Literature review is like gold-panning: before you will find any fresh idea (gold) - you have to read through volumes of general knowledge (gravel). Again and again...
Would be nice to find software that can filter it out for me! :-)
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Research....
Research is 95% procrastination and 5% of rephrasing previous work! Truly original thought! :-)
Testing a new strategy...
It is extremely difficult to write and reference in the same time, because my mind either keeps the fluency of the thought, either starts narrating who said what.
So I've invented a new way: I've read a lot and probably there is very little of my orinigal thinking left in my head, so I just write on the topic, being sure that there was definitely somebody who said so :-) Tomorrow I'm going to go through all the articles again and attach authors to the thoughts expressed. If there will be a single thought originating directly from my mind - I will anyway be surprising as it never happened in my life before! ;-)
So I've invented a new way: I've read a lot and probably there is very little of my orinigal thinking left in my head, so I just write on the topic, being sure that there was definitely somebody who said so :-) Tomorrow I'm going to go through all the articles again and attach authors to the thoughts expressed. If there will be a single thought originating directly from my mind - I will anyway be surprising as it never happened in my life before! ;-)
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Research Purpose And Questions
After a week of hanging around doing nothing in total frustration I gave birth to an awsome Research Purpose formulation (anybody who does not believe in its awsomness - is no longer my friend!!!):
Research Purpose (copywrite T. Loskutova 26 April 2010 - of course - all rights reserved!)
The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of cultures diversity on virtual team work and productivity. Previous research (Hall and Whyte 1960) (Hofstede 1984) (Trompenaars 1996) suggests that the issue of cultural diversity has a significant effect on workspace, negotiation, communication, output quality (Furumo 2005) and general life and work level of satisfaction of team members (Furumo 2005).
Though well-examined and measured for a collocated team the issue of cultural diversity remains under-researched for a virtual team (Chauvet 2009) , which can be due to the novelty and ambiguity of VT definitions and scope (Schultze and Orlikowski 2001).
This is an exploratory research, which will be focused on determining the cultural dimensions (Hofstede 1984) (Trompenaars 1996) and variables perceived as important by the team members. The research will also try to analyse how these factors influence VT work, members’ lifestyle and quality of the outputs. It would be interesting to determine the directions for the future research, but identifying cultural factors and dimensions applicable for a VT environment.
Research Questions
The research will be help using qualitative method and the following questions will establish the direction for the research:
1. What challenges do software professionals face when working in a culturally diverse virtual team?
2. What management behaviour do software professionals expect to help them mitigate the cultural diversity impact on their work?
3. What kinds of relationships are developed between members of a team with different cultural background?
4. What kind of cultural adjustments can be suggested for VT members?
Chauvet, M. (2009) Cultural diversity of distributed teams, Proceedings of the special interest group on management information system's 47th annual conference on Computer personnel research, pp. 221-224, ACM, Limerick, Ireland.
Furumo, K. A. (2005) The impact of personality, task and technology on perceived team interaction and performance in virtual teams. Unpublished Dissertation, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, United States -- Illinois.
Hall, E. T. and Whyte, W. F. (1960) Intercultural Communication: A Guide to Men of Action, International Executive, 2(4), pp. 14-15.
Hofstede, G. (1984) Culture's Consequences, ABRIDGED EDITION ed., SAGE PUBLICATIONS, Newbury Park London New Delhi.
Schultze, U. and Orlikowski, W. J. (2001) Metaphors of virtuality: shaping an emergent reality, Information and Organization, 11(1), pp. 45-77.
Trompenaars, F. (1996) Resolving International Conflict: Culture and Business Strategy, Business Strategy Review, 7(3), p. 51.
Research Purpose (copywrite T. Loskutova 26 April 2010 - of course - all rights reserved!)
The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of cultures diversity on virtual team work and productivity. Previous research (Hall and Whyte 1960) (Hofstede 1984) (Trompenaars 1996) suggests that the issue of cultural diversity has a significant effect on workspace, negotiation, communication, output quality (Furumo 2005) and general life and work level of satisfaction of team members (Furumo 2005).
Though well-examined and measured for a collocated team the issue of cultural diversity remains under-researched for a virtual team (Chauvet 2009) , which can be due to the novelty and ambiguity of VT definitions and scope (Schultze and Orlikowski 2001).
This is an exploratory research, which will be focused on determining the cultural dimensions (Hofstede 1984) (Trompenaars 1996) and variables perceived as important by the team members. The research will also try to analyse how these factors influence VT work, members’ lifestyle and quality of the outputs. It would be interesting to determine the directions for the future research, but identifying cultural factors and dimensions applicable for a VT environment.
Research Questions
The research will be help using qualitative method and the following questions will establish the direction for the research:
1. What challenges do software professionals face when working in a culturally diverse virtual team?
2. What management behaviour do software professionals expect to help them mitigate the cultural diversity impact on their work?
3. What kinds of relationships are developed between members of a team with different cultural background?
4. What kind of cultural adjustments can be suggested for VT members?
Chauvet, M. (2009) Cultural diversity of distributed teams, Proceedings of the special interest group on management information system's 47th annual conference on Computer personnel research, pp. 221-224, ACM, Limerick, Ireland.
