The University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science Presents |
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Currently Playing...Xiaolong ZhangKathryn La BarreKathryn La BarreSuzanne Weisband (Arizona, Management Information Systems) - Challenges for Leading at a Distance (April 9, 2008)note: Playback requires the Apple Quicktime Player--> Right-Click or Option-Click to download the media file Program Description: Technological advances and changes in the global economy are motivating and enabling an increasing geographic distribution of work. Many leaders today communicate regularly with individuals, with their team members, and with larger organizational units at a distance. Distant leaders lead military missions from remote locations, use videoconferencing to learn about breaking news, resolve conflicts without compensation or authority to do so, manage local and remote teams, and oversee online communities. Leadership is no longer the sole responsibility of the CEO or vice president; it can be found at every level of an organization. It becomes a special challenge, then, to understand how shifts to distributed forms of work are changing the nature of leadership. When leaders have direct access to information and to the people with whom they collaborate, it will change the way they interact with others and what they talk about. When leaders come to rely on and use sophisticated computer technologies, there will be a greater reliance on the infrastructure supporting the work and the technology. When collaboration involves hundreds of researchers, engineers, programmers, and software developers, the world of work shifts to a very different perspective on how to lead and work together. For this talk, I offer a new perspective on leadership at a distance, with a focus on leadership emergence, technical expertise, and new authority structures in large-scale collaborations. The goal is to present new challenges facing leaders in this flatter, global, highly interconnected, world of work, and to suggest new ways of working at a distance.
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School of Information Resources & Library Science, The University of Arizona |
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