Sunday, January 23, 2011

Un “laboratorio vivo” que agoniza

El valle de Cuatro Ciénegas agoniza. Los cultivos de alfalfa, que absorben gran parte del agua de su acuífero, están secando las lagunas y los pozos de esta área natural protegida, considerada como un laboratorio vivo porque ahí habitan microorganismos más antiguos que los dinosaurios. La bióloga Valeria Souza, científica que desde hace una década estudia esta región de Coahuila, es quien lanza la alerta: “Necesitamos que las autoridades se activen para salvar Cuatro Ciénegas”.
Valeria Souza se ha convertido en la voz de Cuatro Ciénegas: “Si perdemos este lugar, no sólo se perderán muchas especies, sino la oportunidad de entender cómo se originó y evolucionó la vida en la Tierra”. La científica no exagera.
Esta investigadora del Instituto de Ecología de la UNAM, junto con un equipo de 40 científicos, estudia este valle desde hace una década. Sus trabajos han ayudado a entender la importancia del lugar: se trata de uno de los pocos sitios del planeta en donde todavía se pueden encontrar los primeros microorganismos que comenzaron a transformar la vida en la Tierra hace 3.5 mil millones de años.
Además del trabajo científico que realiza en la zona, Souza libra una batalla por la conservación del ecosistema. Su lucha es para detener el intenso cultivo de alfalfa que se destina a la industria lechera. Estos cultivos se realizan en los valles vecinos a Cuatro Ciénegas y aun dentro del valle de Cuatro Ciénegas. Para regar el alfalfa se han abierto pozos de hasta mil metros de profundidad, por lo que se está sobreexplotando el manto acuífero del que dependen las pozas de Cuatro Ciénegas.
En 2007, durante la celebración del Día de la Tierra, el presidente Felipe Calderón anunció que se realizarían acciones para proteger el acuífero de Cuatro Ciénegas, entre ellas establecer una veda para la explotación del agua en el valle El Hundido. Sin embargo, Souza afirma que esas acciones han quedado incompletas, porque no se ha concretado la veda para los valles de Ocampo y Cuatro Ciénegas, pese a que varios estudios científicos nacionales e internacionales han demostrado que los tres valles están interconectados y dependen de un mismo acuífero.
También recuerda que el Congreso de la Unión asignó 70 millones de pesos para realizar obras hidráulicas que preserven el acuífero: “Estamos en 2011 y todavía no vemos nada”.
La científica menciona que grandes empresarios se oponen a tener una veda que permita salvar el acuífero de Cuatro Ciénegas y, por su parte, la Comisión Nacional del Agua —institución responsable de proteger el acuífero—, “lo único que quiere es usar más agua para la agricultura, sin tomar en cuenta cuánta agua realmente hay y cuánta se puede usar para no afectar el ecosistema y, por lo tanto, es una batalla constante convencerlos de que el ecosistema va primero y de que la agricultura debe de utilizar los sobrantes de manera más eficiente”.
Una tierra “que se va”
Valeria Souza conoció Cuatro Ciénegas en 1999. Ese año fue invitada por la NASA para participar en un estudio sobre las formas de vida en esta zona de Coahuila. “El lugar es rico en minerales que son muy abundantes en Marte, por lo que su estudio puede dar pistas sobre la posibilidad de vida en ese planeta”. Pero también puede resolver muchos misterios sobre cómo evolucionó la vida en la Tierra.
Cuatro Ciénegas es uno de los pocos lugares en el mundo en donde hay una abundancia de estromatolitos, es decir, colonias de bacterias cuyos orígenes se remontan a por lo menos 3 mil 500 millones de años. Por lo regular, los investigadores sólo encuentran fósiles de estas colonias, pero en las pozas de Coahuila están vivos.
Los científicos también han encontrado que en Cuatro Ciénegas comenzaron muchos de los cambios que permitieron a la Tierra tener su imagen actual.
Resulta que a principios del periodo Jurásico, Pangea empezó a separarse por la falla de La Fragua, localizada justo debajo de Cuatro Ciénegas.
Cuando la formación de la sierra Madre Oriental levantó el altiplano central, aisló esta región del golfo de México, hace 35 millones de años.
La vida que estuvo por millones de años en este mar antiguo, quedó aislada y evolucionó en la región de Cuatro Ciénegas. Con el tiempo, ese mar se fue y las aguas continentales lentamente predominaron en las pozas, pero los datos moleculares dicen que la vida marina resistió esos cambios y guardó en sus genes la historia de su vida en el mar. “Es por eso que sabemos que los estromatolitos que ahora viven en Coahuila son descendientes de las bacterias que vivían en el mar antiguo”.
Al mismo tiempo que los científicos descubren que las pozas de Cuatro Ciénegas tienen un origen marino, “detectamos que la zona es afectada porque se hace una gran extracción de agua para el cultivo de alfalfa de la industria lechera. Es como sentirse descubridor de una tierra que se va”, lamenta Valeria Souza.
La mayor evidencia de la agonía de Cuatro Ciénegas es la laguna de Churince, donde el agua ha disminuido en forma considerable. “Cada que visito la zona, el agua está cada vez más baja, hay más pozas muertas”, dice Souza.
