As I'm feeling extremely lost in my journey now, I feel I need to at least find out where am I going. Otherwise I will have to adopt Alice's method of going without turning and seeing where will I get in the end (1).
So, I will write questions here without any special order and then will try to see if it will take me anywhere:
1) How is cultural diversity perceived by VT members? Do they find it as obstacle? benefit? incentive to work in such a team?
2) Can social network help to improve team communication and create a feeling of team identification?
3) The importance of task? Whether task acts as moderator?
BTW - regarding a gap of knowledge: looks like I'm search-challenged - can't find anything about cscw and virtual teams together. But I guess I can always say that I will look into "other" tools, that were not researched yet. Here comes another question:
4) How [insert_name_of_software_tool] can be useful in VT management?
Random concepts that can grow into questions:
- personality traits for VT members? managers?
- crusial toolset for being able to do anything?
- how VT membership affects social life? family life? sports participation? travelling? feeling of financial security? ISOLATION??? (I'm not isolated - I'm surrounded)
- problem solving? Potentially more organizational issues around communication? Right-wrong?
ahhhhh
1) L. Carrol "Alice in Wonderland"
Monday, March 22, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
6 Hat Method
Trying to use 6-Hat Method (1) to solve a problem. Let's put on the 6 hats:
White hat – Facts & Information:
I have a dog Frida, who becomes a disaster and frankly-speaking I can't take care of her. I have 2 cats whom I love and I want them to feel happy and at home, but they are scared of the dog. The dog gets dangerous for them if she does not get enough walks/attention.
Red hat – Feelings & Emotions:
Tired, exhausted, sorry for Frida, sorry for cats - they are not happy together and I'm not happy with them
Black hat – Critical Judgment:
cats are scared
Ginger cant go to the toilet outside
I cant improve my garden
I cant find time to walk with Frida
Frida is niserable to sit locked in the yard
In winter she won't have any place to sleep as she eats blankets
Yellow hat – Positive:
It is nice to walk and run with Frida
It is a new learning experience to raise a dog
Topic to talk with others about
Green hat – New Ideas:
What if I take her to a kennel for a while and see if she feels better there?
What if I look for somebody to look after her?
Blue hat – The Big Picture:
So the strategy would be - talk to more people, phone SPCA and find out their opinion, look at the situation again after a while, in the meantime try to find if anybody can take her at all.
1)de Bono, Edward (1985). Six Thinking Hats: An Essential Approach to Business Management. Little, Brown, & Company. ISBN 0316177911 (hardback) and 0316178314 (paperback).
White hat – Facts & Information:
I have a dog Frida, who becomes a disaster and frankly-speaking I can't take care of her. I have 2 cats whom I love and I want them to feel happy and at home, but they are scared of the dog. The dog gets dangerous for them if she does not get enough walks/attention.
Red hat – Feelings & Emotions:
Tired, exhausted, sorry for Frida, sorry for cats - they are not happy together and I'm not happy with them
Black hat – Critical Judgment:
cats are scared
Ginger cant go to the toilet outside
I cant improve my garden
I cant find time to walk with Frida
Frida is niserable to sit locked in the yard
In winter she won't have any place to sleep as she eats blankets
Yellow hat – Positive:
It is nice to walk and run with Frida
It is a new learning experience to raise a dog
Topic to talk with others about
Green hat – New Ideas:
What if I take her to a kennel for a while and see if she feels better there?
What if I look for somebody to look after her?
Blue hat – The Big Picture:
So the strategy would be - talk to more people, phone SPCA and find out their opinion, look at the situation again after a while, in the meantime try to find if anybody can take her at all.
1)de Bono, Edward (1985). Six Thinking Hats: An Essential Approach to Business Management. Little, Brown, & Company. ISBN 0316177911 (hardback) and 0316178314 (paperback).
Thursday, March 11, 2010
On Truth
Looks like truth depends on context.
When the context change - the other values become valid.
I am the same person, but depending on the context I am different.
When the context change - the other values become valid.
