Globally dispersed engineering teams at Delphi Packard Electric Systems

Globally dispersed engineering teams within Delphi Packard Electric Systems were studied to identify areas for future improvement in global team performance. The research consisted of several management interviews and the administering of a survey to global team members and team leaders at various Delphi Packard Electric Systems engineering and manufacturing facilities located throughout the world. The results of the survey were analyzed using bivariate statistical analysis methods and suggestions for future improvement were developed based on the interviews and survey results. The suggestions were summarized as leadership leverage points for various levels of leadership within the company, including team leaders, regional (local) managers, and global managers. A system dynamics causal loop model was also developed to describe the relationships for various factors that affect team performance, including availability of capital (material resources), skills of the team members, individual and collective team effort, team interaction and communication, use of task-appropriate strategies, global versus local issues, and team results. The original survey was modified and expanded to allow future researchers to better address the variables and relationships that were presented in the casual loop system dynamics model.

Department dc:contributor.department

System Design and Management Program.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2001

Author dc:creator

• Burns, Christopher D. (Christopher Dean), 1956-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Janice Klein.

• System Design and Management Program.

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/1721.1/29163

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/29163