Ciencia para la gente
Ante el estado crítico que vive Cuatro Ciénegas, los científicos comenzarán a realizar un inventario de especies. “Estudiaremos una área de cuatro por cinco kilómetros; vamos a ver cada virus, cada bacteria, cada hongo, cada planta, cada microbio, para poder entender cómo se mueven los nutrientes en ese lugar y cuál es la relación que hay entre todos ellos. Esta es una medida desesperada para entender lo más posible antes de que se muera”.
Hasta ahora, en Cuatro Ciénegas se han encontrado 150 especies endémicas, tomando en cuenta sólo las especies que pueden mirarse a simple vista, porque a nivel microscópico es “muy probable que sea el lugar del planeta con mayor diversidad de bacterias”.
Tan sólo en una de las muestras analizadas, los científicos encontraron 17 antibióticos nuevos y 18 resistencias a esos antibióticos. Por ello, “si Cuatro Ciénegas se muere, se perderían muchísimos recursos genéticos”.
Valeria Souza y un grupo de 40 científicos no están dispuestos a sólo mirar cómo muere este valle.
Además de seguir con su trabajo científico, el equipo comenzará una “revolución” que Souza llama “la ciencia para la gente”.
Lo explica así: “Los científicos buscaremos aplicaciones de los recursos genéticos que están encontrando en Cuatro Ciénegas, para que el dinero que se obtenga por la comercialización de las patentes regrese a los pobladores del valle, a través de proyectos de conservación, educación y salud”.
Lo que está en juego en Cuatro Ciénegas —asegura la investigadora— es tan grande que todo el equipo científico está dispuesto a dar su tiempo y su conocimiento gratis para que pueda sobrevivir este lugar.
Mientras alguna autoridad estatal o federal toma en serio la agonía de Cuatro Ciénegas, científicos como Valeria Souza seguirán enfocando la luz de alerta sobre este ecosistema.

Friday, January 21, 2011

La Solteria


En la actualidad las parejas ya no está unidas por 30 o 40 años como sus padres o abuelos porque el amor no dura tanto tiempo y en la manera que la mujer es más independiente económicamente rompe el lazo que lo tenía amarrada a un hombre por tanto tiempo, la vida familiar evoluciono y les resta a las parejas actuales el saber que no son seres humanos perfectos y que a nadie le gusta vivir solo porque somos seres sociales.
Hace tiempo cuando el mayor porcentaje de la economía era rural convenía poner y tener muchos hijos  a trabajar a temprana edad ya que ellos disminuían los costos y trabajo dentro de la pequeña (o grande) cantidad de tierra, por lo que los padres aumentaban su riqueza en la medida de la cantidad de hijos, y los hijos maduraban más rápido teniendo responsabilidades a temprana edad delegadas por los padres, ahora la riqueza de una persona radica igual en la cantidad de hijos pero ahora es inversamente proporcional, esto quiere decir que entre menos hijos tengas y entre más tiempo los mantengas sin trabajar educándolos y sin brindarles tanta responsabilidad como en el pasado será la riqueza dentro de una familia urbana, dado que ahora la población ha dejado el campo para vivir en metrópolis y atrasado la madurez e independencia de los hijos manteniéndolos en casa hasta a la edad adulta de 35 años algo impensable con nuestros padres y abuelos mas con una amplia educación desde licenciatura hasta doctorado.
Más de cuatro años de su vida gastaron María y Eduardo en un noviazgo aparentemente feliz, que se acabó cuando terminaron la carrera que estudiaron juntos. Fue como si hubieran agotado los temas de conversación que tenían en la universidad, para entrar en una competencia profesional que, lejos de dar trascendencia a su relación, marcaba territorios incompatibles. Finalmente, Eduardo confesó que cuando se dio cuenta de que su noviazgo le reclamaba mas formalidad, tuvo miedo de continuar, porque necesitaba tiempo para saber si María era la mujer con quien realmente deseaba pasar el resto de su vida.
Su caso es el de cada vez más parejas 'modernas' que huyen de la responsabilidad como del demonio incluso cuando ya tienen todo preparado para la boda.
Quizás no supieron nunca que el verdadero amor no se traduce en 'sentir bonito' cuando se está frente a la pareja y que tampoco significa: 'estar de acuerdo en todo lo que se hace', porque cuando realmente se ama a alguien se adquiere el COMPROMISO MORAL de ayudarlo respetuosamente a ser mejor, a que crezca como ser humano en todos los aspectos.
Cuando los jóvenes sueñan con encontrar al príncipe azul o a la súper-mujer para ser felices siempre, tendrán que plantearse con toda seriedad si no están esquizofrénicos, porque un mundo así solo se dá en las letras o en las telenovelas, donde navegamos a merced de la imaginación del autor, pero no en el mundo, donde el Creador ha dispuesto para los hombres la felicidad y el sufrimiento, los logros y los fracasos, la aceptación y el rechazo, y la lucha constante y permanente, desde que nacemos hasta que dejamos de respirar.
Hace poco llego a mis manos una información de Cimac, en la que Martha Celia Herrera, psicoterapeuta del Centro de Interdisciplinar Conductuales, asegura que las mujeres aun hoy conservan la expectativa de encontrar a un hombre maduro, productivo, estable, inteligente, paternal, que cambie pañales, que las acompañe al pediatra, que sepa preparar papillas que sea una excelente pareja, tierno, que externe sus emociones, que no pida relaciones íntimas cuando ella está enojada, que sea empático.