I am the same person, but depending on the context I am different.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Literature Review
If the purpose of the literature review was to make me feel like throwing up when I read again that Virtual Teams are important part of global economy - then the goal is achieved :-)
I'm going to produce another scientific research starting from "Virtual Teams are important part of global economy" :-) Sorry :-)
I'm going to produce another scientific research starting from "Virtual Teams are important part of global economy" :-) Sorry :-)
Friday, March 5, 2010
On Trust
Trust is the base of any team. Without trust any continuous collaboration is impossible (1).
Trust is certainly based on telling truth and keeping promises. But it is much more in fact - there is implicit component: keeping implicit promises. This is difficult for different people, worse for different cultures, and even genders (men from Mars, women from Venus). My thinking is that it involves a lot of patience and readiness to accept different views of responcibilities for each other. Comes to mind another example: parents and children - so close, but always having different expectations of implicit promises. Comes close to the feeling of fairness. Was it fair?
Comes close to positioning of an individual in the society and expectations from others:
I'm beggar - people should give me money. I'm homeless - government should give me a shelter. I'm hardworking - people should respect me and help when I work. I'm rich - people should service me, because I pay. I'm powerful - people should do what I say. This is my father - he will never lie. This is my man - he will protect me. This is my mother - she will be kind and caring. This is my family - they are on my side.
The above are cultural norms and can be slightly or severely different across cultures and generations.
But the most deep part of trust - the person whom I trust won't use my weakness against me. I think this is brilliant - complete trust. This last part is something that is communicated without words and is so basic, that it is actually the foundation of a relationship between people and animals (forget culture). Surprisingly animals get it right much better and are very unlikely to misuse it whereas people actually like to misuse it and use as a weapon.
So here we are - building trust:
- show care
- keep promises
- be reliable
- be attentive to implicit expectations (manage expectations). I would expect that being open about you r own expectations counts as well. Ensure communication.
Ok, I see lots of steps to be taken for myself :-)
1)Jarvenpaa, S. L. and Leidner, D. E. (1999) Communication and Trust in Global Virtual Teams, Organization Science, 10(6), pp. 791-815.
Trust is certainly based on telling truth and keeping promises. But it is much more in fact - there is implicit component: keeping implicit promises. This is difficult for different people, worse for different cultures, and even genders (men from Mars, women from Venus). My thinking is that it involves a lot of patience and readiness to accept different views of responcibilities for each other. Comes to mind another example: parents and children - so close, but always having different expectations of implicit promises. Comes close to the feeling of fairness. Was it fair?
Comes close to positioning of an individual in the society and expectations from others:
I'm beggar - people should give me money. I'm homeless - government should give me a shelter. I'm hardworking - people should respect me and help when I work. I'm rich - people should service me, because I pay. I'm powerful - people should do what I say. This is my father - he will never lie. This is my man - he will protect me. This is my mother - she will be kind and caring. This is my family - they are on my side.
The above are cultural norms and can be slightly or severely different across cultures and generations.
But the most deep part of trust - the person whom I trust won't use my weakness against me. I think this is brilliant - complete trust. This last part is something that is communicated without words and is so basic, that it is actually the foundation of a relationship between people and animals (forget culture). Surprisingly animals get it right much better and are very unlikely to misuse it whereas people actually like to misuse it and use as a weapon.
So here we are - building trust:
- show care
- keep promises
- be reliable
- be attentive to implicit expectations (manage expectations). I would expect that being open about you r own expectations counts as well. Ensure communication.
Ok, I see lots of steps to be taken for myself :-)
1)Jarvenpaa, S. L. and Leidner, D. E. (1999) Communication and Trust in Global Virtual Teams, Organization Science, 10(6), pp. 791-815.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Just could not go pass it: it totally expresses what I was thinking about for a long time:
"When survival is uncertain, cultural diversity
seems threatening. When there isn't
"enough to go around," foreigners are seen
as dangerous outsider who may take away
one's sustenance. People cling to traditional
gender roles and sexual norms, and emphasize
absolute rules and familiar norms in an
attempt to maximize predictability in an uncertain
world. Conversely, when survival begins
to be taken for granted, ethnic and cultural
diversity become increasingly acceptable—
indeed, beyond a certain point, diversity
is not only tolerated, il may be positively
valued because it is interesting and stimulating." ({Inglehart, 2000 #26})
Inglehart, R. and Baker, W. E. (2000) MODERNIZATION, CULTURAL CHANGE, AND THE PERSISTENCE OF TRADITIONAL VALUES, American Sociological Review, 65(1), pp. 19-51.
