MODELING THE USE OF OUTSOURCING IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CLUSTER FORMATIONS

Цель статьи – построение комплексной методологии оценки оптимальной структуры формирования информационных кластеров и механизмов их эффективного функционирования. На основе преимуществ аутсорсинга в информационной экономике предложена использована новая форма сетевого взаимодействия – информационный кластер, разработан агломеративный иерархический алгоритм оценки максимальной эффективной сложности и однородности субъектов кластера по различным критериям (информационноемкость, интеллектуальный потенциал, социометрические характеристики и др.), построены модели распределения целей среди наиболее близких в институциональном плане субъектов кластера, которые позволяют решить большую область задач распределения проектов в партнерской сети информационных кластеров, организовывать сетевую распределенную работу и экономить ресурсы времени. The purpose of the article is to build a comprehensive methodology for assessing the optimal structure of the formation of information clusters and the mechanisms for their effective functioning. Based on the advantages of outsourcing in the information economy, a new form of network interaction is proposed - an information cluster, an agglomerative hierarchical algorithm has been developed to assess the maximum effective complexity and homogeneity of cluster subjects according to various criteria (information capacity, intellectual potential, sociometric characteristics, etc.), models for the distribution of goals among the closest in institutional terms of cluster subjects are built, which allow solving a large area of project distribution tasks in a partner network of information clusters, organizing network distributed work and saving time resources.

Introduction

In this introductory chapter, we first outline what we mean by ‘digital work’ and why this creates new methodological challenges. Here we specifically consider the difficulties of observing everyday work practices as they occur often invisibly in silent communion between workers and their devices, in new and various workspaces, across a widely distributed and shifting group of workers, and as they are shaped by the workings of hidden algorithms. Subsequently, we also consider a variety of critical research processes for understanding digital work including: accessing digital data; understanding how context shapes digital data; and the meshing of virtual and embodied research presence. We end the chapter by introducing the four sections of the book—screenwork, digital working practices, distributed work, and digital traces of work—each of which comprises four reflexive accounts of researchers’ experiences in developing methods that can capture digital aspects of work and organization.

Constructive Distributed Work: An Integrated Approach to Sustainable Collaboration and Research for Distributed Teams

Academic work increasingly involves creating digital tools with interdisciplinary teams distributed across institutions and roles. The negative impacts of distributed work are described at length in technical communication scholarship, but such impacts have not yet been realized in collaborative practices. By integrating attention to their core ethical principles, best practices, and work patterns, the authors are developing an ethical, sustainable approach to team building that they call constructive distributed work. This article describes their integrated approach, documents the best practices that guide their research team, and models the three-dimensional thinking that helps them develop sustainable digital tools and ensure the consistent professional development of all team members.

Communication in Organizations

Communication serves a constitutive force in making organizations what they are. While communication can be viewed as merely occurring “within” the organization, communication itself is essential to the creation and maintenance of organizations. Modern research in organizational communication explores this constitutive force of communication as well as the ways downward, upward, and lateral communication patterns determine positive and negative outcomes for both organizations and their members. Supportive, adaptive, and ethical downward communication from organizational leadership enhances members’ productivity and satisfaction while reducing turnover. In addition, candid upward communication from members to management is crucial for detecting and correcting troubles while they remain small and resolvable. Lateral communication through which members make sense of organizational events is key to understanding members’ perceptions, decisions, and behaviors. Finally, new information communication technologies both enable distributed work but also create new and troubling issues for modern work life.

Socio-Economic Questions of Motivating Collaborators in the Context of Remote Work

Motivation and involvement of individual and collective subjects of social and labor relations in work in the traditional format of building work processes is based on strong and diverse interpersonal ties, supported by constant repetitive interaction. Remote work (work outside the office) leads to the need to rethink the impact of the manager on the employee from the standpoint of motivation and control. Distributed work involves a new approach to building interactions between employees in a team, rethinking and reconfiguring group relationships in a team. In the context of social isolation measures caused by the pandemic, almost all enterprises (with the exception of a rather narrow list of strategically important industries) faced the need to change the approach to organizing work processes in general, and managers discovered new problem areas in the field of motivation. In the event of a sudden lockdown, the first to solve the social and psychological problems of maintaining the involvement of employees in work processes, at the same time, problems of a socioeconomic nature receded into secondary positions, since physical and mental health was recognized as an absolute priority. The article is devoted to the analysis of the main approaches to resolving problem areas in the field of socio-economic approaches to motivating employees of enterprises and organizations in a format of remote distributed work that is unexpected for companies and employees.

Working in a post Covid-19 world: Towards a conceptual framework for distributed work

Purpose: Against the backdrop of the increased prevalence of telework practices as a result of Covid-19, the purpose of the present article is to address the conceptual confusion, overlap and ambiguity characterising much of the published literature in this domain through the development of an integrated conceptual framework describing distributed work practices at various levels of organisations.Design/methodology/approach: To develop the framework, a collection of definitions for distributed work concepts were systematically selected and reviewed. These concepts include telework, remote work, distributed work and virtual work, as well as telecommuting, virtual teams, virtual organisations and distributed organisations. The reviewed definitions were systematically analysed to elicit the key principles underlying each concept, and then integrated to produce the conceptual framework.Findings: Our analysis suggests that virtuality and distributedness can be defined as distinct continua which, when combined, can be used to describe particular work settings. Additionally, we identify four factors which impact organisational policy in terms of virtuality and distributedness: interdependence of tasks, nature of work, technological environment and temporal distance.Practical implications: The framework offers managers a foundation for establishing distributed work policies and determining policy implications. Additionally, researchers conducting empirical investigations of distributed work practices can utilise the framework to differentiate between and describe particular work settings.Originality/value: The conceptual integration of virtuality, distributedness and organisational levels present a novel and important development. As organisations adapt to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the framework we propose serves as a useful artefact to support and inform their decision making.