For an organization like IBM which has worldwide presence spanning different regions, working across geographically separated teams is a challenge in itself. More often than not, there are teams working on same products, services or solutions, spread across different countries owing to time differences and better serviceability for customers worldwide. While the advantages of this kind of a working relationship are numerous, it is imperative that a healthy relationship be established for the effective functionality.
The broad level issues which crop up in a cross-site relationship model are : - How does culture affect the working relationship? - Technical Problem Resolution - When to contain the problem, when to let everyone know it exists. - Imbalance of responsibility matrix & dynamics involved in decision making across sites. - The importance of a personal relationship as well as a working one.
Though these not-so-obvious issues may not be show-stoppers, they do have a significant impact on the seamlessness of the business proceedings. Therefore it becomes essential in a multicultural work environment, to have all the parties involved to analyze the above stumbling blocks and come up with feasible mutually acceptable practices.
Being a part of an organization like India Software Labs that offers ample opportunities for cross site work, we experienced the problems mentioned above in our day to day operations. Therefore we set up a cross-site workgroup with representatives from each of the locations involved. The activities of the group included identifying the above problems, doing causal analysis of the problems identified and coming up with tangible workarounds/practices for implementation.
The paper highlights the findings of the workgroup and contains helpful facts like Best Practices, Do"s & Dont"s, Tips etc. for addressing cross site issues that range from something as simple as accent differences to complex issues like involvement in decision making. These suggestions can be effectively applied to any team which works in a cross geographical environment for better relationship building.
