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Tuesday 1 November 2011

Learning Through Online Collaboration by Sme Staff by John Allan, Naomi Lawless :: SSRN


John Allan


affiliation not provided to SSRN

Naomi Lawless


affiliation not provided to SSRN



University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership Historical Research Reference in Entrepreneurship

Abstract:
Purpose – The purpose of the paper is toresearch the stress caused to small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) staff byonline collaboration. It aims to investigate online team roles as possiblestressors. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on research carried out ononline collaborative teams by the authors in the Open University BusinessSchool, and on existing literature on stress and collaboration. The paper usesMTR-i™, a commercially used team role analysis tool, and Myers-Briggspersonality types to postulate reasons for stress caused by onlinecollaboration in SMEs. Findings – If team roles are not taken into account then the entrepreneurialmembers of an SME team may well find online collaboration stressful and so maynot be able to fully participate in collaboration, or support others to doso. Research limitations/implications – The limitations of the research are thatso far the research has been carried out on relatively small numbers. A muchwider scale study is needed. Practical implications – The research so far indicates that onlinecollaborative learning in SMEs (whether formal, or informal) needs to take intoaccount the team roles usually carried out by individuals at work if full useis to be made of in order to optimise online collaboration. Originality/value – This paper links Myers-Briggs personality types to theability of SMEs and entrepreneurs to collaborate online. It will informeducators and SME entrepreneurs. (Publisher Abstract)

Keywords: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Online collaboration, Open University Business School (UK), Learning networks, Stress, Cooperation, Roles, Work teams, Information & communication technologies, Internet, Virtual teams

Accepted Paper Series
Learning Through Online Collaboration by Sme Staff by John Allan, Naomi Lawless :: SSRN

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