Ellos, entre tanto, buscan a la mujer de sus sueños: productiva, inteligente, excelente anfitriona, que desee uno o dos hijos cuando él lo decida, que no pida dinero, que sea autosuficiente, independiente y autónoma, que colabore en la economía familiar y que cuide a los niños, que lave, planche, cocine y tenga bien arreglada la casa, además de que se dé tiempo para cuidar su apariencia, que siempre esté súper delgada, que sea vea sexy, etc., etc.
La doctora Herrera dice, que con la revolución sexual y el feminismo se rompió el equilibrio tradicional entre el papel que correspondía a los hombres y el que estaba destinado a las mujeres. Los varones se asustan frente a las mujeres que compiten con ellos en su espacio laboral y que a menudo están más calificadas que ellos, y esa amenaza a veces se extiende al campo sentimental. Influye también que se dividieron los roles, pero nunca quedaron delineados. Ahora la mujer tiene más actividades que antes, porque debe estudiar, trabajar y atender a su familia, hecho que resulta desconcertante para todos.
Las expectativas femeninas y las masculinas son irreales y poco objetivas. Muchos ni siquiera son capaces de expresar lo que esperan del otro. Yo no soy psicoterapeuta, pero sé que en la vida nada es mágico ni gratuito.
Los hombres y las mujeres hemos sido siempre los mismos, aunque las circunstancias han cambiado y, en este renglón, no tan positivamente como sería deseable. Hoy queremos que todo sea fácil y desechable, pero eso no posible en las personas. Nadie está ya hecho; la vida entera no nos alcanza a veces para irnos moldeando según nuestras metas y proyectos.
De la misma manera dos seres inacabados, tendrían que estar conscientes de que van a esculpirse juntos durante toda la vida. Anhelar un príncipe azul o una súper mujer junto a nosotros NO es un PECADO, pero si puede llegar a convertirse en un obstáculo para ser felices al lado de un ser humano de carne y hueso, con potencialidades y miserias que, como nosotros, necesita comprensión y verdadero amor para perfeccionarse poco a poco. Si hoy tantas relaciones se rompen después de un tiempo de tratarse en su noviazgo, es precisamente porque no estamos dispuestos a trabajar para forjar una relación sana, sincera, basada en el verdadero amor, que no es solo romanticismo, sino prueba constante de fidelidad, comunicación, respeto y de humanidad.
Curiosamente, la doctora Herrera concluye que, mientras estudian licenciaturas, maestrías y doctorados, hombres y mujeres no se dan tiempo para 'habilitarse en pareja', para hablar de si mismos. Todo eso se queda guardado y, cuando cumplen 30 años o más deciden tener un compañero, suponen que, como por arte de magia, contarán con habilidades que no desarrollaron, porque nunca se dieron tiempo para hacerlo.
Para relacionarse con otra persona hay que estar dispuesto a negociar, a manejar enojos, a discutir -no pelear- porque aunque existan puntos de vista diferentes, es posible conseguir objetivos que satisfagan a los dos, dice la doctora. Pero eso cuesta.
Quizás el problema radica en que nadie desea comprometerse a entablar la lucha por lograrlo. Demasiado egoísmo. Diría yo. Cada día son más las mujeres y hombres, profesionistas, independientes, inteligentes y de éxito, que ven pasar los años sin encontrar pareja. Personas, de todas las clases sociales se encuentran frente al mismo problema.
Son Solteros y Solteras, se han quedado atrapados(as) en un espacio dentro de la sociedad actual, muy limitado en cuanto a diversiones y actividades, y se les dificulta mucho encontrar personas en su misma situación, ya no se diga para casarse, sino simplemente para acompañarse y entablar una buena amistad.
Ya no existe la palabra 'solterón (a)' y su imagen ha cambiado 180 grados, ya no es el hombre o la mujer gris, amargada, vestido como fraile o monja (según sea el caso); ahora son seres impecables, atractivos(as), de muy buen carácter. Que van supliendo la juventud con personalidad, desarrollo humano e intelectual.
Pero la soledad no es exclusiva de aquellas personas que son solteras, hay mujeres que aun estando rodeadas de mucha gente llegan a sentirse muy solas, y a sufrir de carencias afectivas.
También entre mujeres y hombres casadas(os), que comparten su vida con su pareja, es frecuente encontrar 'solos(as) acompañados(as)'. Para poder amar verdaderamente hay que renunciar a creer que ese sentimiento es el fin de la soledad, y estar dispuestos a aceptar dos soledades, la del otro y la propia. Y es que amor es confesar: Si, yo te amo como tú eres... aunque no correspondas a mis sueños y a mis esperanzas, Tu realidad me da mucho mas regocijo que mis sueños...'
A mis amigos que son... SOLTEROS: El amor es como una mariposa. Mientras más lo persigues más te evade. Pero si lo dejas volar, regresará a ti cuando menos lo esperes. El amor puede hacerte feliz, pero muchas veces duele, pero el amor sólo es especial cuando se lo entregas a alguien que realmente se lo merece. Así que tómate tu tiempo y elige lo mejor.
