Noah Wilfert

Josh Brower
Senior Internship
12/15/15
Distance and its Effects on the Workplace

Introduction:
During my internship with the LEGO toy company I worked remotely. My mentor
is based in Connecticut and most of the team I was working with were located in LA.
Day to day would look something like in the morning Id have a call with my mentor as
she was leaving work and she would assign me something for the day. If I encountered
a problem or had a question of some kind if it was past a certain time of the day I wasnt
able to have it answered. This caused me to realize that they had to work like this all
time. Which in turn caused me to develop the question how does distance affect a work
environment?
Background:
Now, more than ever, businesses are able to operate on a global scale. This is
due to innovations in communication made within the last few decades. It could be
thought of as the end of three major changes in the cost of transport. The first was with
steamships and railways reducing the cost to transport goods. The second is the
invention of planes and cars which reduced the cost to transport people. And the third is
the reduction of the cost to transport knowledge and ideas (Cairncross, Frances). It is
the culmination of a process that started with the invention of the mail system. As the
ability to instantly message thoughts and ideas increases, the cost to share these

decreases. The internet becoming readily accessible to the public in the 1990s created
the first big change in how companies can work across distance. The second has been
wireless technologies, the ability to connect to the internet from anywhere, the ability for
people to have a phone on them at all times. These things have had huge impacts on
what is being referred to as the death of distance (Cairncross, Frances). The death of
distance is really what it sounds like; it effectively reduces the amount of impact that
distance has on communication. The Death of Distance loosens geography, it allows
companies to be wherever their staff want to live, rather than near the companys
market. It also lets people live far away from their employers, and allows new ideas to
spread faster in general.
It has been found that the most efficient way to work with someone is when you
are physically next to them. Which isnt surprising but now, for many people, this really
isnt an option. In the case of a network support team for an international business the
employees cant even be working at the same times, due to needing to be available
during daylight in their individual time zones. When the time comes for a team meeting
the manager is required to think about how the information needs to be shared as well
as what needs to be shared. Which in turn creates its own slew of problems (UGM). For
people that work globally or across distance there are many new issues and
complications that need to be taken into account. Those that work in this setting will
often find themselves working with people that they dont or barely know without having
a real social setting (UGM). Depending on where they are in the world they might have
different views and assumptions on how to work creating conflict and
miscommunication.

As the Death of Distance could be considered a relatively new issue or topic

there's very little about it. There is information regarding how it came to be, and
information on some of the problems that has. But very little on either how to solve
those problems or how to work in that setting efficiently and the benefits it could provide.

Methods:
My internship was with the LEGO group. I worked remotely for the licensing
department. My mentor was located in Connecticut and the rest of the team I worked
with were in LA. Data was collected through an interview onsite in LA. The essential
question relates to the context because the question is about communication and
working across distance. Which is what I had to do, and what my coworkers had to do
daily. The pertinent people involved were my mentor, the head of operations, the head
creative director, and the Vice president of Licensed Entertainment. The first two I
worked with directly, and the second I interviewed.
The method I used for collecting my data was through an interview. I chose this
method because it was the only feasible option that made sense for my question. Even
if it was not it made the most sense for me to do, because my question could best be
answered through the experiences of others. The time frame was fairly straightforward I
was in LA to meet with my mentor and other co workers to discuss a project I had
completed and get assigned a new one. Since my mentor happened to be in town that
day I was able to conduct the interview with her there. The information that I received
was fairly straightforward so it did require any processing afterwards.
Discussion/Analysis

Overall distance has several distinct effects on collaboration in the workplace.

Depending on how great the distance is there may be miscommunication, cultural
differences, and varying perspectives can be detrimental to the work environment. At
the same time many of those things can be beneficial. Different perspectives are also
extremely important when working in a global environment, because they can help with
a variety of things. Most importantly it provides the team or company to have a direct
link to the local market. For example if there is a small team of content developers
working on a TV show that will be released in the US, Germany, and China. Since the
team has a direct link to the local markets in those places they have an easier time
advertising, and making changes to the content to make it appeal to the consumer
there. This was confirmed in an interview with the Operations Manager for the IBLE
team at LEGO
The biggest advantage is being able to hear ideas from coworkers from all over, as well
as having close ties to the local markets.
Unfortunately, having a culturally diverse team also causes problems due to
conflicting cultures. The same example about coworkers from different areas offering
input on how to change something to make it appeal in their market might backfire. It
may potentially cause disagreements in what or how something should look or sound or
just be. In the case of someone from Germany they might get very frustrated with their
co workers for not being on time, because for them it is not culturally acceptable to be
late.
Another large issue that is encountered is with increasing distance is logistics.
When someone is working in a team that is located on both sides of the country,

