Analysis of Global Teams Management and Information Systems

This report delves into the intricacies of managing global teams through the lens of global information systems (GIS). It begins by defining GIS and its significance in business operations, highlighting its role in collecting, processing, and integrating information. The report then explores various models used in adopting GIS, including the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) model, the Technology, Organization, and Environment (TOE) context, and GIS control mechanisms. The DOI model is examined in detail, outlining its factors and categories. The report provides a case study of the Rip Curl Company, a multinational corporation, to illustrate the practical application of GIS in a real-world scenario. It outlines the company's history, global operations, and the research objectives and questions guiding the study. The report further reviews the literature on GIS, discussing cultural challenges, and the impact of technology on business. The report aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of GIS and its application in managing global teams, offering insights into the challenges and strategies for success in a global business environment.

Running head: MANAGING GLOBAL TEAMS
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Managing Global Teams
Name
Institution

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INTRODUCTION
Global information systems can be defined as the information systems which are
designed with the main goal of collecting, processing and integrating information to for a given
field. This system has been adopted by many businesses to carry out their operations of
managing the global teams. These global teams include the workers and other stakeholders who
are employed or have partnered with multinational companies to carry out a business. The
control of these information systems has an extensive history ranging from the early views on the
management of the system development projects to more recent examination of the technology
outsourcing (Bulgurcu et al., 2010). There are different models which are used in adopting the
global information systems to manage the global teams. The next section will discuss some of
the most used models in adopting the GIS.
Diffusion on innovation (DOI)
This is one of the widely used models in adopting the GIS. It focuses on how, why and at
what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures operating at individual and firm
levels (Anderson and Raza, 2010). This theory claims that innovations are communicated
through given specific channels for a certain period of time, and they only affect a given target
group. There is an assumption that people have different perceptions which in turn influence
their willingness to adopt the GIS and hence the adoption rate is normally distributed at any
given period of time (Anderson and Raza, 2010). Breaking the normality individuals are
categorized in the five levels of this theory. Those categories include the innovators, early
adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. It also includes two types of people the

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opponents and the supporters of the innovations. It is through the supporters and the opponents
where the best decision about the innovations is made.
Based on this theory, the GIS at the firm level is influenced by three factors. Those
factors include the leader characteristics, the internal structural characteristics of the
organization, and the external characteristics of the organization (Hofmann-Wellenhof et al.,
2012). The leader characteristics describe her attitude towards change and his or he willingness
in accommodating new ideas. The internal structural characteristics include aspects of
centralization, realization, and formalization of the firm. Centralization is the degree, at which
the power is concentrated within few individuals of the firm, complexity is the degree to which
the employees poses knowledge and expertise in fields which are of benefit to the company, and
formalization is the degree to which the company emphasizes the importance of following rules
and procedure of the firm to its members (Hofmann-Wellenhof et al., 2012). This theory is based
on research and analysis of the companies’ policies.
Technology, Organization, and environment context
This model was developed in early 1990’s to help in advancing the DOI model. It
focuses on three aspects which influence the adoption and implementation of the GIS strategies
in any given company (Ifinedo, 2012). The technological aspect describes both the internal and
external technology devices being used in the firm. The organizational structure refers to
descriptive measures about the organization such as scope, size and managerial structure
(Ifinedo, 2012). The environment context focuses on the area in which the company has been
carrying out its business and the potential competitors, customers and the possible threats to the
company. All these aspects if well integrated make the company successful in business.

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Many scholars use this method to understand the GIS and IT adoption models in the
firms. Some of those aspects include the electronic data interchange (EDI), open systems,
Websites, E-commerce, and management systems (Ifinedo, 2012). These aspects cannot be well
analyzed using the DOI hence the best model to analyze them is the TOI.
GIS control
This is defined as the process of an individual or a group of persons who seek to
influence the behavior of another person to achieve certain set objectives. Those objectives can
either be developmental or operational (Ifinedo, 2012). It includes both the managerial and
conceptualization methods in controlling a given group of individuals. It affects the GIS direct.
Those people who are easily influenced and are not rigid for a change adopt the new methods
easily and hence there is a high probability of significant growth in those companies they work
in.
GIs control includes an evaluation of different aspects. Those aspects include the
evaluation of the technical parts of the organization like information security mechanisms; the
managerial techniques influence the employees towards the achievement of the firm objectives
(Ifinedo, 2012). Information security and governance are also directly related to the GIS control.
This is because it is within the GIS control where the security measures and the most effective
governance strategies are developed. This includes the incorporation of the employees and other
internal and external stakeholders who have direct influence on the firm.
GIS is directly influenced by five primary control concepts. Those concepts include the
Social-emotional experiences, control environment, control outcomes, and the control execution.

