Globally dispersed teams at General Motors

A literature review was done to understand how different authors and researchers view collaboration and teamwork. In addition, interviews were conducted with a cross section of members of teams operating globally within General Motors. This thesis builds upon this research and expands on the effect and interplay of the many different variables present in all collaborative efforts. Special emphasis has been placed in understanding team dynamics for globally dispersed teams. Literature analysis and field interview data led us to develop a model of teamwork dynamics. The model contributed to the understanding of variables and feedback mechanisms affecting alignment, interaction and communication, trust, capability, and team results and efficiency. A survey was administered to partially test the model and to validate insights from interview sessions. From this work, we conclude that issues surrounding globally dispersed teams do not differ significantly from those inherent to co-located teams. However, some of these issues especially time, distance and diversity exert a stronger influence on dispersed teams and require different sorts of interventions to build and maintain effectiveness. As far as General Motors is concerned, we conclude that GM is doing the right things when it comes to assembling teams operating globally but the pace at which the entire organization is genuinely committing to change needs to be accelerated.

Department dc:contributor.department

Sloan School of Management.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

1999

Authors dc:creator

• Carlisle, Stephen K. (Stephen Kernaghan), 1962-
• Hernandez, Ernesto M. 1958-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• John Van Maanen and Jan Klein.

• Sloan School of Management.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/59543

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/59543