A mis amigos que son... NO TAN SOLTEROS: El amor no es convertirse en la 'persona perfecta' para alguien. Es encontrar a alguien que te ayude a ser la mejor persona que puedas ser.
A mis amigos QUE...... SÓLO QUIEREN VIVIR UN MOMENTO O USAR A LAS PERSONAS, PARA SENTIRSE MEJOR: Nunca digas 'Te Quiero', si no te importa. Nunca hables de sentimientos si en verdad no los sientes. Nunca toques una vida si pretendes romper un corazón. Nunca mires a los ojos cuando todo lo que haces es mentir. Lo más cruel que un hombre le puede hacer a una mujer es dejarla que se enamore cuando él no tiene la intención de corresponderle y esto es para ambas partes....
A mis amigos que son....CASADOS: El amor no es 'tu culpa', el amor dá libertad de acción y de pensar, la monotonía se desintegra con imaginación, comunicación y mucho respeto, el amor no es: gracias por aguantarme, el amor no es mantener la relación por los hijos, el amor es de pareja no de familia ni de hijos, el amor es respeto mutuo, confianza, fidelidad, la verdadera medida de la compatibilidad no son los años que han pasado juntos, pero sí que tan buenos son el uno para el otro.
A mis amigos que... TIENEN EL CORAZÓN DESTROZADO: Los corazones rotos duran tanto y como uno desea y cortan tan profundamente como los dejas continuar. El desafío no es como sobrevivir a un corazón roto, sino aprender de ellos.
A mis amigos que... TIENEN MIEDO DE CONFESAR: El amor duele cuando terminas con alguien. Duele mucho más cuando alguien rompe contigo. Pero el amor duele más cuando la persona que has amado NO TIENE IDEA DE COMO TE SIENTES.
A mis amigos que... TODAVÍA ESTÁN AGUANTANDO: Una cosa triste de la vida es cuando conoces a alguien y te enamoras, sólo para encontrar al final que nunca funcionó y que has perdido años de tu vida con alguien que no valía la pena. Si él o ella no vale la pena ahora, él o ella no valdrá la pena en un año o en 10 años. Déjalo ir.
A TODOS MIS AMIGOS: Mi deseo para ustedes es que encuentren un hombre o mujer cuyo amor sea honesto, fuerte, maduro, que nunca cambie, enriquecedor, protector, animado, recompensarte y nada egoísta... y si ya lo encontraron, aprécienlo y no lo dejen ir!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Virtual Teams: The use of technology as a tool in teamwork.

CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION
1.1 Global and virtual Business
Companies will need to balance their necessity for a unified global culture with local strategic and cultural differences and make core global values locally relevant and easily understandable for all employees. Operating in a global economy will create even more demand for leaders with global and multicultural experience. This means it will be more important for key talent to have expatriate experience. Companies will find their best people anywhere in the world, so successful workers will be willing to work outside their home country.The concept of off-shoring will not exist in the future and talent will exist globally and companies will go where the talent is. The purpose will not be to get the lowest-cost labor, but rather the highest-quality talent. This will be especially true with technical and creative workers. Global companies will become more adept at managing a global enterprise on a 24/7 basis, with more management and technology systems in place to allow work to be easily passed around the world. There will be a more progressive use of partnerships and alliances across functions, organizations and customers to build more collaborative and innovative ways to compete and win market share.Societies throughout the world will focus on work as a more important crucible for social progress and values. The memory of today’s financial crisis will leave a legacy of greater scrutiny and regulation of issues such as fairness, pay differentials and ethics, particularly in traditional Western economies(Workforce Management, December 2008);millennials will redefine work, doing work at home and taking home to work;this means blurring the boundaries of life and work; More workforce mobility will allow people to work from home at different hours.
1.2 Relevance
In the information technology (IT) century the distances get shorter and the languages have broken the walls because the technology has changed more easily everything in the e-business world. The use of IT tools is growing every year in different processes in the companies. “Recruitment and development will increasingly be seen as part of an integrated workforce-supply optimization process. Both will become virtual, global and just-in-time, but they will also be transformed through an increasing emphasis on optimization, differentiation and return on investment”. (Workforce Management, December 2008), social networks and wikis will to support building strong relationships and collaboration between the virtual teams and face-to-face members of the companies; the structure of work will become more adaptive, more informal and less focused on formal structures and static design solutions. The HR professionals will have competencies in finding and retaining talent and in managing contract and freelance workers locally and internationally.
Technological progress and the evolution of virtual networks and social vetting—that is, using formal networks such as LinkedIn or social networks as twitter or facebookto establish trust and research people’s backgrounds—will increase workplace flexibility. The trends will increase the use of emerging work structures that involve engaging professional and social networks through means such as "crowd sourcing"—when an organization invites the public to help solve a problem (Qualman, 2010).
The talent market will look a lot more like eBay than Monster or Yahoo HotJobs. Candidates will put themselves up for bid for specific work;hours and duration will name their minimum price, including benefits and perks;employers will contract with each worker for what will be delivered (Workforce Management, December 2008).
1.3 Objective of study
The present research have as objective to find the way about how the leader share the leadership with persons who arenot physically in the same place and have to work virtually, detect which e-tools are used in virtual teamwork by teammates; exploring the different ways for share leadership, Knowledge and develop trust between teammates.
