Connectivity in distributed service systems: The providers' perspective

Abstract

`Connectivity', an emerging metaphor for interactions in and around organizations originating from organizational studies, is known to positively influence the performance of distributed or `virtual' teams. We posed the question of whether there can be too little or too much connectivity between organizational actors, and whether social or technical aspects of connectivity matter most. In this paper, we report on the analysis of the data from our survey gathered from 101 individuals within 75 Indian IT service providers. We explore the relationship between organizational performance (as represented by communication effectiveness and efficiency) and the nature of connectivity among individuals within these service systems. The results show that while having a robust technical infrastructure is important, optimizing the social dimension of connectivity is perhaps more important in the long run, to increase that system's ability to co-create value.