Furumo, K. A. (2005) The impact of personality, task and technology on perceived team interaction and performance in virtual teams. Unpublished Dissertation, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, United States -- Illinois.
Hall, E. T. and Whyte, W. F. (1960) Intercultural Communication: A Guide to Men of Action, International Executive, 2(4), pp. 14-15.
Hofstede, G. (1984) Culture's Consequences, ABRIDGED EDITION ed., SAGE PUBLICATIONS, Newbury Park London New Delhi.
Schultze, U. and Orlikowski, W. J. (2001) Metaphors of virtuality: shaping an emergent reality, Information and Organization, 11(1), pp. 45-77.
Trompenaars, F. (1996) Resolving International Conflict: Culture and Business Strategy, Business Strategy Review, 7(3), p. 51.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Through the maze...
As it was predicted - the further I go, the more i'm getting lost...
Just some of the problems that I'm experiencing:
- I fail to create a support circle as I fail to understand what am I trying to communicate to the others
- The scope is changing - I'm scared of getting too narrow but in the same time - I can't go too wide. The positive moment here - if I want to be able to manage projects - scope change should be easy and comfortable for me
- The research goes through all my life and I do not separate it at all - it connects, glues together, affects my behavior, I learn new things and put them into practice immediately. Good or bad? I don't know - I try, evaluate and move on. When my personal life gets into a corner, my research stops or other way around?
- I feel pretty much like Alice in Wonderland - but I've always felt like this. Or like one of the girls in Gabriel G Marquez's stories. Alice is more positive and disconnected from the reality, structured, cleared. Marquez's women are more real - and all the stories end the same. And all my stories end the same - I wish I can play a different role once in a while - transfer from Maria dos Prazeres into little Alice :-) I think this is what my research is supposed to do - out of all the maze and chaos of the real knowledge extract a young and clear idea, show it to the world and make it attractive
- Eventually I like the idea - through the maze to Irreversible Achievement
Just some of the problems that I'm experiencing:
- I fail to create a support circle as I fail to understand what am I trying to communicate to the others
- The scope is changing - I'm scared of getting too narrow but in the same time - I can't go too wide. The positive moment here - if I want to be able to manage projects - scope change should be easy and comfortable for me
- The research goes through all my life and I do not separate it at all - it connects, glues together, affects my behavior, I learn new things and put them into practice immediately. Good or bad? I don't know - I try, evaluate and move on. When my personal life gets into a corner, my research stops or other way around?
- I feel pretty much like Alice in Wonderland - but I've always felt like this. Or like one of the girls in Gabriel G Marquez's stories. Alice is more positive and disconnected from the reality, structured, cleared. Marquez's women are more real - and all the stories end the same. And all my stories end the same - I wish I can play a different role once in a while - transfer from Maria dos Prazeres into little Alice :-) I think this is what my research is supposed to do - out of all the maze and chaos of the real knowledge extract a young and clear idea, show it to the world and make it attractive
- Eventually I like the idea - through the maze to Irreversible Achievement
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Circles Of Self-Evolution
Hypothese: "Independently of how we go - we eventually arrive to the milestones of our own development"
When I was young - I've read "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins - it certainly shaped my view of the world. I've learned lots of generics and in general wanted to be a genetic engineer, i.e microbiologist. Eventually I've become microelectronics engineer - still asking myself why? Was it the word "micro" in the title? One of the steps in understanding the world? Frankly speaking, I've enjoyed it as physics is my secret love, but eventually I've never used it...
Another step - Richard Dawkins - my colleague was sharing his words and videos and it felt close, true and associable. I went to the website and felt that I found a friend.
Eventually, I found a reference to mr. Dawkins in my research. Well, it's a long and cumbersome way to explain - but what I was trying to say - a human being is a collection of ideas, knowledge and ways of its interpretation. We are bound to find people who think similarly. A bit of scary part - is there a way to truly think out of the box of my own mind? Can I understand the people who are different? Or should I be happy with the ability to accept them?
"We are expected to be different.But we are also expected to respect and accept the others as they are" (1).
1) Hall, E. T. and Whyte, W. F. (1960) Intercultural Communication: A Guide to Men of Action, International Executive, 2(4), pp. 14-15.
When I was young - I've read "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins - it certainly shaped my view of the world. I've learned lots of generics and in general wanted to be a genetic engineer, i.e microbiologist. Eventually I've become microelectronics engineer - still asking myself why? Was it the word "micro" in the title? One of the steps in understanding the world? Frankly speaking, I've enjoyed it as physics is my secret love, but eventually I've never used it...
Another step - Richard Dawkins - my colleague was sharing his words and videos and it felt close, true and associable. I went to the website and felt that I found a friend.
Eventually, I found a reference to mr. Dawkins in my research. Well, it's a long and cumbersome way to explain - but what I was trying to say - a human being is a collection of ideas, knowledge and ways of its interpretation. We are bound to find people who think similarly. A bit of scary part - is there a way to truly think out of the box of my own mind? Can I understand the people who are different? Or should I be happy with the ability to accept them?
"We are expected to be different.But we are also expected to respect and accept the others as they are" (1).
1) Hall, E. T. and Whyte, W. F. (1960) Intercultural Communication: A Guide to Men of Action, International Executive, 2(4), pp. 14-15.
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