Stumbling Blocks or Stepping-Stones? Overcoming Barriers to E-Collaboration in Communities of Practice
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OR Insight Vol. 18 Issue 4 Octuber - December 2005
The OR Society
Stumbling Blocks or Stepping-Stones? Overcoming Barriers to E-Collaboration in Communities of Practice Jeff s. Gauer Gallaudet University Charlene A. Dylunan University of St. Thornas
solutions for turning e-collaboration stumbling
Abstract Advances in both managerial theory and information systems have paved the way for organizations to take advantage of the next electronic era, the era of collaboration. One of the key beneficiaries of successful ecollaboration are communities of practice (CoPs). To optimize the possibilities inherent to e-collaboration one must understand group theory as well as information system management because both human and technical issues present obstacles and opportunities. This paper summarizes key technical and nontechnical barriers to adopting and utilizing ecollaboration in organizations, and presents
blocks into organizational stepping-stones.
Benefits of Collaboration Before the invention and use of telescopic lenses, Eskimos (Inuits) used walrus hide blankets as a tool to scout for distant game, such as seals and walruses, over the flat tundra or pack ice. A group of hunters held the sides of a slack blanket with a person inside then snapped it flat, sending the scout 20 or more feet into the air (http://www.alaska.com).
(Sketch from Government of Canada: Ministry of Indian & Northern Affairs, 1975, #QS-8050-000-BB-Al)
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This simple, but effective, group activity is an example of collaboration. People with a shared interest (the need to locate animals for food) worked together in order to accomplish an activity (lifting the scout) for the benefit of the group (viewing distant game). Eskimos drew upon the strength of each group member, as well as coordinated their actions, in order to pull the blanket taut at the same time. Although the "blanket toss" is now only a game played at festivals, at one time the ability to perform this collaborative activity meant life or death to an Inuit tribe.
A collaborative practice may begin through expanding a group's social structure with particular objective(s) in mind, then can expand into the team's use of tools that facilitate the collaboration. The Eskimos worked together in order to hunt food, and learned to use the blanket toss for scouting the terrain. Manufacturers and suppliers may work together in order to better serve their ultimate customer base, and learn to use techniques likejust-in-time (JIT) manufacturing and electronic data interchange (EDI) to increase their joint efficiencies. As Marshall (1995) explains, "collaboration is a... process of working together that produces ... breakthrough results by building true consensus, ownership and alignment in all aspects of the organization." Collaboration has even been touted as the next significant era affecting organizations, succeeding the microcomputer era of the 1980's and the networking era of the 1990's.
Collaboration can exist within an organization (intraorganizalional collaboration) and also among p
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