Improving collaboration among telecommuters

Following Coghlan and Brannicks empirical action research phases, this paper aims to solve the lack of collaboration within our group of telecommuters. Manifestations of our groups issue include not knowing each other, inability to get help from each other or receive timely and correct responses from group members who are experienced in the solution we deliver. By collaboratively identifying the issue and agreeing on our interventions, our group changed the way we work and increased our interaction through (1) weekly meetings that let us share our projects, updates and challenges and (2) utilizing our shared folder to exchange solution documents, best practices and references for self-help. Tellioglus Collaboration Lifecycle, Wheelans Stages of Group Development and different technologies found in the workplace shaped the interventions and solutions implemented during the course of this research. These activities were successful in achieving our objectives of getting to know each other, improving our system expertise through knowledge sharing and receiving correct responses through real time conversations. Working together increased our value for our groups goal to provide quality solutions and systems to our customers. Our projects and the theories used led me to understanding that different collaborative tools can be used based on the maturity level of groups and the groups learning requirement. Based from our process intervention, real time communication was most effective when most of our group was composed of new members. Information sharing through online content also proved useful after we established our group norms. Lastly, this action research improved me as a person by increasing my understanding on others, widening my perspective in group behaviors, and improving my decision making through reflection