Faktorer som innvirker på interne prosesser og ”effektivitet” i internasjonalt spredte team

1. Faktorer som innvirker på interne prosesser og ”effektivitet” i internasjonalt spredte team Hvilken innvirkning har følgende forhold på interne prosesser og ”effektivitet” i IST? Praksis og interesser på høyere ledelsesnivå Praksis og interesser på lokalt nivå Den geografiske avstanden mellom teammedlemmer Kulturforskjeller

2. Empiri Type team: rene produktutviklingsteam, blandet produkt-/ prosessutviklingsteam, rent prosessutviklingsteam (alle internasjonalt spredt) Observasjon gjennom deltagelse på teammøter (samlokaliserte og videokonferanser) Intervjuer med teammedlemmer og ledere Ledelse av teamutviklingsprosess med to IST (forsøk på aksjonsforskning)

3. ”Effektive” / ”vel fungerende” internasjonalt spredte team Det som teamet produserer er akseptabelt for dem som mottar eller vurderer det som teamet produserer. Medlemmenes evne til å jobbe sammen opprettholdes eller styrkes. Medlemmenes behov blir tilfredsstilt mer enn at de ikke blir det gjennom erfaringen av å være en del av gruppen. J. Richard Hackman: ”The normative model of group effectiveness”

4. MIT Forum on Globally Dispersed Teams Samarbeidsprosjekt MIT, NTNU, Norsk Hydro, Visteon, Intel Avsluttet start 2001

5. Interaktive prosesser

7. Spenningsfeltet mellom det globale og det lokale Lokal evaluering og arbeid i et internasjonalt team Det internasjonale teamets interesser vs. de lokale interessene der man jobber til daglig Global standardisering vs. lokal autonomi

8. Spenningsfeltet mellom det globale og det lokale Global standardisering vs. lokal autonomi Faren for at den sterkeste parten (=Raufoss) dominerer og overkjører andre geografiske enheter “There is a field of tension between standardizing and being different. On the one hand, we want to standardize in order to get a result from the individual team members’ work which fit into a larger whole. You must have standardized practices and routines. Therefore, you need to find a balance between the right level of standardization, and at the same time giving permission to differences in culture and having autonomous participants from different locations. I think you may find the key in the balance” (senior manager).

9. Spenningsfeltet mellom det lokale og det globale Global standardisering vs. lokal autonomi Frykt for tap av kreativitet i utviklingsarbeid ved for stor grad av standardisering

10. Spenningsfeltet mellom det globale og det lokale Divisjonens / et internasjonalt teams interesser vs. interessene til lokal enhet der man jobber til daglig ”The management in the UK has decided that they will not get involved in any projects if they do not contribute to minimum 15% of added value. And that leads to thinking about what’s best for one’s local site, and not what’s best for the division, I think. Because, in my opinion, it should be the best interests of the division that should give direction for the roles a team should have here or there. If it’s more costly to manufacture here than in the UK, I think the production should be done in the UK. That is not up to me to decide, but I think one should be so honest that one puts two calculations beside one another. Then one is able to choose what is best for the division. I don’t like the kind of thinking were one only thinks about one’s local interests, and not what’s best for the whole. Things get difficult with that kind of thinking. It becomes a barrier, an “extra ghost” you have to fight against, in addition to all the others” (team member).

11. Spenningsfeltet mellom det globale og det lokale Et internasjonalt teams interesser vs. lokal enhets interesser “The natural pattern of behavior is that you work for yourself as a first priority, as a second priority for one’s family, third, you work for a local community, or for a local company. As a fourth priority you might have a nationally oriented mindset, and so on... Taking the step from there into an international setting where you apparently don’t work for yourself, for your family, for the local company, not for the nation, and so on, is on a completely different mental level. Another matter is that a natural reaction or behavior pattern in people is to protect what one considers to be one’s own, building one’s own base of competence, and protecting that base. That is the natural way of doing it. The natural way of doing things is not to share that with others. And we have seen people who are very concerned with protecting their own competence and advantages in our organization. This is limiting these persons very much” (senior manager).

12. Spenningsfeltet mellom det globale og det lokale Et internasjonalt teams interesser vs. lokal enhets interesser ”I was concerned that there was nobody (at the team development session) from Skultuna. And I felt that was purely because of political pressure within the company at Skultuna, the fact that they were very busy. If they really wanted to take part, to finish it off, I am sure they would have come. Because you just make time to do other things. In principle I think that even though we’re different companies like Raufoss, UK, Sweden, at the end of the day we’re all one company. So at the end of the day the impact of what people do at Raufoss, if it impacts on the UK, then it is a problem for all of us, so the loyalty and the conflicts and all this affects what everyone does individually. It’s a knock-on effect to other companies” (teammedlem)

13. Spenningsfeltet mellom det globale og det lokale Bygge opp aksept i organisasjonen for arbeidsformen. Fare ved motvilje / mangel på aksept for arbeidsformen: at det oppstår lukkede ”kongedømmer” som krever kontroll over hele prosessen.

