Preface

While the pace of globalization and globally distributed work is intensifying, there appears to be a mixed reaction to whether global work really pays off. This reaction led us to a question as to whether globally distributed work is a business necessity and what is going to be its influence on the future of business competitiveness. The papers included in these Proceedings and presented at the Second International Conference on Management of Globally Distributed Work (2007) address this theme from a multi-disciplinary perspective.  They capture state-of-the-art thinking and state-of-the-practice in the context of globally distributed work and business competitiveness. These Proceedings include both theoretical and empirical work, case studies of success and failure and contributions from scholars and practitioners from around the world.

A perusal of the papers included in these Proceedings will show that we have received numerous responses to the questions raised in our original call for papers.  Indeed program contributors show that the last two decades have witnessed a significant dispersion of knowledge work across the globe, establishing globalization as an irreversible business trend. Overcoming the problems of distance, time and culture, modern firms today are relentlessly capitalizing on global work in their quest for attaining superior business value. Undoubtedly, as the business trends clearly suggest, globally distributed work has emerged as a business necessity for today’s firms. While the phenomenon of globally distributed work has been a subject of attention for both the scholars and the business community for some time now, there is much to be understood in terms of understanding the phenomenon and its various nuances from a multi-dimensional perspective.

Globally Distributed Work (GDW) is an exciting emerging area of modern business practice addressing management of work distributed geographically across nations, economies, and cultures. The concept of GDW includes globally distributed knowledge work, including offshore and near-shore R&D and IT Services, global software development, business process and knowledge process outsourcing, and global supply and demand chains. It includes both outsourced work as well as work distributed to and conducted at MNC-owned or partnered companies and work-units at various sites around the globe.

As a concept-rich and potentially rewarding domain for empirical research and theory building, management of Globally Distributed Work is attracting increasing academic attention. However given the complexities of researching this topic, there is a need to bring together researchers and practitioners from diverse domains of interest to help develop frameworks for analysis, get into the heart of globally distributed work, and document theories and practices that have the potential to advance the management of GDW.

Following on the first international conference that was held in Bangalore in December 2005, the objective of the Second International Conference on Management of Globally Distributed Work is to provide an international forum for discussing various aspects related to GDW, and stimulate and bring together a multi-disciplinary community of researchers and practitioners in the topic of GDW. In keeping with the theme of the conference, papers and panels that link globally distributed work to business competitiveness – both positively and negatively – were particularly encouraged.  We sought papers from a variety of themes including:

• Strategic and transformational drivers for global distribution of work

• Models and patterns for global work distribution and organization

• Governance structures for managing globally distributed work

• Coordination and control of globally distributed work

• Enabling processes, structures, and technologies for globally distributed work

• Knowledge transfer and sharing across globally distributed work sites

• Knowledge creation and integration across globally distributed work sites

• Metrics for assessing the success of globally distributed work

• Role and importance of standardization in GDW

• Virtual and multi-cultural teams in globally distributed work sites

• ICT infrastructure support for conducting globally distributed work

• Issue of cultural differences in global work

• Human resource management challenges in GDW

• Managing risk in globally distributed work

• Theoretical, ideological, and social perspectives on globally distributed work

• Methodological perspectives on study of globally distributed work

• Regulatory and legal issues (including intellectual property related issues) in globally distributed work

• Impact of global work on local societies and economies

• Relationship between globally distributed work and geo-politics

We are pleased to have accomplished our goal of bringing together a multi-disciplinary community of researchers and practitioners from around the world to share their research and thinking on globally distributed work. These Proceedings include contributions from a variety of academic disciplines and from practitioners.  The papers included look at “micro” issues such as cross-cultural and communication dynamics, “macro’ issues including the roles of government policy and industry level influences, and “bridge” issues like innovation and knowledge management. They also explore globally distributed work from human resource management, information technology and strategic management perspectives among others.  Importantly, some paper challenge conventional wisdom by, for example, questioning the “flat world” theme that is so prevalent in the popular press and commonly associated with globally distributed work.  We believe that these papers make important and fairly comprehensive contributions to our collective understanding of the globally distributed work phenomenon and related nuances.

Conference program development is never an easy undertaking.  The program captured in these Proceedings was done by a globally distributed work team that included one program co-chair in Bangalore, India; one in Miami, Florida and one in Cave Creek, Arizona plus a program committee and reviewers from a dozen additional countries. We experienced the benefits and the difficulties of making the globally distributed work process work first hand!  Many people were involved in the creation of the program.  We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the program committee, all of the reviewers who responded to our request for a quick turn around, and our assistants for their contributions to this program.

Deependra Moitra, Bangalore, India

Mary Teagarden, Cave Creek, Arizona

Mary Ann Von Glinow, Miami, Florida