Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/58915
Research New Skills Required for Virtual Teams Being a "team player" isn't the same as it used to be, according to Cristina Gibson, associate professor of orga- nization and strategy at the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California at Irvine. When Gibson began studying team- based collaborative processes more than a decade ago, most teams included people who worked in the same office, shared the same nation- ality, and maintained the same roles and responsibilities for the duration of their projects. Today, technology has transformed the team-building environ- ment. "The kinds of teams we studied in 1995 are essentially extinct," Gibson says. Gibson has found that four characteristics differentiate modern teams from their his- torical counterparts: n They are geo- graphically dispersed, with at least one mem- ber in a different location from other members. n They are electronically medi- Cristina Gibson the most innovative and successful virtual teams—and those that bring effective col- laboration to a screech- ing halt. Her research focuses specifically on the film industry, which operates under the most extreme condi- tions of virtual collabo- ated, with most communication occurring via e-mail, the Internet, or video conferencing. n They are culturally diverse, with more than one nationality rep- resented. n Finally, they are continually dynamic, with team members and their roles changing to suit changing circumstances. In her latest research project, "The Science and Art of Global Col- laboration," Gibson is studying the collaborative processes that drive 50 BizEd JULY/AUGUST 2006 ration. "To make a film, team mem- bers must work across geographical distances under intense time pres- sure, with people they don't know, under constantly changing circum- stances," she says. Gibson received $140,000 in funding from the National Science Foundation and the Merage School to complete two of the three phases of her research. In the first phase, completed last year, Gibson inter- viewed filmmakers, producers, direc- tors, actors, and moviegoers in four different geographic centers of film- making: the U.S., India, France, and New Zealand, where her interview subjects included Peter Jackson, director of Lord of the Rings. She asked her subjects pointed questions about the individual characteristics they brought to the filmmaking process and how successful their col- laborations have been. In the second phase, currently in progress, Gibson is collecting survey data at film festivals. So far she has surveyed 65 filmmakers, as well as many moviegoers who just viewed their films. Her goal is to discover the filmmakers' vision during the collaborative process and whether viewers felt that vision was achieved. Gibson is currently seeking fund- ing for the third phase of the proj- ect, a longitudinal study that follows the making of films from start to finish—from actors' first readings of scripts, through the filming and edit- ing processes, to the films' box office releases. The objective, she says, is to compare the collaborative meth- ods used to make the films to their eventual reception at the box office. Although gaining such intimate REZA ESTAKHRIAN/GETTY IMAGES