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| Almaden Institute |
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The Geopolitics of Shared Cognition in Globally Distributed Teams |
Abstract:
The globally distributed team is a relatively new organizational form
that reflects the increasingly important role of knowledge in the global
economy, and the need for firms to access knowledge wherever it is located.
Such teams bring together diverse individuals around a common goal related
to the creation and/or execution of a firm's global strategy. An assumption
underlying the formation of a global team is that members will share and
integrate localized knowledge to create a higher order global understanding,
and apply this new knowledge to support a firm's performance objectives.
This assumption has been challenged by empirical research over the past
decade, which indicates that global distribution does not provide optimal
conditions for knowledge acquisition. Unshared contexts, cultural differences
in work-related practices and meanings, and computer-mediated communication
each create challenges to the sharing of tacit and explicit knowledge.
One additional factor that may uniquely affect globally distributed teams
but has not received much attention in the literature is the geographic
distribution pattern of people and resources on the ground, especially
the way in which these are clustered or dispersed in relation to other
firm assets. An ethnographic study of five globally distributed teams
in large corporations suggests that patterns of geographic distribution
influence the process by which team members construct a shared understanding
of the nature of their task and agreement on means to achieve it. Distribution
patterns also may mediate the relation of shared cognition and performance
through their influence on variables such as task interdependence and
uncertainty, and political relations within and beyond the team. This
paper reports on data emerging from the NSF-sponsored study, including
an examination of the role of information technology in supporting the
knowledge acquisition process in differently-distributed teams. Implications
for organizational theory and practice also are explored.
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 Presentation [8.9Mb] |
Biography
Marietta L. Baba is dean of the College of Social Science and professor of anthropology
at Michigan State University. She also holds an appointment as adjunct professor
in the department of management at the Eli Broad College of Business. Previously,
Baba was professor and chair of the department of anthropology and founding director
of the business and industrial anthropology program at Wayne State University
in Detroit, MI. From 1994-1996, she was program director of the National Science
Foundation's industry-funded research program entitled "Transformations to
Quality Organizations."
Baba is the author of 70 scholarly and technical publications in the fields
of organizational culture, technological change and evolutionary processes.
In 1998, she was appointed to serve on Motorola's global advisory board of anthropologists,
the first of its kind in the United States. Baba was a founding member and past
president of the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology (NAPA,
1986-1988), a section of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). She
served on the executive committee and board of directors of the AAA from 1986
until 1988. In addition, she was appointed advisory editor for organizational
anthropology for American Anthropologist (1990-1993).
Baba holds an MBA (with highest distinction) from the advanced management program
at Michigan State University's Eli Broad Graduate School of Management, and
a Ph.D. in physical anthropology from Wayne State University (doctoral research
conducted in the school of medicine). She is listed in Who's Who in America
(1992-present).
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