Studying Teamwork in Global IT Support
نویسندگان
چکیده
As modern organizations increasingly operate in a global economy, they need IT support around the globe; favorable economic conditions also encourage the use of offshore IT teams. However, when IT efforts "go global," issues and challenges typical of IT development and support are magnified. In this paper, we review and integrate three research areas that contribute to our understanding and management of global IT support teams: studies of global teamwork practices, small group dynamics theory, and studies of virtual teams. We review key findings from these areas and discuss a case example of global IT support to illustrate the insights possible through these research perspectives. We conclude by outlining an agenda for future research on teamwork in global IT support. 1. Overview and motivation The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) [37] in their World Investment Report 2000 reported that international production by transnational corporations (TNCs), now numbering 63,000 parent firms with about 690,000 foreign affiliates, spans virtually all countries and economic activities. In this global economy, effective use of information technologies (IT) is essential to the operation of modern business organizations. Information technologies enable business managers to redesign core business processes, products, or services and provide necessary information for decision-making [31]. King and Sethi [21] suggest that IT is fundamental to effective global operations in two primary ways: providing a coordination mechanism for geographically dispersed activities, and facilitating the reshaping of the separate organizations into global cooperatives. For example, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software make it possible to operate a multinational firm as a unified enterprise with global product and service sourcing, rather than a loose network of international subsidiaries serving local markets. S fi tw im te an o im st re cr in ho ca ce IT th th st co 8 d b to th
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