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SPE 64416 The Mutable Distributed Team: A New Business Risk in the Information Age W.H. Goldthorpe, SPE, Lapis Capital and Development Pty Ltd |
Copyright 2000, Society of Petroleum Engineers Inc.
This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition held in Brisbane, Australia, 16–18 October 2000.
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Abstract
The power of Internet-based technologies has created work environments that are shaping a new type of team structure - the mutable distributed team. It is a team that contains a large proportion of part-time members and/or members working part-time on a variety of activities, widely distributed (in a disciplinary and/or geographical sense) and whose makeup may change during its life. To take full advantage of the new information systems and to manage changed team dynamics, the problems and risks faced by such teams and their leaders need to be understood and new skills need to be learnt. This paper analyses and provides examples of the class of business risks that arise from the management of mutable distributed teams in the so-called Information Age.
In the latter part of the 1990's a full-on assault on conventional transactional business processes took place to deliver ecommerce and ebusiness to the world. However, this trend will eventually lead to an even playing field for all E&P companies, large and small. Economies of scale will become less relevant and less important. Corporate value creation and growth through clever application of new information systems will be the next challenge.
The beginnings of the next phase of ebusiness have commenced. Knowledge management and enterprise systems that leverage corporate and external knowledge to its maximum advantage are being developed. New work paradigms based on knowledge communities, distributed teams, and joint venture collaborations are being shaped and will increasingly rely on Internet-based information systems. All of these forces are changing work environments and creating a new type of team that brings along with it a number of business risks.
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