Meeting the Challenges of a Dispersed Workforce: Managing Across Language, Culture, Time and Location

Managers and employees agree that it is more difficult to manage distance than same-site employees. Yet when asked whether or not it is worth the extra effort and cost, both managers and employees agree that it is. This Working Group Report discusses issues like payoff from effective distance management; competencies of effective distance managers; selecting and developing employees for distance work, managing across differences in language, cultures, and time zone as well as evaluating distance employees and distance managers. Ten Action Steps on how to meet the challenges of distance management round out the findings.