Call for Papers: HICSS Minitrack on Global Virtual Teams

Reminder 15 June Submission Deadline: Call for Papers (CFP) for the Minitrack on Global Virtual Teams at the 44th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) - 4-7 January Kauai, Hawaii

Call for Papers: HICSS 2011

Minitrack on Global Virtual Teams

Forty-Fourth Annual Hawai’i International Conference on System Sciences

Part of the Collaboration Systems and Technology Track
January 4-7, 2011
The Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa, Kauai, Hawai’i

Today, business processes and technology projects are commonly executed by geographically dispersed virtual teams. Team members may belong to different companies and different cultures and commonly do not speak English as their first language. These differences present unique opportunities for management and leadership. This mini-track invites papers that offer insights into the successful operation of global virtual teams.

Session topics include but are not limited to:

• Temporal separation and its effects on collaboration
• Cultural differences in perception of time
• Conflict resolution across cultures
• Project management styles and differences across cultures
• Differences in (English) language understanding and its effects on collaboration
• Power distance and its effects on collaboration
• Uncertainty (risk) avoidance and its effects on collaboration
• Collaboration and communication tools
• Differences between academic and non-academic virtual
• Global virtual team case studies

This mini-track is expected to draw significant attention from academics and practitioners because of its relevance to management of global virtual teams.

The topic of global virtual teams has routinely been included in mini-track sessions at major conferences in the past few years including HICSS, ICIS, AMCIS, ICGSE, ICSE, RE, and DSI. In addition, several studies of global virtual teams have been reported in publications such as Communications of the ACM, MIS Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, and Journal of Computer Information Systems.

Mini-track chairs

Michael J. Hine (Primary contact)
Associate Professor of Information Systems
Sprott School of Business
Carleton University
1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, ON, Canada
K1S 5B6
Tel. +1.613.520.2600 x3664
Fax +1.613.520.4427
Email mhine@sprott.carleton.ca

Bio-sketch: Mike is an Associate Professor of Information Systems in the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University located in beautiful Ottawa, Canada. His research interests include computer mediated communication, health informatics, information technology service management and DSS for social policy. He has published in such journals as Journal of Management Information Systems, Communications of the ACM, Data Base, Group Decision and Negotiation, Electronic Markets, Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations among others. Prior to joining the Sprott School of Business Mike worked for many years as part of a small global virtual team that developed software to help people with disabilities make work transition decisions.

Frederick Zarndt
Global Connexions
230 C Ave
Coronado CA 92118
USA
Tel. +1.801.361.3204
Fax +1.360.361.3204
Skype frederickzarndt
Email frederick.zarndt@global-connexions.com

Bio-sketch: Frederick has lived and worked in the USA, Germany, Switzerland, Libya, Argentina, India, and Israel and visited many, many other countries for business and pleasure. Both as an individual contributor and as a manager, he has more than 25 years experience in software development at companies ranging from Seismograph Service Corporation in Libya, to Siemens-Albis in Switzerland, to Novell in the USA, to an internet startup in Utah USA, and to Planman Consulting, an Indian outsourcing firm. Frederick served as Business Director and on the Board of Directors of a private, non-profit educational corporation specializing in individualized curriculum and instruction for kindergarten, elementary, and secondary students for 10 years. He holds Master of Science degrees in Computer Science and Physics.

Derrick L. Cogburn
Associate Professor of International Communication
School of International Service/ American University
Associate Professor of Information
School of Information Studies/ Syracuse University
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20016
Tel. +1.202.885.2400
Fax +1.202.885.2494
Email dcogburn@american.edu

Bio-sketch: Derrick Cogburn is Associate Professor of International Communication at the School of International Service at American University and Associate Professor of Information at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. He directs the award-winning Center for Research on Collaboratories and Technology Enhanced Learning Communities (Cotelco), a joint research center between AU and SU. Cotelco is an affiliated center of the Burton Blatt Institute, Centers of Innovation on Disability. His research investigates the social and technical factors that influence geographically distributed collaborative knowledge work, and on cross-cultural collaboration in global virtual teams in such journals as Interactions, Information Technology and International Development, IEEE Communications, Assistive Technology, Telecommunications Policy, and Network Computing. Cogburn is the immediate past president of the Information Technology and Politics section of APSA, and president of the International Communication section of the ISA.

IMPORTANT DEADLINES

From now to June 1: If you wish, you may prepare an abstract and contact the minitrack chairs for guidance and indication of appropriate content.

June 15: Authors submit full papers by this date, following the Author Instructions. Please consult the HICSS website for complete information All papers will be submitted in double column publication format and limited to 10 pages including diagrams and references. HICSS papers undergo a double-blind review (June15 - August15).

August 15: Acceptance notices are sent to Authors. At this time, at least one author of an accepted paper should begin visa, fiscal and travel arrangements to attend the conference to present the paper.

September 15: Authors submit Final Version of papers following submission instructions posted on the HICSS web site. At least one author of each paper must register by this date with specific plans to attend the conference.

October 15: Papers without at least one registered author will be pulled from the publication process; authors will be notified.

Additional details may be found on the HICSS website.

There is also considerable interest in this topic elsewhere. A short list of interest in this area follows:

1. A recent survey of 752 IEEE members conducted by IEEE Spectrum and The New York Times discovered that "just 9 percent of 133 respondents whose organizations currently offshore R&D reported 'No problem'. The biggest headache was 'Language, communication, or culture' barriers, as reported by 54.1 percent of respondents." (http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/feb07/4881)

2. In a March 2007 web poll conducted by the Computing Technology Industry Association "nearly 28 percent of the more than 1,000 respondents singled out poor communications as the number one cause of project failure". (http://www.comptia.org/pressroom/get_pr.aspx?prid=1227)

3. Nilay Oza et. al. in their study Critical Factors in Software Outsourcing: A Pilot Study of top Indian outsourcing firms named cultural differences and language as the 2 most difficult among the 5 difficulty factors identified in outsourcing relationships.

4. In their 2006 study presented at the International Conference on Software Engineering Critical factors in establishing and maintaining trust in software outsourcing relationships, Nguyen, Babar, and Verneridentified communication and cultural understanding as the 2 factors most critical to maintaining trust relationships.

5. Huang and Trauth identified three themes as major cross-cultural challenges: "...the complexity of language issues in global virtual work, culture and communication styles and work behaviors, and cultural understandings at different levels." (Cultural influences and globally distributed information systems development: Experiences from chinese IT professionals)

6. Thomas and Inkson report in “Cultural Intelligence: Living and Working Globally” (2nd edition 2009) that “Even when people come from the same culture, interpersonal skills are often poor, and this weakness is costly to business. Where interpersonal interaction is taking place across national boundaries, the potential for misunderstanding and failure is compounded.”
In addition, one of the mini-track co-chairs, Frederick Zarndt, has presented a workshop titled “What Did You Say? Intercultural Expectations, Misunderstandings, and Communications” to organizations in Singapore, India, Germany, and the USA and at the 2007 and 2009 ICGSE International Conferences on Global Software Engineering, the 2008 IFLA General Conference in Quebec, the CIRCUS Workshop held in conjunction with the 2009 RE Requirements Engineering Conference in Atlanta, and HICSS 2010.