An online monthly research publication by the Ivey Business School 

Volume 14, Number 6
June 2008

Distance doesn’t matter

Derrick Neufeld’s research shows that whether near or far, good leaders need good communication skills

A recent study at Intel showed that 70 percent of the firm’s employees collaborate across time zones with colleagues that they never meet. Another study in Fortune Magazine showed that 79 of the 100 best companies to work for encourage or support remote working.

Statistics like these reflect on the growing importance of the virtual organization. For years Ivey Professor Derrick Neufeld has been studying this notion and the impact of long-distance relationships on performance. “The walls of the organization are becoming fuzzier and it is not always clear where one organization ends and the next one starts,” he says.

In one of his earlier studies Neufeld looked at different leadership styles to see which were most effective when people worked remotely from each other. In a recent follow-up study, he focused on communication skills and leadership performance. His goal was to see whether good communication skills in leaders were less effective when followers were far away. To his surprise, he found that leadership performance was the same regardless of where people were. “Leaders who communicated effectively, or ineffectively, did so whether they were right in front of the person or a thousand miles away,” he says. “Distance just wasn’t a factor.”

This study also underscores the importance of communication effectiveness in relation to leadership, an area where little research has been done. “To be a good leader you need to be a good communicator,” he says. “It’s absolutely critical.”

In another study, Neufeld worked with recent PhD student Yulin Fang, now at City University of Hong Kong, and current PhD student Zeying Wan. They looked at communities of practice - groups of people informally bound by shared practice and experience. Whether artists, software engineers, or CEOs, they share a common interest and learn from each other’s experiences.

The first part of their study focused on a group of PhD students, and the second on managers of a non-profit agency with offices dispersed across the country. They found in both cases that communities of practice had a positive effect on learning and performance. “Those who are more engaged in a community of practice are better able to translate their learning into active performance and positive outcomes than those who are less engaged,” he says. “We found that the more deeply embedded in a community you are, the more likely your learning will impact on performance.”

Communities of practice have always been around, but with the advent of the virtual organization, they are growing in importance. “We now understand that people’s learning can be put into action more effectively when they are engaged in community,” says Neufeld. “It’s important for managers to create environments where employees feel encouraged to go outside the organization - for example to talk through ideas.”

The Internet has spawned a new kind of community of practice – software developers who voluntarily come together in virtual teams to create free software. Open source software (OSS) communities have a huge impact on the software industry. The operating system Linux is an example of a highly successful OSS application.

Although many OSS applications thrive, others fail. “We wanted to understand why developers sometimes rally around an idea and develop an outstanding package, and in other cases ideas start out hot and then peter out,” says Neufeld.

In a separate study, Neufeld and Fang looked at an OSS community that involved 715 participants, 4332 emails and 33,440 log entries. They found a relationship between three notions: learning in practice, identity construction, and participation. Together these factors create a virtuous cycle.” As you get involved in a project you begin to learn,” Neufeld says. “The more you do and learn, the more you build your identity within the community. Your growing reputation increases your participation, which influences your learning, and the cycle continues.”

In other cases, though, the cycle becomes a “death spiral.” “If a member is learning and contributing and then does something bone-headed, it may cause other people problems,” he says. “Sometimes after just one negative comment was posted to the community message board, a person would never be heard from again.”

This study has important implications for IS development projects within organizations. “Managers should really look for ways to expand participants’ opportunities so they can learn and grow in new ways,” he says. “They should also look for public affirmations that help build a person’s identity and reputation. In these ways they can stimulate a self-reinforcing virtuous cycle that will drive authentic participation.”
 

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