Understanding Decision Making within Distributed Project Teams

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Researchers from across the world and in a variety of disciplines have become interested in describing and understanding the phenomenon of distributed projects and teams. This study aims to measure the extent to which some dimensions of the decision-making process are valued and used by distributed teams, as well as the influence of certain contextual variables. The proliferation of geographically dispersed teams is, of course, related to the explosive development of information and communication technologies (ICT), and particularly technologies related to the Internet. Now that these technologies are performing better and becoming more accessible, companies no longer seem to be challenged by the barrier of distance.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction (p. 1)
• Chapter 1 Overview of the Recent Literature on Distributed Teams (p. 3)
• 1.1 Introduction (p. 3)
• 1.2 The distributed project team: An expression of increasingly close collaboration between enterprises (p. 4)
• 1.3 Managing a distributed project team: Some key dimensions (p. 5)
• 1.3.1 Team inputs (p. 6)
• 1.3.2 Team processes (p. 8)
• 1.3.3 Team outcomes (p. 11)
• 1.4 Technology: A key vehicle for collaboration (p. 13)
• 1.5 Conclusion (p. 15)
• Chapter 2 Overview of the Literature on Decision Making (p. 17)
• 2.1 Introduction (p. 17)
• 2.2 Overview of the literature on decisions and decision making (p. 18)
• 2.2.1 Basic decision making concepts (p. 18)
• 2.2.2 Views on organizational decision making (p. 20)
• 2.3 Specific decision making process issues (p. 24)
• 2.3.1 Decision making in work groups (p. 24)
• 2.3.2 Antecedents of decision-making quality (p. 27)
• 2.4 The decision-making process and distributed teams (p. 30)
• 2.5 Conclusion (p. 32)
• Chapter 3 Conceptual Framework (p. 33)
• 3.1 Introduction (p. 33)
• 3.2 Conceptual framework (p. 35)
• 3.2.1 Characteristics of the context (p. 35)
• 3.2.2 Locus of decisions (p. 38)
• 3.2.3 Characteristics of the decision-making process (p. 39)
• 3.2.4 Degree of team distributedness (p. 40)
• 3.3 Conclusion (p. 41)
• Chapter 4 How Distributed Teams Adapt to Decision Making in Practice: Empirical Evidence (p. 43)
• 4.1 Introduction (p. 43)
• 4.2 Methodology (p. 44)
• 4.2.1 The questionnaire (p. 44)
• 4.2.2 Selection of respondents (p. 45)
• 4.2.3 Sample presentation and statistical considerations (p. 45)
• 4.2.4 Determination of the distributedness index (p. 46)
• 4.3 Results (p. 47)
• 4.3.1 Roles and their influence on decisions (p. 48)
• 4.3.2 Quality of the decision-making process within the project team (p. 53)
• 4.3.3 Impact of autonomy and formalization on successful teamwork (p. 65)
• 4.4 Conclusion (p. 69)
• Concluding Remarks (p. 71)
• List of References (p. 75)
• Appendix A Identification of Contextual Factors Principal Component Analyses (p. 85)
• Appendix B Paper Published in PMI's Virtual Library January 2008 (p. 89)
• Appendix C Article Published in Project Management Journal August 2008 (p. 95)