Geographically Dispersed Teams and Networks

Speaker
Jonathon Cummings
Associate Professor, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

When
-

Where
Newell-Simon Hall 1305 (Michael Mauldin Auditorium)

Description

In this talk, I will discuss preliminary results from the first two years of a five-year study of geographically dispersed teams and networks (NSF Early Career Award #IIS-0347705). Using network data from over 500 teams (representing close to 3000 survey respondents) across 3 large global companies, I will address the impact of geographic dispersion on communication, coordination, technology use, and perceived effectiveness. The context of geographic dispersion in these samples ranges from working in a office at home, to collaborating across cities in the same country, to having teammates in time zones in other parts of the world. I will wrap up with some implications for how communication technologies other than email and the phone might gain momentum in supporting geographically dispersed teams and networks.

Speaker's Bio

Jonathon Cummings is an Associate Professor of Management at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University. He spent three years at the MIT Sloan School of Management as an Assistant Professor after completing his dissertation and post-doc at Carnegie Mellon University. During graduate school he interned at Intel (studying collaborative software) and at Motorola (studying knowledge management). He has an undergraduate degree in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in social psychology from Harvard University.

Speaker's Website
http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/faculty_research/faculty_directory/cummings/

Host
Sara Kiesler