ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses learning and communication in groups of engineers working together designing complex projects from four world areas. Challenges in such global teams are based both in cultural differences and in properties of the technological environment. Though the engineers had mastered complex engineering models, most did not have up-to-date communication models for technologically mediated, cross-cultural environments. Although technologies are often lauded for their power and potential to stimulate creativity and increase possibilities for collaboration—in fact they are commonly framed as somewhat magical—technology can actually be a handicap. With reduced contextual information, the possibility of misunderstanding increases while the possibility of learning about diverse interactional styles and cultural expectations through informal observation and participation decreases. There is a role for social scientists to play in researching people using technology in the global workplace and in disseminating knowledge from research to professional audiences. There is also a significant role for those whose professional training includes social science to be valued members of global teams, helping innovate practices to increase understanding of the complex, but taken-for-granted nature of human interactions, as well as providing empirically based communication models to complement other valued professional skills.
