IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication Dec 2002

e-collaboration: the reality of virtuality

A.F. Rutkowski Tilburg University ; D.R. Vogel ; M. Van Genuchten ; T.M.A. Bemelmans Eindhoven University of Technology ; M. Favier Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Abstract

With the development of new technologies, and particularly information and communication technologies (ICTs), teams have evolved to encompass new forms of interaction and collaboration. By focusing on the communicative dimensions of global virtual teams, this paper demonstrates that e-collaboration is more than a technological substitution for traditional face-to face collaboration. It places special emphasis on the importance of structuring activities for balancing electronic communication during e-collaboration (i.e., videoconference, email, chat session, distributed use of group support system) to bridge cultural and stereotypical gaps, to increase profitable role repartition between the participants, and to prevent and solve conflicts. During the past four years, the authors have developed a project involving hundreds of participants from different national cultures working together for six weeks on a specific project. In this paper, we present our experiences and draw conclusions, giving special attention to the structure of the electronic communication required to support efficient virtual teaming in education and industry.

Journal
IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
Published
2002-12-01
DOI
10.1109/tpc.2002.805147
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
collaborative writing digital rhetoric
Export
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (9)

  1. Hovde (2014)
    Factors That Enable and Challenge International Engineering Communication: A Ca…
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  2. Rutkowski et al. (2008)
    Communication in Virtual Teams: Ten Years of Experience in Education
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  3. Paretti et al. (2007)
    Teaching Technical Communication in an Era of Distributed Work: A Case Study of…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Anawati et al. (2006)
    Behavioral Adaptation Within Cross-Cultural Virtual Teams
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  5. Flammia (2005)
    Preparing Technical Communication Students to Play a Role on the Translation Team
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  1. Jones (2005)
    From Writers to Information Coordinators: Technology and the Changing Face of C…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Sarker et al. (2005)
    Knowledge transfer in virtual systems development teams: an exploratory study o…
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  3. Panteli et al. (2005)
    The Role of Subgroups in the Communication Patternsof Global Virtual Teams
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  4. Qureshi et al. (2005)
    Activating Knowledge Through Electronic Collaboration: Vanquishing the Knowledg…
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CrossRef global citation count: 93 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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