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All those four factors influence the fifth factor which is the control features (Ifinedo, 2012). The
factors affect the company both internally and externally.
Control environment
This is also viewed as an independent entity in GIS. It is basically focused on the general
environment in which the business and control of the global employees operate. It presents
organizational factors which can directly influence the choice of employees or the choice of a
customer (Ifinedo, 2012). Five themes are the main determinants of the control environment.
They include the choice, strategy, structure, process, culture, and people (Al Sawalqa & Qtish,
2012). The strategy theme refers to the influence which the management uses to maintain in the
market over the specified environment. The structure theme refers to the characteristics which
define the model of the business and its relation to managing the overboard employees (Al
Sawalqa & Qtish, 2012). The process theme refers to how the chosen structure and strategy
influence the choice of GIS environment control (Al Sawalqa & Qtish, 2012). The culture theme
refers to how the internal and external characteristics of the company influence the culture of
other competitors both internally and externally.
The Rip Curl Company
This is an Australian company which deals with designing, manufacturing, and retailing
the Surfing sports ware. It is a global company which operates in many regions of the world.
Most of its operations are carried out in Australia, Europe, South America, North America and
South Africa (Beverland et al., 2010). It was founded in 1969 by Warbrick and Brian with its
operations limited to only Australia (Beverland et al., 2010). By the year 1970, it had started the

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operations of making Wetsuits which they believed were the best for surfing. This was
influenced by the existing technology by then.
This company has been known as one of the most powerful companies in campaigns in
surfing history. It influenced the making of some surfing films. It has won many awards abroad
and within Australia due to its outstanding abilities in innovations. The Flash Bomb wetsuit won
three consecutive SIMA awards. The company took more than six awards at the SBIA awards in
Australia in the year 2017. The campaign launched for my Bikini won the SIMA award in the
year 2013.
Since this company has an outstanding performance, this research will be based on it. The
evaluation of how it manages the GIS will be analyzed, and the challenges which it faces will
also be analyzed to make sure that the research gaps are met. Another reason which has made
this Company to be chosen is that it is a global company which operates in different geographical
locations in the world and hence they management has an experience of diverse culture, different
tariffs, economic stability and other challenges which face companies which operate globally.
Also, the company has been in existence for a long period of time hence its stability in the
market means that it has the potential to overcome most of those barriers.
Research objectives
1. To gain understanding of information systems and the importance in business
2. To better understand why the multinational companies use the Global information systems
3. To identify different business problems and how they can bring challenges in the global
information systems

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4. To suggest reliable and efficient computerized strategies in managing the global team
5. To evaluate the diverse models which make global information systems successful
Research questions
The primary question of this research is how the global information systems can be
integrated to successfully manage global teams? The following are the secondary questions of
this study.
1. What is the importance of global business systems in Business?
2. Why do multinational companies use the global information systems?
3. What are the best strategies to manage the global information systems?
4. What are the diverse models which make the global information systems successful?
Project scope
This research will be carried out in the RIP Curl Company. However, since this company
is multinational, the research will not be limited to Australia. It will be carried out in all the
regions where the company operates. Since it is not easy to travel to the locations for data
collection, the study will be based on a survey. The survey will be designed, and then the
researcher will seek permission from the main offices of the company in Australia to conduct a
survey within the company’s branches. This survey will be administered by the researcher
together with the operational manager in the main offices at Australia. This will ensure that the
data collected is reliable and the integrity of the employees of the company has not been
compromised.

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LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
The global information system is any communication system which is developed and
used in the global context. It incorporates the aspects of global software development and
outsourcing. There are three main tasks in developing the global information systems that are the
process and system design, technical architecture, and support mechanisms (Laudon. K. and
Laudon .J., 2011). All the three aspects have different roles. The process and system design are
concerned with how the processes between the distributed actors are organized, the technical
architecture is concerned with how the actors are able to collaborate, and the support
mechanisms are concerned with how the actors process communication, collaboration, and co-
operation (Laudon. K. and Laudon .J., 2011). All the three aspects integrate to form the global
information systems.
Overview of the global information systems
There are many studies which have been done to evaluate the significance of global
information systems in the business field. The GIS has attracted interest from many people
because it makes it easy to organize activities and bring together people who are far from each
other (Pearlson et al., 2016). Due to the development of the GIS which has been influenced by
the advancement in technology, it has been made easy to carry out businesses without the barrier
of geographical positions.
Due to the advancement in technology and subsequent use of global information systems,
business has developed into a global scale and hence creating new challenges though the GIS has

