Time: 4pm, *Thursday* November 2
Place: Room 110, South Hall


PERSPECTIVE TAKING AND INFORMATION SHARING AMONG DISTRIBUTED WORKERS:  THE
        EFFECT OF DISTANCE ON SHARED MENTAL MODELS OF WORK
                      Prof. Pamela Hinds
               Management Science and Engineering
                     Stanford University

With the explosion of computer and communication technologies,
organizations are presented with opportunities for more numerous and more
varied distributed and remote work arrangements.  The technology has made
it possible to move information rapidly from points around the globe and to
converse easily with people at distant locations. As people work in more
distributed settings, they share less context and fewer experiences with
their teammates.  This reduction in shared experiences may lead workers to
have perspectives on and interpretations of their work that are not shared
by other teammates. I will present data from two studies that explore the
relationship between distance, shared context, and the development of
shared mental models of work.  Preliminary analyses suggest that having a
shared work context may be as important as physical proximilty to the
coordination of work.  

BIO
Pamela Hinds is an Assistant Professor in Management Science and
Engineering at Stanford. Professor Hinds studies the interplay between
information technologies, information sharing, and human judgment. She
is currently conducting research on the affect of remote and
distributed work on employees understanding of work, the affect of
intellectual property agreements on information sharing, and the
limitations of expertise. Hinds hold a Ph.D. in Organizational Science
and Management from Carnegie Mellon University.