"When survival is uncertain, cultural diversity
seems threatening. When there isn't
"enough to go around," foreigners are seen
as dangerous outsider who may take away
one's sustenance. People cling to traditional
gender roles and sexual norms, and emphasize
absolute rules and familiar norms in an
attempt to maximize predictability in an uncertain
world. Conversely, when survival begins
to be taken for granted, ethnic and cultural
diversity become increasingly acceptable—
indeed, beyond a certain point, diversity
is not only tolerated, il may be positively
valued because it is interesting and stimulating." ({Inglehart, 2000 #26})
Inglehart, R. and Baker, W. E. (2000) MODERNIZATION, CULTURAL CHANGE, AND THE PERSISTENCE OF TRADITIONAL VALUES, American Sociological Review, 65(1), pp. 19-51.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Case Studies
Reading now about using case studies for teaching purposes. Sounds like a bit of revelation for me. I mean every programmer hears "case study" approximately every day of the life, but it is just a bit of different way of seeing it: teaching method. After all - I'm using it all the time, maybe due to the lack of cultural context, I always try to explain everything using a parable. It is also a matter of politeness for me - I do not want to force my opinion and experience on another person, rather show the way to get to the same conclusions.
Anyway, what I've enjoyed in my reading: suggestion that each teacher should start with animal training, i.e. if the animal does not do the trick, it is not the animal's fault, but the teacher's. In my view, for a teacher it is much more difficult - he/she must be able to take responsibility for the way he/she teaches, in the same time it is important to make the student understand his/her own responsibility for the studies, i.e. using the parable of the animals again - the student gives himself the treat-reward for the success in the studies.
And the last: the quote about case study, which in my view is the quote about the life in general:
"ambiguous evidence, shifting variables, imperfect knowledge, no obvious right answers, and a ticking clock that impatiently demands action"[1] - "alice in Wonderland" isn't it?
1)B.Barnes, "The more I teach, the less I use the chalkboard," Echo, 1997
Anyway, what I've enjoyed in my reading: suggestion that each teacher should start with animal training, i.e. if the animal does not do the trick, it is not the animal's fault, but the teacher's. In my view, for a teacher it is much more difficult - he/she must be able to take responsibility for the way he/she teaches, in the same time it is important to make the student understand his/her own responsibility for the studies, i.e. using the parable of the animals again - the student gives himself the treat-reward for the success in the studies.
And the last: the quote about case study, which in my view is the quote about the life in general:
"ambiguous evidence, shifting variables, imperfect knowledge, no obvious right answers, and a ticking clock that impatiently demands action"[1] - "alice in Wonderland" isn't it?
1)B.Barnes, "The more I teach, the less I use the chalkboard," Echo, 1997
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Luck
I was writing today a wish for a colleague that is leaving for another job and caught myself on the thought that I always wish people good luck. And it made me think: there are people with internal locus of control (ILC) and external locus of control(ELC) as suggested by Rotter. And I would think that I'm definitely a person with internal locus of control, whereas luck is a concept typical for the cultures with the domination of external locus of control. So why such contradiction?
I have a theory: I'm coming from a culture with external locus of control dominance and I have internal domination. Then I moved to the place with the dominance of ILC and I clearly remember the feeling that I belong more to this place, which was further sometimes replaced by the longing for the taking of the world in a more usual for my previous environment way. In the same time I find it very beneficial have a sort of different overview, I think it correlates with the conflict resolution suggestions by Trompenaars(1) where he advise to take the features where one culture excels and manage them on international level (to be fair - he has different suggestion for the reconsilation of ILC and ELC).
Another argument can be that I take luck as: "The more I practice the luckier I get", which is quite internal control view. Probably that's where ILC and ELC meet - my culture tells me that luck is important, but my personality makes it internal
1) Trompenaars, F. (1996) Resolving International Conflict: Culture and Business Strategy, Business Strategy Review, 7(3), p. 51.
