Modeling and Analyzing Cultural Influences on Project Team Performance

Research on international joint ventures (IJV) finds managers experience difficulties in working with cross-cultural teams. Our research aims to understand how cultural differences between Japanese and American firms in IJV projects effect team performance through computational experimentation. We characterize culture and cultural differences using two dimensions: practices and values.Practices refer to each cultures typical organization style, such as centralization of authority, formalization of communication, and depth of organizational hierarchy. Values refer to workers preferences in making task execution and coordination decisions. These preferences drive specific micro-level behavior patterns for individual workers. Previous research has documented distinctive organization styles and micro-level behavior patterns for different nations. We use a computational experimental design that sets task complexityat four levels and team experience independently at three levels, yielding twelve organizational contexts. We then simulate the four possible combinations of USvs.Japanese organization style and individual behavior in each context to predict work volume, cost, schedule andprocess quality outcomes. Simulation results predict that: (1) both Japanese and American teams show better performance across all contexts when each works with its familiar organization style; (2) the Japanese organization style performs better under high task complexity, with low team experience; and (3) process quality risk is not significantly affected by organization styles. In addition, culturally driven behavior patterns have less impact on project outcomes than organization styles. Our simulation results are qualitatively consistent with both organizational and cultural contingency theory, and with limited observations of US-Japanese IJV project teams.This paper won the best Ph.D. student paper award at NAACSOS 2004, Pittsburgh PA. NAACSOS is the main conference of the North American Association for Computational Social and Organizational Science.Tamaki Horii is a Ph.D. candidate in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Stanford University. His research focuses on various aspects of cultural and institutional influences on team performance. He is currently developing new models to capture and distinguish the cultural factors that emerging in global projects. He received a MS in Architecture at the Science University of Tokyo and a MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University.Yan Jin is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at University of Southern California and Director of USC IMPACT Laboratory , and a visiting Professor of Civil Engineering Department at Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. degree in Naval Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1988. Prior to joining USC faculty in the Fall of 1996, Dr. Jin was a Senior Research Scientist at Stanford University. His current research interests include design methodology, agent-based collaborative engineering, and computational organization modeling. Dr. Jin is a recipient of National Science Foundation CAREER Award (1998), TRW Excellence in Teaching Award (2001), Best Paper in Human Information Systems (5th World Multi-Conference on Systemic, Cybernetics and Informatics, 2001), and Xerox Best Paper Award (ASME International Conference on Design Theory and Methodology, 2002).Raymond E. Levitt is a Professor of Civil Engineering Department at Stanford University, a Professor, by Courtesy, Medical Informatics, an Academic director of Stanford Advanced Project Management Executive Program, and a Director of Collaboratory for Research on Global Projects (CRGP) . His Virtual Design Team (VDT) research group has developed new organization theory, methodology and computer simulation tools to design organizations that can optimally execute complex, fast-track, projects and programs. VDT is currently being extended to model and simulate service/maintenancework processes such as health care delivery and offshore platform maintenance. Ongoing research by Professor Levitts Virtual Design Team research group attempts to model and simulate the significant institutional costs that can arise in global projects due to substantial differences in goals, values and cultural norms among project stakeholders.     

Multiplex phase cycling

We discuss a new class of phase cycling procedures, in which a set of individual phase-shifted transients are stored separately in the computer and processed afterwards to yield the separated NMR signals from two or more coherence transfer pathways. In the case of two-dimensional double-quantum spectroscopy, this multiplex acquisition procedure allows the acquisition of pure-absorption spectra in only 62.5% of the time needed by previous methods.     

Determination of the dissociation constant and limiting equivalent conductance of a weak electrolyte from conductance measurements on the weak electrolyte

A method is described for computing the dissociation constant and equivalent conductance at infinite dilution, A_o , for a weak electrolyte from as few as two conductance measurements at different concentrations. The iterative procedure applied to acetic acid data yielded a dissociation constant of 1.80 X 10-⁵ and an average value (n = 4) of A_o of 389.5 compared with an expected value of 390.7.     

