Leveraging ICT for Collaborative Decision Making in Global Customer Support

Advances in technology have allowed organizations to expand beyond traditional walls of a centralized office. Dispersed locations allow organizations to reduce cost, hire employees where expertise exists, and conduct operations world-wide 24 hours a day 7 days a week. One challenge facing organizations with a dispersed workforce is how knowledge is shared and subsequently applied to decision-making. This paper focuses on how information and communication technology (ICT) facilitates collaborative decision-making among dispersed employees in a customer support organization. While the research is in progress, we propose a model concentrating on social and technical factors that affect ICT usage and in turn affect collaborative decision-making efficiency and decision effectiveness. Results of this research will contribute important findings regarding collaborative decision-making applicable for both practitioners and researchers.