Essay About African Lab And New Workplace

Delay and Trust in Distributed Collaboration
New Millennium, New Workplace:Implications of Changing Workplace RelationshipsDelay and Trust inDistributed CollaborationMatthew Bietz School of Information University of MichiganOverview• Critical incident/Case study• Distributed scientific collaboration• Communication breakdown led to a        loss of trust in the collaboration• Implications for trust in distributed collaborationsData Collection• International collaborative HIV/AIDSresearch– Teams from North America and Africa• Interviews with scientists about collaboration practices• 4 subjects independently brought up a recent communication breakdown in the labSupported by the John Evans Foundation, the Waterford Project, and National Science Foundation grant  #IIS 0085951.[pic 1][pic 2]The Incident•        African lab attempted a new assay that had been developed in North American lab• This assay takes at least4 weeks to complete– Requires growing cell cultures•        After an on-site training period, Africans could contact remote expert for help[pic 3][pic 4]What Happened?•        In week 3, African lab technician noticed “something weird” with the cell cultures•        Africa lab e-mailed the expert, but got no response for several days•        If the expert would have responded within 1-2 days, the assay could have been salvagedConsequences• Lost time and money• Reputation of African lab was tarnished• Africans lost trust in the reliability of        the remote expertTrust in Organizations• Related to productivity, citizenship behaviors, and other metrics of organizational performance