I have a theory: I'm coming from a culture with external locus of control dominance and I have internal domination. Then I moved to the place with the dominance of ILC and I clearly remember the feeling that I belong more to this place, which was further sometimes replaced by the longing for the taking of the world in a more usual for my previous environment way. In the same time I find it very beneficial have a sort of different overview, I think it correlates with the conflict resolution suggestions by Trompenaars(1) where he advise to take the features where one culture excels and manage them on international level (to be fair - he has different suggestion for the reconsilation of ILC and ELC).
Another argument can be that I take luck as: "The more I practice the luckier I get", which is quite internal control view. Probably that's where ILC and ELC meet - my culture tells me that luck is important, but my personality makes it internal
1) Trompenaars, F. (1996) Resolving International Conflict: Culture and Business Strategy, Business Strategy Review, 7(3), p. 51.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Sad thoughts
1. I'm incredibly far from being where I'm supposed to be.
2. I took reading wide too seriously - read everything except for what was really relevant to my topic
2. I took reading wide too seriously - read everything except for what was really relevant to my topic
Monday, February 15, 2010
On Selfishness in Business
I've been really inspired today reading Mintzberg's article[1] about selfishness. It seems to me that he raises incredibly important questions about the values in our world. Maybe it will be my first step into understanding the balance of business, money, contribution to society and my own role in this world as a grown-up.
I find that many views are oversimplified by common opinion, which makes most of the views just "uncommon nonsense"[2]. The definitions of a human being as a consumer of goods, a creature with unsatisfied needs was amazingly wittingly mocked in "Monday Begins On Saturday"[3] and is still very vivid in my mind.
I guess over the past year I've lost a lot of important feelings - and it caused me to lose the sense of living itself. My world should be large, otherwise it becomes cheap. I want to be able to give and feel responsibility and know that each day had some value. And I feel that I need to get back my internal integrity, maybe it was good that it was shaken - it should come back stronger.
Individualism is good, but it should be part of the society. Society should have values and protect them. I can't think of myself disconnected from the environment - I am nobody without the people around me and I can't achieve much on my own.
It is important to view the business as part of the contribution into this world - what we create at work is the most part that we can give to the society. Job is not a way to make money, it is a way to contribute something that I can do well, so that others will contribute into my life. I guess it should be a day to day question: does it make sense to do what I do? Should I do it differently? Should I not do it at all? It makes sense to live the life after all :-)
References:
[1] Mintzberg, H., Simons, R. and Basu, K. (2002) Beyond Selfishness, MIT Sloan Management Review, 44(1), pp. 67-74.
[2] L.Carrol "Alice in Wonderland"
[3]STRUGAT︠S︡KIĬ, A. N., & STRUGAT︠S︡KIĬ, B. N. (1978). Monday begins on Saturday. New York, Daw Books.
I find that many views are oversimplified by common opinion, which makes most of the views just "uncommon nonsense"[2]. The definitions of a human being as a consumer of goods, a creature with unsatisfied needs was amazingly wittingly mocked in "Monday Begins On Saturday"[3] and is still very vivid in my mind.
I guess over the past year I've lost a lot of important feelings - and it caused me to lose the sense of living itself. My world should be large, otherwise it becomes cheap. I want to be able to give and feel responsibility and know that each day had some value. And I feel that I need to get back my internal integrity, maybe it was good that it was shaken - it should come back stronger.
Individualism is good, but it should be part of the society. Society should have values and protect them. I can't think of myself disconnected from the environment - I am nobody without the people around me and I can't achieve much on my own.
It is important to view the business as part of the contribution into this world - what we create at work is the most part that we can give to the society. Job is not a way to make money, it is a way to contribute something that I can do well, so that others will contribute into my life. I guess it should be a day to day question: does it make sense to do what I do? Should I do it differently? Should I not do it at all? It makes sense to live the life after all :-)
References:
[1] Mintzberg, H., Simons, R. and Basu, K. (2002) Beyond Selfishness, MIT Sloan Management Review, 44(1), pp. 67-74.
[2] L.Carrol "Alice in Wonderland"
[3]STRUGAT︠S︡KIĬ, A. N., & STRUGAT︠S︡KIĬ, B. N. (1978). Monday begins on Saturday. New York, Daw Books.
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