The Role of Technology in Distributed Team Coordination: A multi-method investigation of a technology change process in the field

The goal of this project was two-fold: firstly, to add to the theoretical knowledge about the impact of complex media combinations for distributed team coordination, and secondly, to increase the practical knowledge for organizations and designers on how to design and implement complex technological solutions for the support of distributed teams. In this thesis I report the results of six empirical studies conducted in offshore oil production teams. The main theoretical contributions lay in the introduction of the concept of asymmetry and its effects on distributed team work, the reframing of IT implementation and adoption as a team-level process, the development of a model for IT adoption in distributed teams, a delineation of effects of technological versus structural means to bridge geographic distribution, and a detailed view on the processes, with which multiple technologies impact on team functioning and more specifically intra-team coordination in mature distributed teams. For organizations, the knowledge gained from this project can help anticipate effects of media choices on their distributed work force and guide decisions of technology choice and design. The valence–alignment framework introduced in this thesis further provides managers and organizations with a framework to analyze reactions of user to technology implementations and devise strategies against resistance. For designers this projects aims to raise awareness for the relevance of social inter-dependencies and dynamics for product acceptance and use, the possibility of disparate or even conflicting user requirements in multi-user contexts, and the importance of a stronger process view from initial attitudes to long-term use