If is only one person who take important decisions or is by consensus in the team, and how is the interrelationship between the members who are sharing the leadership and finally find the strategy used when the original leader need to be on charge for present the result landed or commissioned by the top management.
In sum, this study aims to address the following questions:
How is the leadership in the virtual teams who use the technology as tool in teamwork?
Is the Time an important factor forcreating trust between team members?
What happens if the virtual team members get in touch by social networks before start to work?
Is recommended that virtual teamwork have face-to-face meetings when the project is for long time? How should be for the projects in short time?
Is virtual teamwork recording evidence of their work?
If you saw the profile (In whatever social network) of one of yours teammate before of sharing information, Could be an important factor in faithfulness on the kind information is it sharing? And what happen when that information come from the team leader?
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Virtual teamwork

Organizational teams can be defined as a set of individuals who perceive themselves and whom outsiders perceive as constituting an identifiable social aggregate within the organization (Richter, Scully, & West, 2005); teamwork is considered to be some of the more important work done in today’s organizations, (Parker 1996). In fact, organizations presuppose teamwork. Without teamwork at some level of cooperation, organizations cannot exist. Teams are considered to be the “standard operating procedure” in most high tech organizations and teams have become an important topic of study in the last decade. Advances in information and communications technology have enabled teams to work together in a virtual environment on tasks that at one time were assumed to require face-to-face meetings. The enabling of virtual team work occurred in parallel with competitive pressures that have forced many companies to shorten product development windows and reduce costs by outsourcing internationally. Organizations increasingly view virtual teams as a means to increase their flexibility and responsiveness while reducing costs (Haywood, 1998); (Hoefling, 2001); (Karolak, 1998);(Mitchell, 2001).
One of the defining characteristics of avirtual team is the computationally enabled andenhanced nature of its communication (Cummings &Kiesler, 2008). Defining characteristics of a virtual team is that it has a distribution of team members across time, geography or both. Virtual teams rarely (or never) meet face-to-face and depend on information and communications technology for their coordination and collaboration (Bell, 2002). Virtual teams can be characterized by their cultural or geographic similarity, temporal distribution and life cycle (Bell, 2002); (Kristof, 1995).
A rapid growing trend in the era of information technology is the increased prevalence of virtual teams in which members work collaboratively in geographically dispersed locations, given that advances in IT facilitate communication and the sharing of information among virtual team members (Shachaf, 2008).Virtual teams may range dramatically in termsof the degree to which they utilize virtuality, with someonly communicating using highly virtual tools such asinstant messaging and teleconferencing, while othersare less virtual, making use of videoconferencing andregularly scheduled face to face meetings.
As good communication and interaction add to the depth and richness of mutual understanding between the members of virtual teams, management should keep upgrading IT facilities and tools that help communication and interaction so that shared vision, perceived trust, and perceivedbenefit can be enhanced to the anticipated extent. Managementshould keep in mind that there is no ‘‘one size fits all” solutionfor enhanced perceived job effectiveness, by purely, for example,encouraging cooperative attitude and discarding competitive conflict.Virtualteams count heavily on e-mail, chat tools, social networks, online conference, instantmessaging or other online systems to accomplish their teamwork.
Companies need to have in mind that is necessary considered the following factor for excellent job effectiveness like a good leadership, trust between team members, knowledge sharing, cooperative attitude and competitive conflict it must avoided as they can when its mean individual selfinterest,may favor cooperation even if all members of a groupwould benefit in their cooperation with one another according tothe prisoner’s dilemma from game theory. Competitive conflict isdefined as a perceived state of discord due to a rivalry betweenteam members for benefits, resources or territory. Although traditionaltheories suggest that competitive conflict among teammembers is likely to undermine their job performance due to itscatalysis to increased tension (e.g.,Passos& Caetano, 2005; Richteret al., 2005).

2.2 Sharing Knowledge

Knowledge sharing is defined as individuals’ sharing organizationally relevant experiences and information with one another in collaboration, increasing the resources of an organization or a team and reducing time wasted in trial-and-error (Lin, 2007a; Lin, 2007b).
However, we cannot say that simply by assigning formal facilitators will contribute to a high performance team. What the literature found is that it was the way the facilitators performed their role that mattered most than the mere availability of facilitators.
The competence and skills of a facilitator, formal or informal, in bringing individuals together and in encouraging the use of collaborative technologies and the development of shared understanding can foster an atmosphere of collaboration and trust building within the virtual team environment and allowed to be distributed effectively.
Knowledgesharing across team members can be both competitive andcooperative in nature (Luo et al., 2006). The competitive nature often happens since knowledge can generate private gains for individualsto outperform their counterparts (Luo et al., 2006). Cooperative attitude involves the recognition that individualteam members may benefit from working complementarily (Brandenburger&Nalebuff, 1996). Put differently, those memberswhose knowledge adds value to the work of their co-workers arelikely to share knowledge (Levy et al., 2003), Developinga shared vision strategically among individual members of theteams is critical in team collaboration (Ferioli&Migliarese,1996), because a shared vision reflects an important agreementof beliefs and assumptions that consequently bring about internalstability to the cooperative attitude (Henderson &Sifonis, 1988),suggesting its positive influence on cooperative attitude.

