Who shouts louder?: exerting power across distance and culture

Authors:
Niina Nurmi;Petra Bosch-Sijtsema;Anu Sivunen;Renate Fruchter
Affiliations:
Center for Work, Technology & Organization, Stanford, CA, USA;Project Based Learning Laboratory, Stanford, CA, USA;Laboratory of Work Psychology and Leadership, Espoo, Finland;Project Based Learning Laboratory, Stanford, CA, USA
Venue:
Proceedings of the 2009 international workshop on Intercultural collaboration
Year:
2009

Citing 7
Cited 1

The Mutual Knowledge Problem and Its Consequences for Dispersed Collaboration

Organization Science
Owning the Code: Status Closure in Distributed Groups

Organization Science
Leadership Effectiveness in Global Virtual Teams

Journal of Management Information Systems
Team Boundary Issues Across Multiple Global Firms

Journal of Management Information Systems
Leadership at a Distance: Research in Technologically-Supported Work

Leadership at a Distance: Research in Technologically-Supported Work
Cross-cultural software production and use: a structurational analysis

MIS Quarterly
Innovating or doing as told? status differences and overlapping boundaries in offshore collaboration

MIS Quarterly

A Process Framework for Global Software Engineering Teams

Information and Software Technology

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

Despite the increasing attention to multi-cultural collaboration, power in global distributed teams is hardly discussed in research. We used a qualitative, interpretive research method to study four multi-cultural teams from three globally distributed companies in the electronics and software industry in Asia, US, and Europe. Geographic distance hindered remote leaders' power and achieving task compliance by creating competing lines of authority and diminishing visibility and awareness of team conditions. Cultural distance between leaders and team members challenged leaders in adapting leadership behavior according to cultural differences. Cultural awareness and language skills both in lingua franca and local language increased the power of remote leaders.