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made it easy to carry out the businesses. The following section will discuss some of the
challenges which have resulted due to the adoption of the global information systems in carrying
out business.
The cultural challenges
Information systems can be influenced by the culture in different ways. The Global
information systems are applied in different regions to make businesses successful, and hence
those regions may have different cultures (Oliveira and Martins, 2011). The strategies to be used
so that the two business partners can come into a neutral ground regarding the culture is the main
challenge in the business field (Galliers and Leidner, 2014). Also, due to the cultural differences
in different countries, many multinational countries find it hard to manage employees in different
parts of the world which have varying cultures (Reichert and Weber, 2012). This poses a great
challenge to the companies since many of the employees opt to leave the job and if they stay,
they don’t perform well since they work under pressure.
The challenges of language
The use of global information systems may also be affected by language barriers. English
is the main language which is used on the internet. This language can only be understood by the
native speakers who account for only 26.3 percent as compared to the non-native speakers who
account for more than 74% (Pennycook, 2017). This can lead to misunderstandings due to lack
of lingua franca. Also, those people who are not native English speakers do not speak a common
language, and hence there is a great challenge is deciding the common language which can be
used for communication. Even if a common language is adopted, the duration at which the
business people will take to understand it may also be a challenge. This is because to set the

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criteria of how to select such a language and the people who are interested in it may be hard to
estimate.
Legal requirement challenge
The global information systems incorporate many countries globally. Each country has its
laws on data security. Those laws vary from one country to another, and hence this is a great
challenge since an act can be legal in one country but illegal in another country. For example, the
EU has very strict laws on data security, and if bleached they can attract a great penalty. China
did not have a data regulation laws for a long period, and they have only started drafting those
laws though they are not significant in the field of business in China (Bygrave, 2014). On the
other hand, EU has very strict data laws which apply to both the citizens of EU and any person
residing within the jurisdiction whether a citizen or not (Bygrave, 2014). This poses a challenge
to carry out business between China citizens and the EU citizens.
Challenges in the field of technology
Since GIS cut across all the countries in the world, there is a great challenge in the
developing countries in coping up with the developed countries. This is because many of the
developing countries do not have advanced technological systems and hence they are not able to
transact businesses in time. This creates a business gap between the developed countries and the
third world countries. While the developed countries focus on the efficiency of their systems, the
developing countries focus on the improvement of their communication channels (Gerreffi et al.,
2010). This difference causes a barrier in business transactions hence making it hard to come in
a neutral ground where they can transact in business.

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Trade tariffs
Every country has its own tariffs in importing and exporting of products. Those tariffs
differ since each country focus on what will make a significant economic growth. Due to that
fact, the interests of the countries in the businesses differ. This creates a gap which affects the
information systems. According to Holden (2014), tariffs influence the increase of imports and
hence discouraging trade among many nations. They are among the main barriers to trade.
Economic and political considerations
Economic and political stability is important in carrying out any given business.
However, in the world, there are many countries which are not politically stable which in turn
affects the economic stability. Some of those countries may have the best resources for business
but because of the instability fail to have a share in the world market (Roe and Siegel, 2011).
This makes the GIS useless even if they are put in place in those specified areas.
Due to all these challenges, it is evident that each company should plan on how to do
analysis to get insights of the challenges which face the global information systems. The
effectiveness of adopting the global information systems and the challenges which are associated
with the adoption should also be researched. Also, the research gap of how to adopt some
common aspects of language and a neutral trade ground should be evaluated. This study will
focus on evaluating those aspects to give some recommendations on how they can be solved.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
A research methodology is a procedural outline of how a research will be carried out. It
explains the research design of the study, the target population, the sample and sampling
methods which will be used in selecting the sample, the instruments for data collection, the
procedure for data collection, and the limitations of the study. It also explains the schedule of the
research, the reliability, and validity of the collected data.
Type of research
This research will be quantitative. Quantitative research is a procedural investigation
using a scientific method to collect data to proof or disproof a given claim (Muijs, 2010). It has
twelve stages. The first stage is coming up with the research question or the claim which should
either be approved or disapproved by the research. This topic or claim should be empirical in
nature and should be researchable (Scott and Garner, 2013). The next step is the research
objectives where the researcher explains the objectives which should be met at the end of the
study. Those objectives should be realistic and they should not be exaggerated (Goertz and
Mahoney, 2012). Then it follows the step of research questions where the researcher comes up
with the questions which he wants to be answered by the research. Those questions should be
within the research objectives and they should not be too complicated or make the research too
expensive (Bryman, 2015).
Then it follows the step of research hypothesis where the researcher states the claims
which he wants to be approved or disapproved after the study. The next step is the scope of the

