Exploring the communication breakdown in global virtual teams

Virtual matrix-managed teams with geographically dispersed members are becoming increasingly common in the high-tech sector. These teams, referred to as global virtual teams (GVTs), are generally described as culturally diverse, geographically dispersed, electronically-communicating workgroups. They rapidly form, change, and dissolve due to dynamic changes in the market. In addition, most GVTs today have team members spread among several projects with competing priorities. Communication breakdown can wreak havoc on a project as team members struggle to effectively communicate and work with one another. As a result, project delivery risks with distributed teams tend to be greater when compared to co-located teams. To address this critical issue, this study investigates the types of factors that significantly contribute to communication breakdown by identifying five distinct areas through a series of interviews with project team members in high-tech companies. These areas are trust, interpersonal relations, cultural differences, leadership and technology. These criteria are analyzed using mathematical Decision Models taking expert opinions from professionals who worked in GVTs.     

Supporting collaborative field operations with personal information processing systems

This paper describes a twoyear research project to develop a personal information processing system (PIPS) solution for the roving industrial field operator. Our PIPS system comprises (1) an RF network to deliver wireless digital information, (2) a wearable computer for delivering webbased information (the hardware is a twopiece system composed of a beltworn NetPC attached via a curly cable to a handheld unit with a mouse/display device combination), and (3) software applications that provide added value in the field. Unique challenges in designing such a system for this environment include providing: (1) good RF coverage in an environment with many metal structures; (2) an intrinsically safe, lightweight, lowcost hardware system; and (3) software that is compatible with the wearable system and supports collaboration in the field.