http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/3114/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/16935/ 2009-11-01T00:00:00Z In this paper we build a multi-theoretical and multi-level framework for analyzing Global Crisis Networks (GCN). These information-centric, heterarchically structured networks are instantiated in response to major disasters with global impact. The instantiation of GCN is conceived as a problem of collective action. Its success depends on multi-level preparedness, and network orchestration and participation. With this framework we analyze the SARS outbreak in 2002 and its successful containment in 2003. We analyze two individual country cases, Canada and China and discuss the role of the network orchestrator, the World Health Organizations. The paper concludes with implications for research and practice. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/16413/ 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z As the humanitarian aid sector is expanding, the need for enhancing coordination capabilities increases as well. This holds especially for the area of logistics, because humanitarian operations typically take place in unstable and risky environments, where infrastructure is poor, while staff turnover is high. The effectiveness of humanitarian logistics critically depends on the availability and quality of logistics support information, but data is often scarce and ICT support to remote areas is limited. The challenges caused by these constraints call for conceptual insight into the intra-organisational coordination process in humanitarian aid. In order to assess current practice of intra-organisational logistics information management for humanitarian aid, we combine humanitarian logistics and organisational literatures to develop a model that ties in information cycles with activity cycles that ultimately should lead to value creation. The model serves as a basis to analyse coordination practice at the Dutch filial of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF-Holland) and develop implications for research and practice. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/13899/ 2008-06-01T00:00:00Z Achieving shared, common, or mutual understandings among geographically dispersed workers is a central concern in the distributed work literature. Nonetheless, little is known yet about the socio-cognitive acts and communication processes involved with synchronizing and cocreating understandings in such settings. Building on a case study of a geographically distributed information systems development project at one of India's largest offshore vendors, we postulate that knowledge and experience asymmetries, and requirements and task characteristics (such as complexity, instability, ambiguity, and novelty) prompt onsite and offshore team members to engage in acts of sensegiving, sensedemanding, and sensebreaking. This allows them to make sense of their tasks and their environment, and it increases the likelihood that congruent and actionable understandings emerge. Furthermore, it assists them in cocreating novel understandings, especially when acts of sensegiving and sensedemanding are complemented with instances of sensebreaking. Our results contribute to the literature by explaining how distributed team members mitigate problems of understanding, transfer preexisting understandings, and cocreate novel understandings. Acts of sensegiving, sensedemanding, and sensebreaking allow distributed team members to jointly explore and generate value, thereby amplifying the performance of distributed workers. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/6769/ 2005-07-13T00:00:00Z Research on the relationship between Information Technology (IT) and organizations emphasizes the complexity of adaptation processes and the potential of drifting. Drifting means that an organization encounters unexpected circumstances that show the incompleteness and possible failure of an initial technological design without organizations having yet feasible alternatives. This conceptual and empirical paper investigates the origins and nature of drifting, and strategies for dealing with drift. Three strategies have been proposed to deal with drifting: control, incremental, and drift containment. We explore the third option that seems most realistic and relevant from an organizational point of view. We empirically investigated how drift containment could be accomplished in practice in a multi-site ERP implementation project. Our results suggest three phases of dealing with drift. Organizations must first recognize when drifting occurs. Next, they must develop a dual focus. On one hand, they must differentiate between a project’s overarching objectives (which remain relatively stable). On the other hand, they attend to and resolve their operational drifting experience. The dual focus thus means that while organizations stay focused on their objectives, they address the causes of drifting. During the final phase, lessons learnt during drifting resolution must be shared and applied to accelerate accomplishment of project objectives. Implications for research and practice are elaborated. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/1612/ 2004-09-17T00:00:00Z The rise of new ways of working through the use of information and communication technology brings about new phenomena that are powerful in the effects that they have on people. The potency of phenomenology lies in its philosophical simplicity and it provides the researcher with the ability to study the essence of an observable but scarcely understood phenomena: How do people perform effectively and efficiently in a geographically and temporally dispersed work environment? Collective action across multiple time zones continues to challenge both academics and practioners. This study provides a unique view of how globally dispersed participants achieve collective action. It throws light into how the creation of shared understanding is tempered by differences in time zones and how participants adapt through their choice of media, work practices and communication. Following an analysis of a case studied using phenomenology, this paper concludes with a model of adaptation in polycontextual work environments. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/1446/ 2004-08-06T00:00:00Z As multi-national firms and major offshore outsourcing companies develop experience with global work, their globally distributed teams face the challenge of collaborating intensely without the common interaction advantages associated with collocated work. This chapter analyzes the sources of intense collaboration. It then introduces strategies that organizations have developed to reduce the intensity of collaboration (sequentializing work, using mediating artifacts, modularity), or to enable intense teamwork (real time contact, boundary spanners). Strategy properties and deployment opportunities and constraints are indicated in order to equip managers and researchers with a framework for handling or analyzing globally distributed teamwork. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/360/ 2002-10-10T00:00:00Z Recently, software development and implementation projects have globalized at a rapid pace. Companies in North America, Europe, and the Far East are beginning to integrate international Information Technology (IT) resources to support operations across the globe. Offshore IT services have become a prevalent strategy to tap into emerging resource bases of countries like India, Phillipines, Eastern Europe. However, global distributedness has introduced a number of gaps: Distance, time zone difference, socio-cultural diversity, differences of infrastructure, and governance differences. These gaps create challenges for the way software projects are coordinated and controlled. This research investigates the impact of gaps on coordination and control modes. It develops these ideas through an extensive theoretical basis and two qualitative case studies to further our understanding of globally distributed software projects, and extend our capability to manage these.