New Ways of Working Network

Our next research and symposium topic (February 2011) is The Measurement of Work and Work Performance. This is a difficult topic. It has been mired in misconceptions, misunderstandings and a plethora of seemingly contradictory definitions and approaches. We will not delude ourselves into believing that we will clear this all up in a research paper and symposium, but our hope is to at least get a clear understanding of different approaches to measuring work and work performance.

To prepare, we have three questions:

1. What expert would you recommend to write an 10 page overview paper on the topic. The paper should summarize the recent rigorously researched papers on the topic, the range of approaches for measuring work and work performance, put them into a typology, compare them, and recommend topics for further research. Typically, we will negotiate a fee for this work.

2. Would you be interested in presenting a paper on the topic? We plan to have two to three New WOW members present their thoughts.

3. Would you be interested in serving on the Research Advisory team? This team will teleconference three times prior to the next symposium to guide and review drafts of the research paper.

We look forward to your suggestions.

Based on the best match for your date preferences, our winter 2010 symposium will be held February 15th through 18th in Santa Clara, California. Thanks to the gracious hospitality of Ann Zis and Applied Materials, the symposium will be held at their Santa Clara Site.

The theme will be Work 2020, an exploration of what work, including work practices, technologies and workplaces, will look like in the year 2020. This date was chosen as sufficiently far enough into the future for meaningful changes of the larger context of work, such as higher energy costs, dramatic improvements of computer and communication sciences and technologies (CCST), and shifts in world demographics, to take effect, and yet close enough to be able to reasonably predict their impacts on work. Trends and impacted categories of work will be reviewed during the September 24th Tertulia, and a core team will research and prepare work scenarios in time for review at the symposium.

The Symposium will kick off with a reception on Monday, February 15th at 5:30 pm, followed by dinner. Locations will be announced.

The program will start on Tuesday, February 16th at 8:30 and end with lunch on Thursday, February 18th at Applied Materials.
The Applied Materials site is about 10 minutes from the San Jose Airport and about 30 to 40 minutes from the San Francisco Airport.

We have arranged a group rate at Embassy Suites Santa Clara-Silicon Valley, a hotel close to Applied Materials. The special room rate will be available until January 31st or until the group block is sold-out, whichever comes first. Use this link to make your reservations: http://embassysuites.hilton.com/en/es/groups/personalized/SNCCAES-607-20...

If you cannot make the symposium in person, you will be able to attend virtually using Applied Materials’ WebEx service.

We look forward to seeing you all in sunny California.

Jim, Joe and the New WOW team

Prof. Pamela Hinds to Research Impact of Culture on Best Practices for Distributed Work Groups
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We are delighted to announce that Professor Pamela Hinds of Stanford University has agreed to prepare a research paper on the Cultural Impacts on Distributed Work Practices for our next Symposium.

At our last Symposium, Eric Richert, a former Vice President of iWork at Sun Microsystems and a nationally recognized authority on distributed work, prepared a paper describing the best practices for working in distributed groups. This led to a considerable discussion on whether culture would affect perception and acceptance of these work practices, and by implication, whether different work practices would be needed when teams included people from different cultures. Two kinds of culture were identified: (1) national/ethnic culture; and (2) generational differences.

Pamela Hind’s research will provide a more systematic basis for discussion of this topic, and her current thoughts of the main points are:


1. The motivation for considering culture in distributed work (very brief since this audience probably doesn't need convincing)
2. A definition of culture and some of the challenges in conceptualizing it
3. An overview of some of the challenges (and sources of those challenges) in intercultural (distributed) collaboration

4. A discussion of the relationship between culture and work practices generally, and then more specifically with regard to the best practices highlighted by Eric (and others that we've seen in our research). This section would focus on how to think about the selection of best practices for global work, issues of standardization, adaptation, and "third culture.”

Dr. Hinds is Associate Professor with the Center on Work, Technology, & Organization in the Department of Management Science & Engineering at Stanford. She studies the effect of technology on groups and has conducted extensive research on the dynamics of geographically distributed work teams, particularly those spanning national boundaries. With Sara Kiesler, she co-edited the book Distributed Work (MIT Press).

The event will begin with a reception and dinner on Sunday evening, July 13 and end Wednesday afternoon, July 16. Dr. Hinds will present her paper on Monday morning followed by panels through Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday’s discussion will revolve about other activities and projects of the New Ways of Working Network.

The Symposium will be held at the Dolce Hayes Mansion in San Jose, CA.