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study where the researcher explains the geographical location where the research will be carried
out (Bryman, 2015). Then it follows the step of the literature review. In this stage, the researcher
visits the already existing literature of the given topic. This is important because it makes him or
her have a solid background of the topic under study and make it easy to know the research gaps
within the topic (Polit and Beck, 2010). Then it follows the methodology section where the
researcher specifies different parameters of the research. The step of explaining the type of the
research is done under methodology. Then it follows the step of sampling and sample size where
the researcher comes up with the sampling techniques and the sample size which will be used in
the research (Mertens, 2014). The researcher then explains the instruments for data collection
and how the data will be collected. Then follows the step of data analysis and finally, the
researcher gives out recommendations from the analyzed data.
Sample and sampling methods
This research will use purposive sampling. This is a non-probability sampling method
which allows one to select a sample following specified rules (Etikan et al., 2016). This method
will be used because it is the easiest method of selecting a sample from a survey. The sample
size of the study will be 150 participants where all of them should be employees of the Rip Curl
Company but working in different locations. The survey will be uploaded on the main website of
the company for the employees to participate and then a sample of 150 participants who meet the
selection criteria will be chosen. This large sample has been preferred so that the assumption of
normality can be made. This is based on the central limit theorem which states that as the sample
size gets larger, the data tends to approach normal distribution (Cramer and Eisert, 2010).

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Instrumentation
A Questionnaire will be the main tool for data collection in this research. The
questionnaire will be designed and then uploaded to the Rip Curl Company website as a survey
for the employees to participate.
Data collection and analysis
The researcher will collect data from the company which is Rip Curl. The collected data
will then be downloaded and the participants who meet the set rules be selected for the analysis.
After the selection, the data will be entered into an excel file for cleaning and then it will be
exported to SPSS software for analysis.
Reliability and validity of the data
The collected data will be assumed to be reliable. This is because the data will be
collected using both scientific and statistical methods hence after cleaning the achieved data will
be more reliable and valid.
Research limitations
This research has few limitations. The participants may opt not to get involved in the
study hence the data collection process may be faced with challenges. Also, some of the
participants may give false information hence making the data less reliable. The time schedule is
also limited hence the may be no enough time to carry out the process of data analysis and get all
the required information.
Time schedule

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The first month
wee
k
one
1. designing questioners
understanding theoretical parts
wee
k
two
visit the companies involved in the study and
familiarize
wee
k
thre
e
1. sample selection
data collection
wee
k
four
verifying the questioners used for data
collection
The second month
wee
k
one
data cleaning
wee
k
two
data analysis
wee
k
thre
e
findings
wee
k
four
recommendations
In conclusion, this research has been done to evaluate the management of a global team.
This has been based on the Rip Curl Company which is located in Australia but operates in many
parts of the world. A survey will be conducted to collect data from the workers of that company
and then analysis will be done to get more information from the data. The research will focus
more on the global information systems.

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Cramer, M., & Eisert, J. (2010). A quantum central limit theorem for non-equilibrium systems:
exact local relaxation of correlated states. New Journal of Physics, 12(5), 055020.

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Etikan, I., Musa, S. A., & Alkassim, R. S. (2016). Comparison of convenience sampling and
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Pennycook, A. (2017). The cultural politics of English as an international language. Taylor &
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Appendix
The questionnaire
1. What is your age?
a) Below 18 years
b) Above 18 years
2. What is your position in the Rip Curl Company? Please specify.
Answer ………………………..
3. If you are not a native of the location you work is it easy for you to adopt the culture in that
specified region?
a) Yes
b) No
4. How long did you take to feel comfortable in the location you are working in?
Answer (in months) …………………………..

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5. Do you value the GIS of the Rip Curl Company?
a) Yes
b) No
6. If yes what is unique with it?
Answer …………………………………………………….
7. If no what is the main challenge or downfall do you think the company has not addressed?
Answer ……………………………………………….
8. In the region you work do you find it hard to cope with the culture, laws and other living
specifications?
a) Yes
b) No
9. Why do you either find it hard or easy to adopt in the new system?
Answer ………………………………………………………
10. Given an opportunity would you prefer working in your native location?
a) Yes
b) No

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