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Online collaboration software (OCS), such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, has become widespread among news organizations as these tools help news workers collaborate across different locations and make communication more efficient inside newsrooms. While such technologies are increasingly employed as teamwork productivity boosters, the authors’ knowledge of their potential role in shaping control mechanisms and power dynamics within news work is limited. This paper addresses how different types of control may emerge within virtual newsrooms being operated by OCS. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.

The paper employs an interview-based qualitative method and provides evidence gathered from 20 interviews with digital journalists and media managers representing 11 online news media in Switzerland.

The findings reveal how OCS could lead to various control mechanisms in the workplace by directing, evaluating and disciplining journalists in specific ways. This study suggests that while OCS can be valuable in boosting collaborations among news staff, it might create a situation where journalists are less able to focus on their work and creative activities. Most importantly, OCS bolsters an “always-on” work culture in news media and removes obstacles for employers and managers to invade journalists' space, time and mind.

By focusing on three aspects of control mechanisms, including direction, evaluation and discipline, this paper contributes to a better understanding of the role of OCS in shaping control and power dynamics within news media organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview on the concept of early warning (EW) signs in projects, briefly introduce the project health check (PHC) tool, and evaluate the level of efficiency of this tool as a source of data for an EW approach signaling that a project is about to experience problems in the future.

Two case projects from the telecommunication industry which have implemented the PHC system were investigated in order to observe how the use of this approach can help indicate EW signs which arise in projects and specify the area in which the problem is about to occur. A combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods has been implemented.

The results show that although the application of PHC tool can to a certain extent contribute to identification of EW signs in projects but level of effectiveness of the PHC this tool as an EW system is dependent on several factors such as level of complexity of the project, average experience of project managers, etc. Also the empirical studies reveal that there is definitely potential for enhancement of the tool in order to improve its utilization as an EW system.

The research is limited to a single organization in the telecommunication industry. The projects are within the execution phase and the final outcomes of the projects are yet not acquired.

The empirical case studies were developed to illustrate the level of efficiency of the use of PHC tool in projects and show how this tool can be used in order to better realize the potential problems timely enough to take preventive actions.

This paper highlights the gap in the literature concerning the practical use of PHC/project health indicator tool as an EW system. It offers a new idea on how PHC tool can be used as an effective EW system and shed light on the factors which influence the reliability and validity of the data obtained via this tool in project. This paper is intended to be primarily of use to project management practitioners and practically oriented academics who are interested in developing fresh insights into new approaches for better management of projects.