Publication Type
Working Paper
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
8-2007
Abstract
Innovative work performed in a distributed fashion does not easily lend to itself either of two classic coordination strategies - anticipatory planning or ongoing rich communication. We study how innovative work that is distributed across space and time is coordinated in global software service organizations. Our findings indicate that neither coordination by plan nor coordination by feedback play a dominant role in the coordination of distributed software services delivery. Instead, we find that the firms we studied coordinate action distributed work by relying on common ground. Common ground leads to coordinated action across locations by two means: the anticipation effect and the interpretation effect. We discuss types of common ground as well as the tools that organizations use to build and maintain it.
Keywords
Coordination, Business Process Offshoring, Distributed Organization, Common Ground
Discipline
Organizational Behavior and Theory | Strategic Management Policy
Research Areas
Strategy and Organisation
First Page
1
Last Page
37
Identifier
10.2139/ssrn.939786
Citation
SRIKANTH, Kannan.
Coordination in distributed organizations. (2007). 1-37.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/5927
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.939786