Abstract
Corporate mergers, global markets, reduced willingness to relocate, and the increased need to reorganize and respond dynamically — we are entering an era of distributed organizations and groups. New technologies are needed that enable distributed teams to work as though virtually collocated. This case study examines how one such technology, desktop conferencing with application sharing, is used routinely by four groups within a major company. We discuss differing and evolving patterns of use. A range of difficulties arising from impoverished communication are documented. Success factors are identified, focusing on the use of technology facilitation and meeting facilitation. We conclude by describing benefits possible with this merger of communication and application sharing, as well as the challenges of organizational change that may be needed to achieve the benefits.
D to main site: Does anyone in this room understand what he’s saying? Remote site: I do D: You’re not in this room Remote site: I’m in the global room
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Ackerman, M. S., Hindus, D., Mainwaring, S. D., and Starr, B. (1997): “Hanging on the ‘wire: A field study of an audio-only media space”, ACM Trans. on Computer-Human Interaction, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 39–66.
DeSanctis, G. and Poole, M.S. (1997): “Transitions in teamwork in new organizational forms”, Advances in Group Processes, 14, Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, Inc, pp. 157–176.
Handy, C. (1995): “Trust and the virtual organization”, Harvard Business Review, vol. 73, no. 3, pp. 40–50.
Isaacs, E.A., Morris, T., Rodriguez, T.K. and Tang, J.C. (1995): “A comparison of face-to-face and distributed presentations”, Proceedings CHI’95, Denver, ACM Press, pp. 354–361.
Jarvenpaa, S. L. and Leidner, D. E. (1998): “Communication and trust in global virtual teams”, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 3, no. 4, http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/.
McGrath, J. E. (1984): Groups: Interaction and Performance, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
Minneman, S. L. and Bly, S. A. (1991): “Managing à trois: a study of a multi-user drawing tool in distributed design work”, Proceedings CHI’91, New Orleans, ACM Press, pp. 217–224.
Orlikowski, W. (1992): “Learning from Notes: Organizational issues in groupware implementation”, Proceedings CSCW’92, Toronto, ACM Press, pp. 362–369.
Robinson, M. (1991): “Double level languages and co-operative working”. AI & Society, vol. 5, pp. 34–60.
Schein, E. H. (1990): Organizational Culture and Leadership, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Short, J., Williams, E. and Christie, B. (1976): The Social Psychology of Telecommunications, London: John Wiley & Sons.
Sproull, L. and Kiesler, S. (1991): Connections: New Ways of Working in the Networked Organization. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Stefik, M., Foster, G., Bobrow, D., Kahn, K., Lanning, S., Suchman, L. (1987): “Beyond the Chalkboard: Computer Support for Collaboration and Problem Solving in Meetings”, Communications of the ACM, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 32–47.
Whittaker, S., Swanson, J., Kucan, J., and Sidner, C. (1997): “TeleNotes: Managing lightweight interactions in the desktop”, ACM Trans. on Computer-Human Interaction, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 137–168.
Whittaker, S., Geelhoed, E. and Robinson, E. (1993): “Shared workspaces: how do they work and when are they useful?”, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, vol. 39, pp. 813–842.
Wiesenfeld, B. M., Raghuram, S. and Garud, R. (1998): “Communication patterns as determinants of organizational identification in a virtual organization”, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 3, no. 4, http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/.
Zack, M. H. (1993): “Interactivity and communication mode choice in ongoing management groups”, Information Systems Research, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 207–239.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mark, G., Grudin, J., Poltrock, S.E. (1999). Meeting at the Desktop: An Empirical Study of Virtually Collocated Teams. In: Bødker, S., Kyng, M., Schmidt, K. (eds) ECSCW ’99. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4441-4_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4441-4_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-5948-7
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-4441-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive