Reminder: Fellow nominations due July 10
If you have a candidate in mind for NewWOW's honorary membership, please get the details to Jim Creighton (jim.creighton@newwow.net) and Joe Ouye (joe.ouye@newwow.net) by Friday, July 10. Candidates should have an exceptional background in the field and be able to provide value to our organization.
This week's featured study: Dispersed teams can actually outperform collocated groups
A new study from WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management in Vallendar, Germany investigated the effect of distance and management practices on team performance. The researchers described their study in the MIT Sloan Management Review. They investigated two main questions: 1) When do virtual teams outperform collocated ones? and 2) How should companies manage dispersed teams?
Studying 80 software development teams working in 28 labs across the globe, the researchers found that, with the appropriate processes in place, dispersed teams can significantly outperform their collocated counterparts. "The overall effect of dispersion (people working at different sites) is not necessarily detrimental but rather depends on a team's task-related processes, including those that help coordinate work and ensure that each member is contributing fully." Processes that improved team performance included those that increased mutual support, member effort, work coordination, balance of member contributions and task-related communications. The report also included several good practices uncovered by the researchers. Check out our summary at: http://www.newwow.net/members/node/20#comment-863
From our members:
- Paul Heath sent us a copy of the latest Herman Trend Alert, which summarized the Cisco study (reported in our July 26 newsletter) and noted, "Telecommuting is a logical, stress-reducing, productivity-gaining alternative to burning fossil fuels to travel to a congregate workspace." We also summarize two other stories citing Cisco's research at:
http://www.newwow.net/members/node/615#comment-859
Kate North shares her photo album of NewWOWers at the Chicago symposium. Ever wonder what attendees do after hours? http://www.newwow.net/members/node/1188#comment-861
David Coleman alerted us to a survey that concluded distance in the workplace does more harm than good. Working remotely can damage morale and productivity, lead to passive coping strategies or "verbal violence," and cause "243 percent more problems." http://www.newwow.net/members/node/615#comment-862
More news this week:
- Defense bill calls for telework center pilot
The latest US Defense authorization bill (H.R. 2647) contains a provision to set up two secure telework sites where federal employees could access classified networks.
http://www.newwow.net/members/node/615#comment-858
- Fed agencies unprepared for pandemic
A new U.S. Government Accountability Office report reveals that many federal agencies are unprepared to cope with a pandemic flu outbreak. Nineteen of the 24 agencies surveyed identified mission-critical tasks that could not be performed by teleworking in the event of a pandemic. http://www.newwow.net/members/node/75#comment-860
NetWORK News is made available to the members of the New Ways of Working and to interested non-members. If you are interested in membership and full access to all of New WOW resources and services, please contact Jim Creighton at jim.creighton@newwow.net
