The globalization of infrastructure and building projects allows firms to operate subsidiary offices around the world. Furthermore, new technologies are rapidly changing work environments, thus enabling these companies to implement new work practices and processes to exploit new opportunities. The international design and engineering organizations, for example, now have the possibility to develop structures and processes that enable collaborative work by decomposing work tasks and distributing them across offices dispersed around the world. This exploratory research uses a series of qualitative case studies to investigate key characteristics of worksharing practices in project-based global design and engineering companies. Specifically, this paper identifies early results regarding the motivations, organizational strategies, success factors and barriers for worksharing within multinational design and engineering companies. This research aims to better understand the process of work distribution in international design and engineering companies and to extend existing knowledge with an empirical insight to this problem.
Zerjav, V.聽and Javernick-Will, A. (2009). 鈥�.鈥� Specialty Conference on Leadership and Management in Construction.聽South Lake Tahoe, CA.