This research entails: (1) CyberGRID Net - developing a research data collection and analysis tool integrated into an existing global virtual engineering team working environment, and (2) CyberGRID Networks - utilizing that tool to develop fundamental insights into how globally distributed engineering teams enact complex design work together and with affordances in the virtual environment. The CyberGRID Net will be a research tool that augments an existing virtual environment developed by the investigators for global design work. It will extend current pedagogical tool functionality with the following research-oriented features: (1) the existing TeamWall model-sharing display will detect and track locations of object referencing actions (e.g., pointing to a feature in a design) and functionality will be added for participants to self-indicate when phenomena of research interest occur, (2) virtual environment recordings will be time-stamped when researcher-specified interactions take place, (3) avatar-avatar and avatar-object interactions will be detected along with metadata about the interaction, and (4) functionality will be added for collaborative discussion, data analysis and annotation across a global virtual research team.
In a series of experiments, the CyberGRID Net research infrastructure will be used to engage critical organizational research questions: How are Building Information Models (BIM) in the virtual environment used as a boundary objects to resolve conflicts in the knowledge system of global virtual engineering teams? How do conflicts emerge in avatar-avatar interactions? How are conflicting obligations resolved in virtual teams by emergent virtual team leaders? How are boundary objects used in a cross-cultural context? How do leadership styles and community of practice formation vary when team members come from different countries representing different cultures and standards of practice? These questions will be explored in three separate experiments employing a multi-method approach which includes ethnographic observation, social and interaction network analyses, and user reflection. They will involve international activities and will include graduate engineering students in the U.S., India and Finland, as well as industrial participants utilizing the CyberGRID in an industrial test case.
This research will utilize computational thinking to develop a new research tool to transform the way global virtual teams are researched, and to link avatar-object interactions into network analyses to transform approaches to modeling knowledge systems in global virtual teams. The CyberGRID Net tool will be used in experiments to expand knowledge system dynamics theory as well as theories of virtual team network formation and leadership. This research may lead to fundamental transformations in design pedagogy which, in turn, can provide new exciting engineering career paths. The research may also improve strategies of engineering firms and policymakers concerned about the leadership role of U.S. engineers in the global workforce.
Managing complex, interdisciplinary, and culturally diverse projects has become one of the most challenging issues faced by modern corporations. Studying virtual organizations also challenges researchers to adapt to new constraints and to exploit new opportunities. In this research project, we: (1) developed a virtual environment for the spatially-rich distributed work of architecture, engineering and construction (A/E/C) that incorporates research data collection and analysis tools, and (2) utilized the environment and tools to conduct a series of experiments focused on developing fundamental insights into how globally distributed A/E/C teams enact complex design work together and with affordances in the virtual environment. CyberGRID: A New Tool to Study Virtual Teams We developed the CyberGRID (Cyber-enabled Global Research Infrastructure for Design) as a research tool to study global design work in a virtual work environment. The CyberGRID automatically captures high resolution data on verbal interactions between designers, the content of written communications, mouse and avatar positioning, documents shared, and gesture use. All of this automatically collected data can be recompiled, which allows for replays of virtual team meetings exactly as they originally occurred. Within a replay, researchers can "relive" the virtual team interactions from the perspective of any of the participants or a perspective of their choosing. Researchers can see where participants are looking with their avatars, what they are clicking with their mouse, or whether they are holding a private, side conversation with another participant. This functionality has enabled the development of methods for analyzing data reflecting multiple virtual perspectives simultaneously in multiple interactional spaces. The Role of Boundary Objects in Addressing Conflict in Virtual Teamwork In our first series of experiments, we confirmed that digital boundary objects, such as three-dimensional models and shared screens, can be effective in virtual workspaces as they serve to enable the visualization of spatially complex information and to focus the attention of distributed team members. In the CyberGRID, information is visualized through desktop broadcasts to a shared team wall in the virtual environment and attention can be focused through a variety of modes, including text, voice, and gesture. Moreover, we found that boundary objects can help to manage task and technology conflicts in the CyberGRID. Our research shows that both the initial engagement with a boundary object and active reference to the boundary object can reduce conflict duration in global virtual team interactions, which is critical to effective virtual teamwork. The Relationship between Cross-national Boundaries and Boundary Objects in Global Virtual Teamwork In a next series of experiments, we identified an interesting relationship between conflict, boundary objects, and national cultural diversity in the virtual teams we studied. Our research showed that there was no statistical distinction between the nationally culturally diverse teams and the homogeneous domestic teams in terms of the length of time spent in conflict. However, a reduction in conflict duration resulted from appropriate use of the available boundary objects. We found that the nationally culturally diverse virtual teams used boundary objects more often, particularly to help them identify that a conflict existed in the first place. Thus, the negative aspects of cultural and linguistic diversity that have been identified in previous research (e.g. increased conflict duration) were mediated through boundary objects in the virtual work setting. Leading Global Virtual Teams In our final series of experiments in this grant, we examined effective leadership practices in global virtual teams. We focused on comparing the performance of teams without designated leaders to ones with identified leaders. We selected the identified leaders based on their prior leadership experience in traditional face-to-face teams. We found that these leaders were not necessarily effective at leading virtual teams and concluded that leadership competencies for leading face-to-face teams differed from leading virtual teams. Our results suggested that, to be effective, virtual team leaders benefit more from having prior experience coordinating work in distributed teams and in working through the technological medium of interaction when compared to traditional leadership training. As we continue this research, we are examining a shared leadership model that couples technologically savvy virtual team leaders with traditionally trained leaders to attempt to maximize virtual team effectiveness. Impact and Implications for Spatially-rich Distributed Virtual Teamwork This research involved collaboration with seven universities in five countries and impacted the pedagogical experiences of approximately 250 students. The research was also conducted in collaboration with several large A/E/C firms that enabled us to examine the implications of virtual environments to impact the effectiveness of spatially-rich distributed virtual teamwork. In collaboration with both academics and practitioners, we observed that boundary objects can help to streamline interactions between distributed workers, potentially minimizing the negative impact of national cultural differences on collaboration effectiveness. We also learned that leadership training for virtual teamwork in this setting requires a new set of competencies beyond traditional leadership training.