Heterogeneous chemistry of organic acids on soot surfaces

We have investigated the heterogeneous interaction between a number of carboxylic acids and soot generated from different fuel sources and formation mechanisms. A low-pressure fast flow reactor in conjunction with ion drift-chemical ionization mass spectrometry detection was employed to study uptake of monocarboxylic (benzoic, oleic, and steric) and dicarboxylic (glutaric, maleic, oxalic, and phthalic) acids on deposited soot surfaces formed by combustion of methane, propane, and kerosene. Most acids exhibited irreversible uptake on the soot surfaces and the uptake coefficient was measured in the range of 9 x 10(-4) to 1 x 10(-1) estimated based on the geometric surface areas. Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller surface areas of the deposited soot surfaces were measured and the soot bulk and surface chemical compositions were evaluated with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and attenuated total reflection spectroscopy. Plausible uptake mechanisms were discussed on the basis of the measured soot physiochemical properties by comparing the mono and dicarboxylic acids.     

Short perspective on "NMR population inversion using a composite pulse" by M.H. Levitt and R. Freeman [J. Magn. Reson. 33 (1979) 473-476

The invention of the composite pulse by Malcolm H. Levitt in 1978 is described from a personal perspective.     

Heterogeneous chemistry of butanol and decanol with sulfuric acid: implications for secondary organic aerosol formation

Recent environmental chamber studies suggest that acid-catalyzed reactions between alcohols and aldehydes in the condensed phase lead to the formation of hemiacetals and acetals, enhancing secondary organic aerosol (SOA) growth. We report measurements of heterogeneous uptake of butanol and decanol on liquid H2SO4 in the range of 62-84 wt % and between 273 and 296 K. Both alcohols exhibit two distinct types of uptake behaviors (partially irreversible vs totally irreversible uptake), depending on the acid concentration and temperature. For the partially irreversible uptake, a fraction of the alcohol was physically absorbed while the other fraction underwent irreversible reaction. For the totally irreversible uptake, the alcohols were completely lost onto the sulfuric acid. The Henry's law solubility constant (H*) was determined from the time-dependent uptake, while the reactive uptake coefficients were calculated from the time-independent irreversible loss. Coexistence of butanol or decanol with octanal or decanal did not show enhanced uptake of the aldehydes in the sulfuric acid. Protonation and dissolution likely account for the reversible uptake, while formation of alkyl sulfate or dialkyl sulfate explains irreversible uptake of the alcohols. The results suggest that heterogeneous uptake of larger alcohols is unlikely of significant importance in the lower atmosphere except in the case of freshly nucleated aerosols that may have high acid concentrations.     

Accurate measurements of 13C-13C J-couplings in the rhodopsin chromophore by double-quantum solid-state NMR spectroscopy

A new double-quantum solid-state NMR pulse sequence is presented and used to measure one-bond 13C-13C J-couplings in a set of 13C2-labeled rhodopsin isotopomers. The measured J-couplings reveal a perturbation of the electronic structure at the terminus of the conjugated chain but show no evidence for protein-induced electronic perturbation near the C11-C12 isomerization site. This work establishes NMR methodology for measuring accurate 1JCC values in noncrystalline macromolecules and shows that the measured J-couplings may reveal local electronic perturbations of mechanistic significance.     

Cryogenic NMR spectroscopy of endohedral hydrogen-fullerene complexes

We have observed 1H NMR spectra of hydrogen molecules trapped inside modified fullerene cages under cryogenic conditions. Experiments on static samples were performed at sample temperatures down to 4.3 K, while magic-angle-spinning (MAS) experiments were performed at temperatures down to 20 K at spinning frequencies of 15 kHz. Both types of NMR spectra show a large increase in the intramolecular 1H-1H dipolar coupling at temperatures below 50 K, revealing thermal selection of a small number of spatial rotational states. The static and MAS spectra were compared to estimate the degree of sample heating in high-speed cryogenic MAS-NMR experiments. The cryogenic MAS-NMR data show that the site resolution of magic-angle-spinning NMR may be combined with the high signal strength of cryogenic operation and that cryogenic phenomena may be studied with chemical site selectivity.