Designing a tail in two cities: Leaders’ perspectives on collocated and distance collaboration

BACKGROUNDThis chapter examines leadership through studying aspects of coordination and communication in the design of the tail section of a new Airplane Incorporated airplane. This project is an interesting case of leadership at a distance for several reasons. First, the project grew out of an Airplane Incorporated initiative that called for the use of technology to coordinate with noncollocated sources of engineering manpower. When the project began, Arizonabased Aircraft Company’s engineers and engineering managers were contracted to work with Airplane Incorporated engineers based in Houston, Texas, although the companies have merged now. 1 The project involved an extended period of collocation (9 months) followed by a period of distance collaboration (15 months) between engineering teams from the two organizations. Second, collaboration between the two companies involved a constellation of technologies. A premise of this study is that we can better understand the dynamics of leadership in geographically dispersed engineering teams by looking at the way each technology was appropriated by team leaders and engineers. Third, because the project involved periods of collocation and distance collaboration, tradeoffs between both can be examined. The following sections underscore some of these tradeoffs by summarizing data gathered from interviews and observations that took place over an eightmonth period from April 1 to November 15, 1998. Before we discuss details of the field study, let’s examine the following question: What are some differences that leaders need to be aware of between distributed and …