A systems engineering approach to managing communication in globally dispersed teams

Abstract

Globalization has caused firms to redefine regional strategies for distributed design and manufacturing into one of worldwide coordination and integration of resources in order to compete in the world market. This need to address customers and markets worldwide and to achieve a customer focus has led to restructuring of the organization, functions, activities and teams into globally dispersed entities. Globally dispersed teams are attractive because they promise benefits such as increased flexibility, responsiveness and lower costs factors critical to succeeding in this dynamic business environment. The major challenge facing product development and manufacturing organizations is to achieve high performing teams so that all the mentioned benefits can be realized. Globally dispersed teams not only face the challenges of traditional teams; their situation is usually further aggravated by a lack of personal contact, culture and language differences as a result of dispersion in space and time. These factors make communication both within and outside the team boundaries difficult and can negatively impact team performance. This thesis proposes that communication technology and multi-media capabilities can greatly enhance communication and organizational learning in the context of a globally dispersed team. Understanding which technologies and media solutions to apply in the face of culture, language and distance barriers in order to provide the most effective knowledge-sharing environment to support such a team is critical. By studying and analyzing the communication needs and media choices of dispersed product development teams and the impact of culture, language and distance differences on needs and choices, a method is proposed to design a communication environment and management strategies that reduce the effect of barriers and improve communications in globally dispersed teams.