Managing Global Teams With Global Information Systems

Diffusion on innovation (DOI)

Discuss how the global information systems can be integrated to successfully manage global teams.

Global information systems can be defined as the information systems which are designed with the main goal of collecting, processing and integrating information to for a given field. This system has been adopted by many businesses to carry out their operations of managing the global teams. These global teams include the workers and other stakeholders who are employed or have partnered with multinational companies to carry out a business. The control of these information systems has an extensive history ranging from the early views on the management of the system development projects to more recent examination of the technology outsourcing (Bulgurcu et al., 2010). There are different models which are used in adopting the global information systems to manage the global teams. The next section will discuss some of the most used models in adopting the GIS.

This is one of the widely used models in adopting the GIS. It focuses on how, why and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures operating at individual and firm levels (Anderson and Raza, 2010). This theory claims that innovations are communicated through given specific channels for a certain period of time, and they only affect a given target group. There is an assumption that people have different perceptions which in turn influence their willingness to adopt the GIS and hence the adoption rate is normally distributed at any given period of time (Anderson and Raza, 2010). Breaking the normality individuals are categorized in the five levels of this theory. Those categories include the innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. It also includes two types of people the opponents and the supporters of the innovations. It is through the supporters and the opponents where the best decision about the innovations is made.

Based on this theory, the GIS at the firm level is influenced by three factors. Those factors include the leader characteristics, the internal structural characteristics of the organization, and the external characteristics of the organization (Hofmann-Wellenhof et al., 2012). The leader characteristics describe her attitude towards change and his or he willingness in accommodating new ideas. The internal structural characteristics include aspects of centralization, realization, and formalization of the firm. Centralization is the degree, at which the power is concentrated within few individuals of the firm, complexity is the degree to which the employees poses knowledge and expertise in fields which are of benefit to the company, and formalization is the degree to which the company emphasizes the importance of following rules and procedure of the firm to its members (Hofmann-Wellenhof et al., 2012). This theory is based on research and analysis of the companies’ policies.

Technology, Organization, and environment context

This model was developed in early 1990’s to help in advancing the DOI model.  It focuses on three aspects which influence the adoption and implementation of the GIS strategies in any given company (Ifinedo, 2012). The technological aspect describes both the internal and external technology devices being used in the firm. The organizational structure refers to descriptive measures about the organization such as scope, size and managerial structure (Ifinedo, 2012). The environment context focuses on the area in which the company has been carrying out its business and the potential competitors, customers and the possible threats to the company. All these aspects if well integrated make the company successful in business.

Many scholars use this method to understand the GIS and IT adoption models in the firms. Some of those aspects include the electronic data interchange (EDI), open systems, Websites, E-commerce, and management systems (Ifinedo, 2012). These aspects cannot be well analyzed using the DOI hence the best model to analyze them is the TOI.

This is defined as the process of an individual or a group of persons who seek to influence the behavior of another person to achieve certain set objectives. Those objectives can either be developmental or operational (Ifinedo, 2012).  It includes both the managerial and conceptualization methods in controlling a given group of individuals. It affects the GIS direct. Those people who are easily influenced and are not rigid for a change adopt the new methods easily and hence there is a high probability of significant growth in those companies they work in.

GIs control includes an evaluation of different aspects. Those aspects include the evaluation of the technical parts of the organization like information security mechanisms; the managerial techniques influence the employees towards the achievement of the firm objectives (Ifinedo, 2012). Information security and governance are also directly related to the GIS control. This is because it is within the GIS control where the security measures and the most effective governance strategies are developed. This includes the incorporation of the employees and other internal and external stakeholders who have direct influence on the firm.

GIS is directly influenced by five primary control concepts. Those concepts include the Social-emotional experiences, control environment, control outcomes, and the control execution. All those four factors influence the fifth factor which is the control features (Ifinedo, 2012). The factors affect the company both internally and externally.

This is also viewed as an independent entity in GIS. It is basically focused on the general environment in which the business and control of the global employees operate. It presents organizational factors which can directly influence the choice of employees or the choice of a customer (Ifinedo, 2012). Five themes are the main determinants of the control environment. They include the choice, strategy, structure, process, culture, and people (Al Sawalqa & Qtish, 2012). The strategy theme refers to the influence which the management uses to maintain in the market over the specified environment. The structure theme refers to the characteristics which define the model of the business and its relation to managing the overboard employees (Al Sawalqa & Qtish, 2012).  The process theme refers to how the chosen structure and strategy influence the choice of GIS environment control (Al Sawalqa & Qtish, 2012). The culture theme refers to how the internal and external characteristics of the company influence the culture of other competitors both internally and externally.

GIS control

This is an Australian company which deals with designing, manufacturing, and retailing the Surfing sports ware. It is a global company which operates in many regions of the world. Most of its operations are carried out in Australia, Europe, South America, North America and South Africa (Beverland et al., 2010). It was founded in 1969 by Warbrick and Brian with its operations limited to only Australia (Beverland et al., 2010).  By the year 1970, it had started the operations of making Wetsuits which they believed were the best for surfing. This was influenced by the existing technology by then.