2.3 Trust between virtual team members
Trust can be defined as a relationship of reliance among membersof a team or an organization. The importance of trust in successfulinterpersonal relationships has been discussed in previousresearch (Neves& Caetano, 2009; Sargeant& Lee, 2004). Individualsaim to practice cooperation with other team members whenthey perceive the members to be trustworthy. The cooperation thatcaptures the level of coordinated actions between team membersin their efforts to achieve mutual goals cannot be realized withouttrust among the members (Palmatier, Dant, Grewal, & Evans,2006). Indeed, given that perceived trust can be defined as a member’s expectation thatanother member desires co-ordination, willfulfill obligations, and will pull weight in the relationship (Dwyer,Schurr, & Oh, 1987; Peters &Karren, 2009), team members whopossess trust on their peers are perceived to be under obligationnot to undermine their team collaboration (Morris et al., 2007),indicating thepositive relationship between perceived trust andcooperative attitude.
Moreover, studies suggests that shared goals may be used to minimize power imbalances and the exercise of coercive power, by driving progress through the pursuit of mutually beneficial objectives based on a perceived  equity of return. It is important to highlight that knowledge is becoming the source of power in the current digital age and this power moves to the knowledge source. When virtual team relationships are damaged and internal confusion exists, managers need to begin the task of rebuilding trust in the pursuit of developing as best as possible collaborative global virtual teams.
Management attempting to boost cooperationin their teams within a short period should arrange a gettogetheror workshop so that team trust can be built efficiently given thatvirtual teams are sometimes temporary ones and have no sufficienttime for members to foster trust with each other. As good communication and interactionadd to the depth and richness of mutual understanding betweenthe members of virtual teams, management should keepupgrading IT facilities and tools that help communication andinteraction so that shared vision, perceived trust, and perceivedbenefit can be enhanced to the anticipated extent.
Jarvenpaa and Leidner(1998) studied in detail theelectronic communications of the highest and lowesttrust teams in their study of global virtual teams. Thehigh trust teams sent early, positive email messages and kept a strong, sustained focus on action and task results, reinforced by frequent communication. Incontrast, the low trust teams were markedly less activethroughout their life cycle.People may tend to start out trustingothers, but members of both types of teams need tomeet work expectations early in order to maintain thetrusting environment.
2.4 Leadership in virtual teamwork
In order to keep a team on track andfulfilling its potential, a leadership function that must be performed is the monitoring of the team. This functionis not limited to only monitoring team members’processes and performance, but also extends to monitoringthe environment (Hackman & Walton, 1986;McGrath, 1962; Tukl, 1989). Team monitoring providescritical information to team members that influencethe impact of subsequent leadership functions.When team monitoring is present, team leaders areseen as more effective and the team is more cohesive(Kane, Zaccaro, Tremble, & Masuda, 2002).
Due to increased complexity in ensuringeffective team processes when faced with virtualand distributed team environments, leadership behaviors may often be shared among members. Sharedleadership has been defined multiple ways, but acrossresearchers there appears to be a unified agreementthat shared leadership involves team members distributingleadership responsibilities amongst themselves,without negating the possibility of vertical leadership(Pearce & Conger, 2003). As with the broader leadershipliterature there have been a variety of leadershipbehaviors and/or functions which have been argued tobe the content of shared leadership (Morgeson, DeRue,&Karam, 2009). Many researchers have looked at thecomponents that predict the success of these sharedleadership behaviors and the impact it has in a varietyof environments (Carson, Tesluk, &Marrone, 2007;Merkens& Spencer, 1998) and is most effective when tasks are interdependent and complex (Pearce, 2004).
Shared leadership may be particularly important tovirtual teams and has emerged as a critical component in the modern organizational world, where team members’ separation fromthe leader and from one another may necessitate thedistribution of leadership functions. While the sharing of leadership has proven to be advantageous to moretraditional forms of vertical leadership (Pearce, Yoo, &Alvai, 2004),Klein et al (2006) found that inshared leadership work environments, teams that weremore effective had leaders that were able to recognizewhen it was necessary to either delegate responsibilitiesor directly intervene to maintain high levels ofperformance.Shared leadershipmay be particularly important to virtual teams, whereteam members’ separation from the leader and fromone another may necessitate the distribution of leadershipfunctions.
Arecent review of the leadership literature proposes foursources of leadership, broken down into two structuraldimensions: locus of leadership (internal vs. external)and formality of leadership (informal vs. formal). Inthis review, Morgeson, DeRue, and Karam (2009)describe an external leader as one that is not involvedin day-to-day tasks, while an internal leader is seen asan equal within the group. A formal leader is directlyassigned to be a leader (e.g., immediate supervisor,project lead, and the like), while an informal leader isdescribed more as an advisor, someone that does notcome into the leadership position by direct assignment. These classifications permit four sources of leadership, with vertical leadership being classified as external-formal and shared leadership falling under the internal-informal source.
 Shared leadership has been conceptualized in manyways (Carson, Tesluk, &Marrone, 2007; Friedrich, etal. 2009), but the underlying theme among these definitionsis that shared leadership involves the distributionof the leadership responsibilities within the team(see Jackson, 2000; Lambert, 2002; Pearce & Conger,2003),there has been someempirical research suggesting that when virtual teamleaders provide evaluative and systematic feedback,there is a greater degree of team identification andcommitment (Sivunen, 2006).
