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From mukesh_5854
Time-zone Economies and Managerial Work in a Global WorldSrilata Zaheer
Carlson School of Management 3-365University of Minnesota321 - 19th Ave. SouthMinneapolis, MN 55455Phone (612) 624-5590FAX (612) 626 1316szaheer@csom.umn.edu January 1999For Earley, P.C. and H. Singh, (eds.),
Innovations in InternationalManagement
, Sage.
Time-zone Economies and Managerial Work in a Global WorldAbstract
In an increasingly interconnected world, reports of the value added forfirms from global relay strategies across time-zones have begun toproliferate. This paper is an attempt to understand why economiesfrom location and coordination across time-zones may exist, and whythey may not be realizable from just operating multiple shifts in onelocation. In particular, this paper focuses on the
efficiency benefits
that arise from increasing throughput by handing off responsibilityacross time zones and from the ability to respond rapidly to thedemands of a global value-adding network; and the
informationadvantages
that can accrue to a firm from the internalization acrosstime-zones of the search for knowledge and information. The role of managerial coordination, and the critical issue of the synchronizationof individual circadian rhythms and social rhythms with work rhythmsin obtaining time-zone economies, is examined, as are the socialunderpinnings of the efficiency and information benefits. The paperconcludes with a discussion of the implications of time-zoneeconomies for managerial work in a global world.
2
Time-zone Economies and Managerial Work in a Global World
"…many companies find that they can obtain a competitiveedge by using the differences in time zones between countries toobtain a 24-hour per day workday …"Quinn, 1992, p. 53
Reports of the value added for firms from configuration andcoordination (Porter, 1986) across different global time-zones, haverecently begun to proliferate. Engineering companies claim to havestructured their value-adding activities around the world in such a wayas to be able to hand off projects from office to office, to obtainefficiency benefits by “following the sun”. Fluor Corporation, forinstance, which is an engineering firm located in Irvine, California, hasset up engineering design offices around the world. On time-criticalprojects, a team in the California location can complete a full day of design on the project, and at the end of the day pass the project on toa design team in the Philippines, which, after working on it, in turnsends it over to structural engineers in Calgary and Houston fromwhere it is sent back to Irvine. In effect, the project gets the benefit of almost three days of effort within a single 24-hour period. Byfollowing this global relay strategy, in this case of the
responsibility
fordevelopment work
, Fluor maintains that it has cut as much as threemonths out of a 14-month engineering design cycle. Similarly, Bechtel
1
The informational aspects of such global relay strategies are dealt with in a working paper byMosakowski (1998).
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