Integrating distributed work: task design, communication and tacit coordination mechanisms

We investigate coordination strategies in the remote delivery of business services (i.e. Business Process Offshoring). We analyze 126 surveys of offshored processes to understand both the sources of difficulty in the remote delivery of services as well as how organizations overcome these difficultie...

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Main Authors: SRIKANTH, Kannan, Puranam, Phanish
Format: text
Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2011
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Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/4694
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/5693/viewcontent/SSRN_id1125924.pdf
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Institution: Singapore Management University
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spelling sg-smu-ink.lkcsb_research-56932018-11-14T07:38:47Z Integrating distributed work: task design, communication and tacit coordination mechanisms SRIKANTH, Kannan Puranam, Phanish We investigate coordination strategies in the remote delivery of business services (i.e. Business Process Offshoring). We analyze 126 surveys of offshored processes to understand both the sources of difficulty in the remote delivery of services as well as how organizations overcome these difficulties. We find that interdependence between offshored and onshore processes can lower offshore process performance. Investment in coordination mechanisms such as modularity, ongoing communication and generating common ground across locations ameliorate the performance impact of interdependence. In particular, we are able to show that building common ground - knowledge that is shared and known to be shared - across locations is a coordination mechanism that is distinct from building communication channels or modularising processes. Our results also suggest the firms may be investing less in common ground than they should. 2011-08-01T07:00:00Z text application/pdf https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/4694 info:doi/10.1002/smj.908 https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/5693/viewcontent/SSRN_id1125924.pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business eng Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University Coordination Offshoring Modularity Common Ground Interdependence offshore outsourcing Business
institution Singapore Management University
building SMU Libraries
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider SMU Libraries
collection InK@SMU
language English
topic Coordination
Offshoring
Modularity
Common Ground
Interdependence
offshore outsourcing
Business
spellingShingle Coordination
Offshoring
Modularity
Common Ground
Interdependence
offshore outsourcing
Business
SRIKANTH, Kannan
Puranam, Phanish
Integrating distributed work: task design, communication and tacit coordination mechanisms
description We investigate coordination strategies in the remote delivery of business services (i.e. Business Process Offshoring). We analyze 126 surveys of offshored processes to understand both the sources of difficulty in the remote delivery of services as well as how organizations overcome these difficulties. We find that interdependence between offshored and onshore processes can lower offshore process performance. Investment in coordination mechanisms such as modularity, ongoing communication and generating common ground across locations ameliorate the performance impact of interdependence. In particular, we are able to show that building common ground - knowledge that is shared and known to be shared - across locations is a coordination mechanism that is distinct from building communication channels or modularising processes. Our results also suggest the firms may be investing less in common ground than they should.
format text
author SRIKANTH, Kannan
Puranam, Phanish
author_facet SRIKANTH, Kannan
Puranam, Phanish
author_sort SRIKANTH, Kannan
title Integrating distributed work: task design, communication and tacit coordination mechanisms
title_short Integrating distributed work: task design, communication and tacit coordination mechanisms
title_full Integrating distributed work: task design, communication and tacit coordination mechanisms
title_fullStr Integrating distributed work: task design, communication and tacit coordination mechanisms
title_full_unstemmed Integrating distributed work: task design, communication and tacit coordination mechanisms
title_sort integrating distributed work: task design, communication and tacit coordination mechanisms
publisher Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University
publishDate 2011
url https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/4694
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/5693/viewcontent/SSRN_id1125924.pdf
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