15. Geografisk avstand og kommunikasjonsprosesser ”Når du jobber i samme bygning kan du raskt få tak i folkene du trenger å snakke med. Når du kommuniserer med folk i Tyskland og de er ute og reiser, kan du ikke legge en skisse ned på bordet og ha diskusjoner om den. Da må du planlegge å skulle sende en faks, du må sende den og du må ringe opp folk igjen. Hele arbeidsprosessen tar mer tid når du er adskilt på grunn av avstanden. Du må forklare ting mer i detalj. Når du jobber på samme sted blir du kontinuerlig oppdatert om ting som skjer, og da trenger du ikke så mye forklaringer om tingene som diskuteres. Du kan bare si ”Den profilen vi diskuterte på mandag, hvordan går det med den?” Når du gjør ting med Tyskland må du ofte oppsummere diskusjoner fra sist gang, hvilken profil vi snakker om og så videre” (teammedlem).

16. Geografisk avstand og kommunikasjonsprosesser “We see how difficult things may be when there are fronts in the Middle East, for example. Things are so stuck in a circle so vicious as it can be. And we also can risk situations like that in our organization, in the worst case, if we get unsolvable conflicts. As far as conflicts are concerned, in my opinion, conflicts have a tendency to start by people saying things they don’t consider. Unconsidered things are said, and that starts a conflict. Therefore, it is important that people learn to control themselves. It is a conflict there, as well. Because to be able to solve issues in an objective manner, you have to deal with the issue directly. On the other hand, conflicts start by things that have been written. Very much is written these days by computer. And people have to be mature as far as what they write is concerned and what is being said. You should not write negative or offensive things. Because it’s incorrigible when a thing has been written. It is a bit easier to correct things that are only said. But that can also be unfortunate!” (senior manager).

17. Geografisk avstand og kommunikasjonsprosesser ”What is a bit difficult at Renault is that we don’t have access to the product database, because we are not allowed to access the Internet at Renault. I am there with my portable PC and my mobile phone, but that’s all. Therefore I am unable to access the product database in Hydro. And that is quite a big problem, because as the person in charge of development I am responsible for much of the documentation. I only have one day a week when I am able to put things in the database and getting information out, and that is the day of the week that I am at Alunord” (team member).

18. Geografisk avstand og kommunikasjonsprosesser “There are a lot of people who need information, and I have a role as a provider of information, because I am the one located at the customer. I am to bring up questions from both parties, transmit answers and get actions implemented. And the others in the project also need information about what is going on at Renault. And when they call, I want to provide them with a good summary, but if I have to tell the same thing to ten persons during a day, you don’t get anything more done in that day. And then you may not be able to implement everything you wanted to implement or follow up on everything you wanted to follow up on. It is difficult to share enough information without that taking all your time. If you are located in the same place, it is very easy to delegate tasks, talk together and do a debriefing after a meeting around a table with everybody present, and that may take no longer than 30 minutes. But when you see each others one by one, either by phone or once a week, you have to retell the same story every time. It is a real efficiency killer” (team member)

19. Geografisk avstand og ledelse “(International teams) require a more conscious and more well thought through management, i.e. you need to take the management of such teams more seriously than you would a team of collocated people, where things probably will work without putting too much work into being a good leader. So I don’t think there is anything different in principle in the management of this kind of teams, compared to management of other teams, but it requires more, it requires a better quality in the communication, it requires more structure, better organization and maybe more openness and flexibility from the person who is the team leader. All this are features of what you might call good management in general, but if the management is mediocre in this kind of teams, it is in danger of collapsing. While a collocated team probably would have made it anyway” (senior manager).

20. Kulturforskjeller “Faren har en større rolle i familien i Norge sammenlignet med England. I Norge går folk fra jobben for å hente ungene i barnehagen. Mens det ville vært noe av det aller siste man gjorde i England. Det er en kritikk på en måte, fordi det er svært frustrerende hvis du ringer til noen og finner ut at personen har gått hjem for å hente sønnen sin eller noe slikt. Dette er vanskelig å forstå” (teammedlem i England).

21. Noen suksesstips til slutt Bruk tid fra starten av til å identifisere kulturforskjeller og ulike geografisk baserte interesser. Utvikle klare kjøreregler for møter og arbeidsform. Bestem for eksempel gruppens forventninger i forhold til punktlighet og forberedelser til teammøter. Utvikle evaluerings- og målingssystemer som omfatter teammedlemmets arbeid i det internasjonale teamet så vel som oppgaver på den lokale arbeidsplassen Regelmessige en-til-en telefonsamtaler fra teamleder med teammedlemmer for å klargjøre lokale spørsmål og problemer. Til hjelp for å koordinere deltagerne, styre prosjektet, og identifisere og løse opp i motsetninger som kan oppstå. (Janice Klein, MIT)

22. Stress- og frustrasjonsmestring i IST (med ”stoisk ro”) ”Mennesker forstyrres ikke av hendelser, men av hvordan de tenker om hendelser” - Epictetus 100 e. Kr.