There are some research who has put forth several competencies that are to foster shared leadership for example Lambert (2002)suggests the ability to: negotiate win winsolutions through team learning, influence follower behavior, problem solve within a systems framework, and use shared visioning to empower members.Additionally, an examination of the role theory literature by Carson and Tesluk (2007) produced four roles (e.g., navigator, engineer, social integrator, and liaison)which yielded utility to team members without formaltitle or position of authority, as is often the case with shared leadership. When these roles manifest within ateam there appears to be a clear team direction and purpose(navigator), structuring of team roles, functions, and responsibilities (engineer), development and maintenanceof team coherence (social integrator), anddevelopment of relationships with key external stakeholders(liaison).
Besides work on the models and frameworks of shared leadership, research has delineated some conditionswhich may impact the emergence of shared leadership.For example, Pearce, Perry, and Sims (1999) identify five conditions: geographic dispersion, demographicheterogeneity, team size, skill heterogeneity,and maturity. Geographic dispersion, large team size,and demographic heterogeneity are expected to negativelyimpact the likelihood of shared leadershipemerging as coordination and communication. Conversely, skill heterogeneity should facilitate theemergence of shared leadership as different skills areoften needed based on the temporal point in the team’s life cycle. Teams with breadth in their abilities are more likely to be positioned to effectively engage inshared leadership, given the right climate and that members are comfortable with and cognizant of thepossession of different skills.
CHAPTER III - THEORETICAL MODEL AND HYPOTHESES
3.1 Theoretical Model
Due to advances in technology and the globalization of organizations, teams may often be distributed geographically,making use of virtuality in order to accomplishtasks. Similarly,teams can range in their degree of distribution, with some teams having all members fully distributed inseparate locations or, more commonly, teams withsome degree of partial distribution, such as the leader, in the same location as two or three team members andthe remaining team members spread out in variouslocations. While much has been done to advance ourunderstanding of virtuality and distribution’s impacts on team processes and performance, capturing thenuances of these differing degrees of virtuality and distributionremains challenging for researchers(Connaughton& Shuffler, 2007; Gibson & Gibbs,2006).
My theoretical model is going try to answer if is only one person who take important decisions or is by consensus in the team, and how is the interrelationship between the members who are sharing the leadership and finally find the strategy used when the original leader need to be on charge for present the result landed or commissioned by the top management and have fundament in a preview studies about share leadership functions in virtual teams Marissa L. Shuffler et al. 2010.
3.2 Hypotheses
3.2.1 Define mission
An integral part of any team process is the presence of a clear, concise, and direct mission.How the mission gets defined is largely the part of the team leader. The outcome of this leader function is tobreak down the ultimate goal of the team into tangible,achievable, challenging tasks and assure that these tasksare shared among team members. The more ambiguous and monotonous the tasks are, the less motivated teammembers will be in achieving those tasks and the lesslikely team members will have a shared understanding of the tasks. Without a shared understanding of the mission, team members will be less likely to develop thecollaborative and cohesive relationships necessary for effective team functioning.
H1a. Virtual teams who share at the beginning of the project the principal mission will be less difficulty get goals.
H1b. Virtual teams who share the function of defining the mission between teammates will have less difficulty defining the mission than if the leadership takes alone.
H1c. Virtual teams whose leaders maximize the capabilities of virtual tools will be more successful in the defining the mission than who do not.
3.2.2 Establish Expectations and Goals.
Once a team has a common grasp on the mission, the next leadership function involves establishing performance expectations and goals relative to that mission. In shared leadershipcontexts, this function is often served by multiplemembers of the team, with individual team members typically conveying their own expectations whileadhering to a common set of goals and expectationsemerging from team interaction (Pearce & Sims, 2002). Regardless of the leadership source, teams that facilitate goal setting are associated with improved performance(Cohen, Chang, & Ledford, 1997). In the virtualteam context, the presence of expectations and goals has been shown to help develop a common team identity,which was subsequently associated with teammembers collaborating more effectively (Cramton, 2001; Javenpaa&Leidner, 1999). However, no empiricalresearch has investigated the aspects of sharedleadership that impact the emergence of such shared expectations in virtual teams.
In terms of the impact of virtuality and distribution on sharing the function of setting expectations and goals, it is likely that both the degree of distribution and virtuality may interact to negatively impact expectations and goals. As with defining the mission, distributingteam members across time and space, along with reducing the richness of their communication media, can negatively impact how well information is shared(Cramton, 2001; Burke, et al., 2005). Furthermore, asteam members in highly virtual and fully distributed teams may be from different cultures, it is likely thatdeveloping a shared understanding regarding theexpectations of the team will be more challenging, as culturally driven expectations may be distortedthrough misunderstandings or biases (Jarvenpaa,Knoll, &Leidner, 1998; Kayworth&Leidner, 2001/2002). This team member diversity can be especially difficult when the establishment of expectationsand goals is shared across team members who havediffering cultural beliefs as well.
H2a Shared leadership will be more effective in establishing expectations and goals in virtual teams when habitual routines are present early in team´s lifecycle.
