Professor Doctor Erik Andriessen encourages videocommunication
Recently Professor Doctor Erik Andriessen held his farewell speech at the Technical University in Delft (The Netherlands) about virtual communication and its related aspects such as video communication. He stated that in a country like the Netherlands, 12 Billion Euro is spent annually on business trips and part of this ‘investment’ is wasted as virtual meeting solutions such as videoconferencing are a good alternative.
During his years at the TU in Delft, Professor Doctor Andriessen focussed on new forms of work and organisation, particularly virtual and mobile work, knowledge management and communities of practice and IT support for distributed teamwork. In his field of expertise - Work and Organisational Psychology - a lot of changes took place in the last decennia and that gave ample opportunities for research and interpreting studies on working circumstances of other researchers. Erik Andriessen has drawn three major conclusions:
1. Virtual interaction, such as videoconferencing, is necessary and reduces cost
2. Intensive virtual interaction is applicable in many cases and can be learned
3. With proper training, organisational and technological improvements, virtual interaction can and should be applied more intensively
Andriessen elaborates on these major conclusions: “Due to the evolution towards a globalizing knowledge society, communication and cooperation over large distances is becoming more common. Inevitably, this seems to result in higher employee mobility, despite the fact that traveling not only costs time and money, but also heavily contributes to CO2 emissions and therefore damages to the climate.”
Collaborating more in a virtual way has a positive impact on the environment, without jeopardizing the business relationship. Imagine if one in five business trips in the 25 EU countries were replaced by a solution that does not require travelling (such as videoconference), some 22.35 million tons of CO2 could be avoided each year. So there is a clear link between transportation/travel and the environment. Another aspect is the reduction of traffic. A very recent report of the Ministry of Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM) indicates that if a country like The Netherlands will not change its mobility, we will see a 24 hour traffic jam in 20 years time.”
Combine these facts with the idea that good communication no longer requires face-to-face meetings only. It appears that virtual meetings can be a solution to many problems if taken care of proper training, organizational policies and technological improvements. Advanced communication technology, such as today’s videoconferencing and groupware, can support these meetings is a very satisfying way.
The whitepaper is available in English and can be downloaded, free of charge, from the website of Talk & Vison: www.videoconference.nl/nieuws.asp
About Professor Docter Erik Andriessen
Professor doctor Erik Andriessen studied industrial psychology during the sixties and received his Ph.D. in 1974 at the Free University in Amsterdam. His main research areas at that time were ‘decision making in organisations’, ‘industrial democracy’ and ‘meaning of work’.
From 1980 to 1990 he headed the Department of Organisation and Policy Research at the IVA -a research and consultancy organisation related to Tilburg University. Research in the areas of decision making, personnel psychology, work organisation and automation were part of his portfolio.
From 1990 until his retirement in September 2006, he was professor of Work and Organisational Psychology at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. His group is involved in various studies:
- New forms of work and organisation, particularly virtual and mobile work
- Knowledge management and communities of practice
- IT support for distributed teamwork
Some of these researches resulted in publications, such as the books ‘Mobile Virtual Work-a new Paradigm?’ and ‘How to manage experience sharing’.
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