New Ways of Working Network

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.