H2b Virtual teams who shared expectations and goals will be reduced the competition between teammates and increase cooperation
3.2.3 Structure and Plan.
These leader functions have established how team members will work independently from one another. The structuring and planning function addresses the potential interactions between team members during the transition phase. Team members need to develop a shared understanding of how they will coordinate their actions effectively in the accomplishment of team goals (Moregson et al. 2009). In shared leadership, members of the team are involved in the day-to-day functions. Intuitively, by sharing this responsibility, members should be more effective in understanding what it the best way to the work, the temporal demands of the task, team member expertise, and how to utilize team member availability and expertise to meet temporally driven task demands. Specifically, low virtuality has the potential to hinder the effectiveness of this leadership function by providing fewer opportunities to clarify the structure and plans in dynamic contexts.
H3 Shared leadership of highly virtual and partially or fully distributed teams that utilize more informal virtual tools (e.g., instant messaging, emails) on a regular basis will be more effective at structuring and planning than if using more formal means (e.g., teleconferencing, videoconferencing) that require additional coordination.
3.2.4 Provide feedback.
This leadership function allows teams to understand previous performance cycles, adapt future behavior based on previous performance, and develop over time (Einstein & Humphreys, 2001). Within the context of shared leadership, Morgeson et al., (2009) suggest that informal internal leadership is best at providing and receiving ongoing task-related feedback, there has been some empirical research suggesting that when virtual team leaders provide evaluative and systematic feedback, there is a greater degree of team identification and commitment (Sivunen, 2006) and the effectiveness of this leadership function is highly dependent of the ease and type of information conveyed between team members.
H4 Distribution of leaders sharing the function of providing feedback impacts the success of this feedback, such that feedback will be more successful when members sharing this function are spread across locations than when all members sharing the function are collocated.
3.2.5 Perform team task.
Leaders who are involved in day-to-day activities have a better understanding of the team process and where the team may be lacking in terms of task completion. This ground level understanding provides leaders with “the ability to get things done” (Hackman and Walton, 1986, pp. 108), which is necessary in order to perform this task, the nature of shared leadership, it is likely that the division of these roles among members instead of simply having one leader perform all these roles may be a great advantage as it spreads the cognitive load of these roles across multiple people.
H5a Virtual team with recorder information will increase the teamwork efficiency
H5b Virtual teams who more equally distribute various leadership roles (e.g., creator, contributor, completer) will be more successful at performing the team task than those who do not.
CHAPTER IV METHODOLOGY
Why use a qualitative method for this research because it permits us getting information that we cannot obtain in quantitative method for example for study human behavior and behavior changes, we enrich our results with people´s words and actions, in qualitative research the conceptual framework arises from the data rather than from preconceived hypotheses.
Qualitative research is a form of inquiry that analyzes information conveyed through language and behavior in natural settings (Lincoln, 1985). It is used to capture expressive information not conveyed in quantitative data about beliefs, values, feelings, and motivations that underlie behaviors. Qualitative methods derive from a variety of disciplines and traditions (Crabtree, 1992).
An interview with staff could begin with an open-ended, nondirective question, such as “What happened the last time someone tried to make changes in the “X” case?” and then follow through on expressions of enthusiasm, indifference, or disillusionment that emerge from initial responses whit the observation and permit us deep on a question and in that way try to ask another important question that could address us for an important topic.
Qualitative observation and interviews can provide invaluable practical information: Who teammate might improve their performance, or what e-tool is better for improve the communication. But at a deeper level qualitative encounters are also necessary to understand the “structure” of a system: how interdependent individuals, groups, and institutional components function (or fail to function) together.
Qualitative research techniques are essential for uncovering the extent of these interdependencies and the values that members throughout the system place on them and on the status quo. They provide tools for the visitor or outsider to a complex social system to characterize its important components and to anticipate and coordinate the effects of change throughout it. Whereas commonly used quantitative research methods provide information about universal circumstances, properly applied qualitative techniques yield extensive structured knowledge about these kinds of circumstances, processes, sources of meanings, values, and interactions unique to one place and one system at a specific time. Because every existing institution is simultaneously a bureaucracy, business, social system, and web of vested interests, changes that make a significant impact on such institutions may only be fully understood, prospectively or retrospectively.
Interview
An interview is a conversation between two or more people (the interviewer and the interviewee) where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from theinterviewee (Wikipedia, 2010).I want to use interview because are particularly useful for getting the story behind a participant’s experiences. The interviewer can pursue in-depth information around the topic. Interviews may be useful as follow-up to certain respondents to questionnaires, e.g., to further investigate their responses. (McNamara, 1999).
Jokes and “horror stories” shared in the interview should be taken seriously because they can convey a lot about the core values, traditions, and traumatic experiences of the staff who tell them, interviews are invaluable for discovering past events and experiences that have proved influential to people in the present.

Observation

Observations could be categorized, check listed or rationed scale that bring us information (key informant in interview), permit us to understand experiences especially important to shaping perceptions and decisions (“critical incident” reports); or to generate new information from groups of subjects in focus groups. Audio taping or videotaping these interactions helps guarantee that expressive data are captured accurately and completely as they emerge. Taping also permits the researcher to carry the data to more controlled settings, where they can be transcribed, coded, analyzed for important themes and meanings, and verified using trained evaluators our observations may not answer all of our questions, but they can provide a working sense of which to investigate further, what other questions to ask, and a preliminary sense
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