This company has been known as one of the most powerful companies in campaigns in surfing history. It influenced the making of some surfing films. It has won many awards abroad and within Australia due to its outstanding abilities in innovations.  The Flash Bomb wetsuit won three consecutive SIMA awards. The company took more than six awards at the SBIA awards in Australia in the year 2017. The campaign launched for my Bikini won the SIMA award in the year 2013.

Since this company has an outstanding performance, this research will be based on it. The evaluation of how it manages the GIS will be analyzed, and the challenges which it faces will also be analyzed to make sure that the research gaps are met. Another reason which has made this Company to be chosen is that it is a global company which operates in different geographical locations in the world and hence they management has an experience of diverse culture, different tariffs,  economic stability and other challenges which face companies which operate globally. Also, the company has been in existence for a long period of time hence its stability in the market means that it has the potential to overcome most of those barriers.

1. To gain understanding of information systems and the importance in business
2. To better understand why the multinational companies use the Global information systems
3. To identify different business problems and how they can bring challenges in the global information systems
4. To suggest reliable and efficient computerized strategies in managing the global team
5. To evaluate the diverse models which make global information systems successful

The primary question of this research is how the global information systems can be integrated to successfully manage global teams? The following are the secondary questions of this study.

1. What is the importance of global business systems in Business?
2.  Why do multinational companies use the global information systems?
3.  What are the best strategies to manage the global information systems?
4. What are the diverse models which make the global information systems successful?

This research will be carried out in the RIP Curl Company.  However, since this company is multinational, the research will not be limited to Australia. It will be carried out in all the regions where the company operates. Since it is not easy to travel to the locations for data collection, the study will be based on a survey. The survey will be designed, and then the researcher will seek permission from the main offices of the company in Australia to conduct a survey within the company’s branches. This survey will be administered by the researcher together with the operational manager in the main offices at Australia. This will ensure that the data collected is reliable and the integrity of the employees of the company has not been compromised.

Control environment

The global information system is any communication system which is developed and used in the global context. It incorporates the aspects of global software development and outsourcing. There are three main tasks in developing the global information systems that are the process and system design, technical architecture, and support mechanisms (Laudon. K. and Laudon .J., 2011). All the three aspects have different roles. The process and system design are concerned with how the processes between the distributed actors are organized, the technical architecture is concerned with how the actors are able to collaborate, and the support mechanisms are concerned with how the actors process communication, collaboration, and co-operation (Laudon. K. and Laudon .J., 2011). All the three aspects integrate to form the global information systems.

There are many studies which have been done to evaluate the significance of global information systems in the business field. The GIS has attracted interest from many people because it makes it easy to organize activities and bring together people who are far from each other (Pearlson et al., 2016). Due to the development of the GIS which has been influenced by the advancement in technology, it has been made easy to carry out businesses without the barrier of geographical positions.

Due to the advancement in technology and subsequent use of global information systems, business has developed into a global scale and hence creating new challenges though the GIS has made it easy to carry out the businesses. The following section will discuss some of the challenges which have resulted due to the adoption of the global information systems in carrying out business.

Information systems can be influenced by the culture in different ways. The Global information systems are applied in different regions to make businesses successful, and hence those regions may have different cultures (Oliveira and Martins, 2011). The strategies to be used so that the two business partners can come into a neutral ground regarding the culture is the main challenge in the business field (Galliers and Leidner, 2014). Also, due to the cultural differences in different countries, many multinational countries find it hard to manage employees in different parts of the world which have varying cultures (Reichert and Weber, 2012). This poses a great challenge to the companies since many of the employees opt to leave the job and if they stay, they don’t perform well since they work under pressure.

The Rip Curl Company

The use of global information systems may also be affected by language barriers. English is the main language which is used on the internet. This language can only be understood by the native speakers who account for only 26.3 percent as compared to the non-native speakers who account for more than 74% (Pennycook, 2017).  This can lead to misunderstandings due to lack of lingua franca. Also, those people who are not native English speakers do not speak a common language, and hence there is a great challenge is deciding the common language which can be used for communication. Even if a common language is adopted, the duration at which the business people will take to understand it may also be a challenge. This is because to set the criteria of how to select such a language and the people who are interested in it may be hard to estimate.

The global information systems incorporate many countries globally. Each country has its laws on data security. Those laws vary from one country to another, and hence this is a great challenge since an act can be legal in one country but illegal in another country. For example, the EU has very strict laws on data security, and if bleached they can attract a great penalty. China did not have a data regulation laws for a long period, and they have only started drafting those laws though they are not significant in the field of business in China (Bygrave, 2014). On the other hand, EU has very strict data laws which apply to both the citizens of EU and any person residing within the jurisdiction whether a citizen or not (Bygrave, 2014). This poses a challenge to carry out business between China citizens and the EU citizens.

