Business Commons^™

The Power Of (Virtual) Convergence: The Unrealized Potential Of Pair Programming And Remote Work, Mikayla Maki

University Honors Theses

Remote work is expensive. It can lead to isolation, miscommunications, and ossified organizations. These problems occur because of a synchronicity mismatch between how we need to communicate as humans, and what today's tools are capable of. This mismatch can be solved by the adoption of remote pair programming, as exemplified by the authors work at a startup (Zed). Pair programming provides the organic, synchronous, reciprocal interaction necessary to develop the sorts of relationships that remote firms currently lack.

How To Effectively Manage Virtual Teams Created Due To Covid-19?, Aakanksha Santosh Rane

University Honors Theses

With the spread of COVID-19 and the social distancing regulations in place, multiple organizations have transitioned their workplace to a virtual setting. With the increase in business' transitioning to remote teams, it is first crucial to understand the various needs and characteristics of virtual teams. Through the analysis of multiple peer-reviewed articles and other texts on virtual teams, this study identifies building trust, effective communication, and performance management as the main points of focus in order to ensure effectiveness of virtual teams.

Workplace Motivation: Addressing Telework As A Mechanism For Maintaining Employee Productivity, Kaitlyn Fujii

University Honors Theses

This research seeks to identify social and psychological factors that affect satisfaction levels of employees. The thesis suggests teleworking as a renewed tool for communicating and executing work in organizations; and moreover, demonstrating how telework systems can motivate millennial and gen-z workers to be productive. The main factors identified for said analysis have been determined through the study of business and academic literature about workplace culture and how it is changing. Such research investigated the differences between baby boomers, millennials and gen-zs, and furthermore how providing employees with the option to participate in telework may enhance their output. To make …

Organizational Communication And Individual Behavior: Implications For Supply Chain Risk Management, Scott Duhadway, Steven Carnovale, Vijay R. Kannan

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Risk is a significant issue for supply chain managers. Not only must they contend with multiple dimensions of risk in decision making, they must reconcile decision making with broader organizational interests. This study examines the influence of organizational communication regarding supply chain risk on individual decision-making strategies and the perceptions of risk. A multi-stage experimental design is applied, in which decision makers make decisions across three dimensions of risk and adjust their risk-taking behavior after being presented with organizational communication regarding supply chain risk levels. The relationship between organizational communication and the perceptions of supply chain risk is then explored …

The Impact Of Cultural Communication On Team Performance, Bret Hunley, Smarajit Chakraborty, Stephen Macdonald

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

The trend in today’s corporate workforce continues to move towards becoming more culturally diverse; while beneficial, to maintain competitive edge this element also increases functional challenges between working group members. In order to achieve a high performing team, it is imperative management understands the cultural and lingual differences among the individual members, and develop practices that diminish these challenges. Workforce diversity has been identified as being able to add value to the overall outcome; however, success ultimately depends on the team’s ability to interact culturally, communicate effectively, and understand the mannerisms unique to each team member’s individual culture.

Examining Geert …

Impact Of Leadership On Team’S Performance, Harshitha Gadirajurrett, Raj Srinivasan, Jake Stevens, Nihal Jeena

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

The concept of leadership is a widely discussed concept, with numerous articles and books being dedicated to the exploration and evaluation of leadership and its impact on team building, team performance and team dynamics. In this paper, we will be looking at the impact of leadership on team performance, and evaluating it through the lens of different leadership styles, focusing on the idea of Transformational Leadership. Through numerous article and journal reviews, we will seek to identify characteristics and strengths of these leadership styles as they pertain to the performance of teams within an organization.

Implications In Implementing Self-Managed Teams In Organizations, Aayushi Gupta, Alex Tacco Melendez, Janet Rosenthal, Lipishree Vrushabhendra

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

Over the past few decades, organizations have developed workplace teams that are multi-faceted, diverse and classified or divided by objective. These teams are essentially turning out to be instrumental in innovation and change in organizations. One such work team that has evoked interest in the recent past is the self-managed team. The design, structure and performance of self-managed teams varies from the other teams significantly. Nevertheless, these teams like the other workplace teams share common benefits such as increased knowledge and skills, synergy and commitment. The main difference lies in the way these teams work. The objective of this research …

Dilemmas In Not Invented Here Syndrome, Surekha Chanamolu, Shihab Hanayneh, Lennae Misiewicz, Marthed Mohammed, Jacqueline Nayame

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

Not Invented Here syndrome has many negative effects on the performance of companies. However, there are several ways companies can work to overcome NIH syndrome. Some of the most important aspects when it comes to identifying and overcoming NIH syndrome include performance and communication, optimal performance and tenure, the absorptive capacity paradox, intra-organizational communication, experience with external knowledge, and poorly balanced incentive systems. NIH syndrome typically begins when a company feels that their identity is threatened and therefore they reject information from other companies or organizations. The focus of this paper is to address the manifestations, causes, and consequences of …

Multidisciplinary Teams As An Enhanced Learing Tool: A Case Study Of An Extra-Curricular Student Endeavor Resulting In Exceptional Learning Outcomes, Yassir Alamari, Hamed Alyaqout, Qin Guo, Jerrod Thomas

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

Cross-­functional teams are all the rage in business where teams working on new product development can benefit from greater innovativeness and creativity when more diverse work units are put together to develop consumer products [1]. Within the realm of academia, particularly within engineering disciplines, the objectives and interactions of students remains narrow and targeted to the discipline of study. In this paper we look at the potential of enhanced learning outcomes driven by working in a cross-­‐functional or multidisciplinary teams with an appropriate project being available. We examine the role an organically-­‐formed student club played in providing just such a …