Different Perceptions and Perceptions of difference in globally distributed teams

This symposium will offer theoretical reflection and empirical evidence on the importance of perception and differences in globally distributed teams (GDTs). The use of GDTs, especially those dealing with knowledge-intensive tasks, has been constantly gaining relevance in academic and managerial literature due to recent technological advances and worldwide economic changes. When working from a distance, individuals engage in still underexplored processes of perception ofthemselves, others, and common phenomena. Leaders in fact face new challenges that can be interpreted differently in co-located and globally distributed teams. In addition, organizations assign bicultural leaders to GDTs based on somewhat inaccurate perceptions of how these individuals handle their bicultural identities. Likewise, team members try to understand how their distant coworkers may be and feel, and what the team outcomes are. In the symposium, we will specifically address the centrality of the issues of perception and differences in GDTs through thefollowing research questions: What are the challenges for leaders of co-located and globally distributed teams, and how are various types of leaders perceived by team members working in different team arrangements? How do bicultural managers assigned to offshore projects deal with their own bicultural identities, and how do others perceive them? What is the interplay between team members’ different propensity to multitasking and their perception of product modularity in GDTs? How does the perception of differences of professional identities across sites shape the construction of common practices? Presenters will explore these questions through studies in various R&D settings and discuss theoretical and managerial implications.