Proposal Contents - Your proposal should include the following:

Call for Papers for

“Cross-cultural Issues In Collaboration Technology” Minitrack

Part of the Collaboration Systems and Technology Track

At the Thirty-ninth Annual Hawaii International Conference On System Sciences (HICSS-39)

January 4-7, 2006
Hyatt Regency
Kauai, Hawaii

Additional detail may be found on HICSS primary web site: http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu/

Papers are invited for the mini-track on “Cross-cultural Issues In Collaboration Technology” as part of the Collaboration Technology track at the Thirty-ninth Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science (HICSS-39).

Extensive research on collaboration technology (e.g., group support systems (GSS) and computer-mediated communication (CMC) systems) has shown that its use can benefit [pbl1] both face-to-face (FtF) and distributed teams. With increasing globalization, competition, outsourcing, and offshoring in the world economy, teams within organizations more frequently include individuals with diverse cultural backgrounds, creating a pressing need to better understand how the interplay of culture and collaboration technology can influence group outcomes in implementing or adopting the collaboration technology appropriately. However, a limitation of most research on collaboration is that it tends to focus on U.S. and Western cultures, leaving the issue of other cultures largely neglected. Some earlier studies have demonstrated that culture can have significant influence on behavior of individual group members and group outcomes.

This minitrack will mainly focus on the impact of cultural heterogeneity on the design, development, use, and adoption of collaboration technology. It is aimed to increase understanding of cultural issues in collaboration technology; distribute research findings in this domain; provide a forum for sharing knowledge of cultural effects on team collaboration from theoretical, technical, empirical, and practitioner perspectives; and promote further research in this important area.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

· Development of new cultural theories for GSS and collaboration technology

· Cross-cultural effect on group decision making

· Cultural issues in virtual teams and online communities

· The adoption of GSS and collaboration technology in non-Western cultures

· Cross-cultural issues associated with the management of distributed groups and/or projects

· Cultural effects on e-Collaboration

· Cultural competency integrated in computer-assisted collaborative learning

· International collaboration

· The effect of offshoring on distributed group work

· Participating in offshoring projects with GSS and collaborative technology

· Issues in homogeneous, heterogeneous, and diverse teams

Minitrack Chairs:

Dongsong Zhang Ph.D.

Department of Information Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21228, USA

Email: zhangd@umbc.edu

Doug Vogel, Ph.D.

Department of Information Systems, City University of Hong Kong

83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Email: isdoug@is.cityu.edu.hk

Paul Benjamin Lowry, Ph.D.

Kevin Rollins Center for e-Business

Marriott School, Brigham Young University

Provo, UT 84602, USA

Email: Paul.Lowry@BYU.edu

Important Deadlines:

Abstracts

June 15, 2005

August 15, 2005

September 15, 2005

Authors may contact Minitrack Chairs for guidance and indication of appropriate content at anytime.

Authors submit full manuscripts to the Peer Review System.

Authors receive decisions regarding paper acceptances from the Peer Review System. (Note: Acceptance may be conditional; revisions may be requested before final acceptance of paper.)

Deadline for Authors to submit the final version of their accepted papers for publication. At least one author of each paper must have registered to attend the conference by this date.

General Instructions for Paper Submission:

Papers must contain original material not previously published, or currently submitted elsewhere.
Contact the Minitrack Chair(s) by email for guidance and verification of appropriate content when necessary.
Pease do not submit the manuscript to more than one minitrack.
The first page of the manuscript should include the title and an abstract with no more than 250 words.
Submit your full paper according to the detailed formatting and submission instructions available on the HICSS website.
Final accepted papers will be submitted in double column publication format and limited to 10 pages including diagrams and references.