The Handbook of Global Outsourcing and Offshoring by Ilan Oshri

Author:Ilan Oshri
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2009-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

These coordination practices will help remote teams to avoid the pitfalls often associated with distributed work. However, agreeing on communication styles and setting up communication protocols is another important area in the management of globally distributed team. The following section will focus on this aspect.

Communication practices

There has been extensive research on the communication patterns that could either positively or negatively affect collaboration between remote counterparts. In this section, we summarize the results of this research by mainly focusing on the practices that can lead to successful collaboration between globally distributed teams, in particular:

Scheduling systematic phone-/video-conference meetings between remote counterparts, including managers and team members.

Establishing communication protocols that cover the ground rules and expectations concerning communications. In our research, we have observed that SAP held team-building meetings between German and Indian counterparts during which part of the discussions were dedicated to the remote teams agreeing and accepting certain communication protocols.

Providing appropriate training and access to collaborative tools and communication technologies.

Being clear and patient in communications, as counterparts might not be able to comprehend and communicate in English.

Investing in language and cultural training. For example, LeCroy, the New York-based firm, has invested in language training of their Geneva-based engineers (Kotlarsky and Oshri, 2005).

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