team members working in a global context in different organizational and national cultures. Cultural dynamics influencing knowledge sharing in different cultural settings is examined by investigating the different cultural values and perceptions related to knowledge sharing. The aims are to make the human and cultural dynamics that bear on knowledge sharing and knowledge management success more explicit. The use of the cultural and organizational diversity evaluation (CODE) model is proposed for assessing the fit between national and organizational culture. The objective of using the CODE model is to raise awareness of the cultural values and attitudes in distributed teams and to help ensure an effective quality management process, and foster a knowledge sharing culture within distributed teams.


Author(s):  
Salman Iqbal ◽  
Hayati Abdul Jalal ◽  
Paul Toulson ◽  
David Tweed

Organisational culture plays an important role for enabling the process of knowledge sharing. Organisational culture is not only reflected in the visible aspects of organization such as structure, mission, and objectives, it is also embedded in the behaviour of people. The purpose of this chapter is to close research gaps present in knowledge sharing success by examining the linkages between employees’ knowledge-sharing through collaboration, perceived values of involvement, trustworthiness, and formal recognition. The research data was collected by using simple random sampling techniques from a population of knowledge workers in Malaysian IT organisations. The findings highlight the importance of organisational culture for successful knowledge sharing within organisations. The results of factor analysis show the emergence of four new cultural values extant in the Malaysian context. These values are involvement, trustworthiness, formal recognition, and independence. Successful knowledge sharing is significantly related to the perceived value of involvement, trustworthiness, and formal recognition. This chapter will be beneficial for researchers, practitioners, scholars, and organisations (leaders and employees); it will also be helpful for those interested in organisational structure and relationships across organisations in knowledge contexts.


Author(s):  
Stephen Rylander

Creating and maintaining trust amongst distributed team members is required for an organization to benefit from a distributed team model. Where face-to-face interactions were once the only model to gradually create trust, different models are required for a team that is not co-located. This chapter examines the basic need for trust, how the individual comes before the team, barriers to trust, and prepares the reader to examine his or her own situation to improve or create a new team based on trusting professional relationships.


Author(s):  
Vinita Seshadri ◽  
Elangovan N.

The chapter highlights the social distance, i.e. lack of emotional connection, formed among individuals working remotely in a geographically distributed team. The virtuality and cultural diversity of such teams creates limited opportunities for dispersed members to build social ties with remote team members leading to formation of ‘us' versus ‘them' attitudes which corrode team effectiveness. Based on a survey of 482 Indian IT professionals working in distributed teams, we find that social distance negatively impacts team effectiveness. Further, the results of the study show that practices such as task interdependence, inclusive communication, contextual information and shared identity can moderate the negative relationship between social distance and team effectiveness at varying levels of perceived status equality among individuals working in geographically distributed teams. The chapter provides recommendations for the effective management of geographically distributed teams whereby managers act as a bridge between the team members to overcome social distance.


2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Suranjan Chakraborty ◽  
Saonee Sarker ◽  
Sudhanshu Rai ◽  
Suprateek Sarker ◽  
Ranganadhan Nadadhur

This research uses configuration theory and data collected from a major IT vendor organization to examine primary configurations of distributed teams in a global off-shoring context. The study indicates that off-shoring vendor organizations typically deploy three different types of configurations, which the authors term as thin-at-client, thick-at-client, and hybrid. These configurations differ in terms of the size of the sub-teams in the different distributed locations and the nature of the ISD-related tasks performed by the distributed team members. In addition, the different configurations were compared on their inherent process-related and resource-related flexibilities. The thick-at-client configuration emerged as the one that offers superior flexibility (in all dimensions).However, additional analysis also revealed contingencies apart from flexibility that may influence the appropriateness of the distributed ISD team configuration, including the volatility of the client organization’s environment and the extent to which the ISD tasks can be effortlessly moved to the vendor’s home location.


Author(s):  
Haydee M. Cuevas ◽  
Stephen M. Fiore ◽  
Eduardo Salas ◽  
Clint A. Bowers

With the structure of teams in organizations increasing in complexity to include both co-located and distributed team members, explicit linkages between theory and practice are critically needed to mitigate the negative effects that computer-mediated interaction may have on distributed team performance. Following a macroergonomic approach, this paper focuses on describing how theories from organizational psychology can address some of the challenges faced by this small, but growing, subset of teams. Specifically, theories in motivation, group dynamics, and decision making can be applied to offer practical guidelines to foster the development of positive team attitudes (e.g., cohesion, trust) and behaviors (e.g., goal-setting, self-regulation), and successful decision making performance in distributed teams.


Author(s):  
Suranjan Chakraborty ◽  
Saonee Sarker ◽  
Sudhanshu Rai ◽  
Suprateek Sarker ◽  
Ranganadhan Nadadhur

This research uses configuration theory and data collected from a major IT vendor organization to examine primary configurations of distributed teams in a global off-shoring context. The study indicates that off-shoring vendor organizations typically deploy three different types of configurations, which the authors term as thin-at-client, thick-at-client, and hybrid. These configurations differ in terms of the size of the sub-teams in the different distributed locations and the nature of the ISD-related tasks performed by the distributed team members. In addition, the different configurations were compared on their inherent process-related and resource-related flexibilities. The thick-at-client configuration emerged as the one that offers superior flexibility (in all dimensions).However, additional analysis also revealed contingencies apart from flexibility that may influence the appropriateness of the distributed ISD team configuration, including the volatility of the client organization’s environment and the extent to which the ISD tasks can be effortlessly moved to the vendor’s home location.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (47) ◽  
pp. 53-67
Author(s):  
Natalia Krasnokutska ◽  
Tetiana Osetrova

Today, people are suddenly forced to interact remotely due to the pandemic, while companies around the world are beginning to accept the fact that teams don't really have to work in offices to get the expected results. That is why distributed teams are increasingly becoming the norm in various industries, delivering results, and saving corporate resources. At the same time, new realities have not only changed the way companies work but also changed people's thinking to adapt to working in distributed teams. Especially now, the knowledge and skills of employees are intellectual capital for companies, which is fast becoming a new icon of the economic value of the company. Due to this fact, project workers, those who want to succeed in the new business environment, should learn to work effectively in distributed teams. This will require strengthening soft skills such as leadership, commitment, etc. The article considers the economic and social preconditions for distributed project teams trend formation. The literature on the topic of the distributed team’s efficiency was analysed. Thus, one of the factors influencing the team work efficiency related to the soft skills maturity level among distributed project team members was distinguished. The unified list of soft skills based on world experience is determined. The current state and main trends in the work of project teams are studied, based on which the methodological tools for assessing the maturity level of the project team’s soft skills by project managers at the enterprise were proposed. The levels of soft skills maturity, as well as assessment parameters of each of soft skills, are revealed. The practice of applying the unified soft skills list on the example of a distributed team in the Ukrainian company was evaluated, based on which conclusions about the possibility of its use were made.


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