Denmark, The UK, Germany, and China logistics get difficult. In the same interview as
previously mentioned it was said that It is incredibly hard to organize and communicate
with everyone at the same time. Our manager has to call everyone individually. The
more distance there is between the team the more it makes logistics a nightmare. That
team is around fifteen people in total. The Operations manager said that they meet as a
whole team maybe once a year. So it appears that it causes them to work together
indirectly rather than directly. Exchanges are through phone calls and emails. When a
new member joins the team it is entirely likely that some of them wont meet for several
months. It also creates the difficulty of having to operate across time zones. Day to day
it makes it so they need to set phone calls in odd times so that everyone can attend. It
can also make it so that if two people are trying to work together, or someone is trying to
assign something to someone else they need to either meet them in person or have to
work with the time zones. Which in turn can make it so that if one person has a question
or needs a specific asset they only have a certain timeframe they can get them. While it
may be somewhat of a logistical nightmare, working in a global setting provides the
aforementioned benefits which are hugely important for the success of the company.
Since distance allows individuals on a team to work far apart there is the
additional factor of cost when trying to meet face to face, cost and travelling. For the
licensing team they are required to travel a lot. In response to being asked how often
they need to to travel the Operations manager said this. Since we deal directly with all
of our partners, as well as needing to meet up regularly most of us get on a plane
around once a month. They meet as a whole team once a year, but many of them,
especially the senior members of the team, need to travel regularly. They are

responsible for brokering deals with other companies to obtain licenses, they work to
develop video games, movies, and TV shows. Those are a few examples of what they
do, and for all of those things for which they need to travel long distances. So they need
to travel already for their day to day jobs, and also just to meet with each other.
In summary, distance effects a work environment by causing logistics to become
difficult. Yet also allows a culturally diverse group of people to work together, which in
turn allows them have better insights on what they are working on. As well as making
people travel more than they already need to just to speak to each other.

Action Plan:
This is by no means a new concept and as technology has improved it has
gotten far easier to deal with many of the issues that arise within this area. Now in order
to deal with these things it takes flexibility and patience. Now that people are beginning
to be aware and take advantage of the Death of Distance they will find new ways of
circumventing the challenges with it. All of the issues, or downsides can easily be
avoided once more people are aware of this concept. Once more people begin to take
advantage of distance in the workplace they will hopefully find new ways to deal with
any of the challenges associated with it. Most of the issues are things that people can
fairly easily deal with themselves. So they could be solved without anyone going out of
their way to do so. Once people are aware of the issues then they can easily can
solved.

Appendix:

Interviewee(s): Lisa Decesare for Operations Manager IBLE LEGO

Interviewer: Noah Wilfert
Q. What would you say are the major advantages and disadvantages of working
in a global setting?
A. The biggest advantage is being able to hear ideas from
coworkers from all over, as well as having close ties to the local markets.
As for disadvantages it is incredibly hard to organize and communicate
with everyone at the same time. Our manager has to call everyone
individually.
Q. How does your team get around the distance issue?
A. We are somewhat organized by what we are doing, For
example everyone in operations is located in Connecticut, the creatives
are all in LA, Distribution is in London and Germany. Does that make
sense?
Q. How often does your team travel?
A. Often, since we deal directly with all of our partners, as well
as needing to meet up regularly most of us get on a plane around once a
month.
Q. What are some problems that you encounter logistically? How do you deal
with them?
A. One of the major problems we come across is scheduling,
its hard to find a time for anyone to get together since most of us fly
around so much. Its not really something we can change so we just deal
with it as best we can.
Q. How does the company deal with cultural differences?

A. With time it gets much much easier to ignore. Most people seem to
adapt fairly fast. There are still a few smaller issues such as different work ethics
but overall its is easy to overcome.
Works Cited:
Cairncross, Frances. The Death of Distance: How the Communications
Revolution Is
Changing Our Lives. Completely New ed. Boston: Harvard Business School,
2001. Print
Cooper, Cary L. International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Vol.
19. Chichester: Wiley, 2004. Print.
Petersen, Mitchell, and Raghuram Rajan. "Does Distance Still Matter? The Information
Revolution in Small Business Lending." 57.7685 (2000). Print.