Since GIS cut across all the countries in the world, there is a great challenge in the developing countries in coping up with the developed countries. This is because many of the developing countries do not have advanced technological systems and hence they are not able to transact businesses in time. This creates a business gap between the developed countries and the third world countries. While the developed countries focus on the efficiency of their systems, the developing countries focus on the improvement of their communication channels (Gerreffi et al., 2010). This difference causes a barrier in business transactions hence making it hard to come in a neutral ground where they can transact in business.

Every country has its own tariffs in importing and exporting of products. Those tariffs differ since each country focus on what will make a significant economic growth. Due to that fact, the interests of the countries in the businesses differ. This creates a gap which affects the information systems. According to Holden (2014), tariffs influence the increase of imports and hence discouraging trade among many nations. They are among the main barriers to trade.

Economic and political stability is important in carrying out any given business. However, in the world, there are many countries which are not politically stable which in turn affects the economic stability.  Some of those countries may have the best resources for business but because of the instability fail to have a share in the world market (Roe and Siegel, 2011).  This makes the GIS useless even if they are put in place in those specified areas.

Due to all these challenges, it is evident that each company should plan on how to do analysis to get insights of the challenges which face the global information systems. The effectiveness of adopting the global information systems and the challenges which are associated with the adoption should also be researched.  Also, the research gap of how to adopt some common aspects of language and a neutral trade ground should be evaluated. This study will focus on evaluating those aspects to give some recommendations on how they can be solved.

Introduction

A research methodology is a procedural outline of how a research will be carried out. It explains the research design of the study, the target population, the sample and sampling methods which will be used in selecting the sample, the instruments for data collection, the procedure for data collection, and the limitations of the study. It also explains the schedule of the research, the reliability, and validity of the collected data.

Type of research

This research will be quantitative. Quantitative research is a procedural investigation using a scientific method to collect data to proof or disproof a given claim (Muijs, 2010). It has twelve stages. The first stage is coming up with the research question or the claim which should either be approved or disapproved by the research. This topic or claim should be empirical in nature and should be researchable (Scott and Garner, 2013). The next step is the research objectives where the researcher explains the objectives which should be met at the end of the study. Those objectives should be realistic and they should not be exaggerated (Goertz and Mahoney, 2012). Then it follows the step of research questions where the researcher comes up with the questions which he wants to be answered by the research. Those questions should be within the research objectives and they should not be too complicated or make the research too expensive (Bryman, 2015).

Then it follows the step of research hypothesis where the researcher states the claims which he wants to be approved or disapproved after the study.  The next step is the scope of the study where the researcher explains the geographical location where the research will be carried out (Bryman, 2015). Then it follows the step of  the literature review. In this stage, the researcher visits the already existing literature of the given topic. This is important because it makes him or her have a solid background of the topic under study and make it easy to know the research gaps within the topic (Polit and Beck, 2010). Then it follows the methodology section where the researcher specifies different parameters of the research. The step of explaining the type of the research is done under methodology. Then it follows the step of sampling and sample size where the researcher comes up with the sampling techniques and the sample size which will be used in the research (Mertens, 2014). The researcher then explains the instruments for data collection and how the data will be collected. Then follows the step of data analysis and finally, the researcher gives out recommendations from the analyzed data.

Sample and sampling methods

This research will use purposive sampling. This is a non-probability sampling method which allows one to select a sample following specified rules (Etikan et al., 2016). This method will be used because it is the easiest method of selecting a sample from a survey. The sample size of the study will be 150 participants where all of them should be employees of the Rip Curl Company but working in different locations. The survey will be uploaded on the main website of the company for the employees to participate and then a sample of 150 participants who meet the selection criteria will be chosen. This large sample has been preferred so that the assumption of normality can be made. This is based on the central limit theorem which states that as the sample size gets larger, the data tends to approach normal distribution (Cramer and Eisert, 2010).

Instrumentation

A Questionnaire will be the main tool for data collection in this research. The questionnaire will be designed and then uploaded to the Rip Curl Company website as a survey for the employees to participate.

Data collection and analysis

The researcher will collect data from the company which is Rip Curl. The collected data will then be downloaded and the participants who meet the set rules be selected for the analysis. After the selection, the data will be entered into an excel file for cleaning and then it will be exported to SPSS software for analysis.

Reliability and validity of the data

The collected data will be assumed to be reliable. This is because the data will be collected using both scientific and statistical methods hence after cleaning the achieved data will be more reliable and valid.

Research limitations

This research has few limitations. The participants may opt not to get involved in the study hence the data collection process may be faced with challenges. Also, some of the participants may give false information hence making the data less reliable. The time schedule is also limited hence the may be no enough time to carry out the process of data analysis and get all the required information.

Time schedule

The first month
week one	1. designing questioners understanding theoretical parts
week two	visit the companies involved in the study and familiarize
week three	1. sample selection data collection
week four	verifying the questioners used for data collection
The second month
week one	data cleaning
week two	data analysis
week three	findings
week four	recommendations

In conclusion, this research has been done to evaluate the management of a global team. This has been based on the Rip Curl Company which is located in Australia but operates in many parts of the world. A survey will be conducted to collect data from the workers of that company and then analysis will be done to get more information from the data. The research will focus more on the global information systems

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