This assignment has been adapted from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Managing Virtual Work Teams - A SHRM case study by Frankie S. Jones, PhD. For this group assignment there are three parts. Part I: An Introduction to Virtual Teams Part II: Building a Virtual Team Part III: Managing Conflict Virtually Part I: An Introduction to Virtual Teams Lauren is assigned team leader of a cross-functional team for a very important project to the company. Lauren reviews the profiles of the six team members her boss gave her. She is both intrigued and anxious when she sees that team members are geographically dispersed. Lauren works in the Atlanta office. One team member is in India; another is in Germany; and the rest live in the United States, but in different time zones. Two staff members are in the eastern time zone (Virginia and North Carolina) and two staff members are in the central time zone (Texas and Louisiana). Lauren has never managed a virtual team and is unsure what special skills it will take to be successful. She begins to wonder what competencies are necessary for virtual team leaders and members. She studies the team member profiles and creates a matrix to evaluate each member's strengths and weaknesses from the perspective of working virtually. She includes herself because she realizes she needs to evaluate her own strengths and weaknesses. Lauren thinks about the challenges and opportunities she will face managing this virtual team. In your assigned groups, you are to: Review the supplied team member matrix. Brainstorm the challenges and/or opportunities Lauren's team might face. Record your ideas in the group discussion forum. Team Member Matrix Team Member Location (Time Zone) Communication Preferences Virtual Strengths experience Lauren (Team Manager) Atlanta, GA (Eastern) E-mail No Building and maintaining trust. Performance management and coaching. Networking. Weaknesses Appropriate use of information technology. Developing and adapting standard team processes. Managing across cultures. Santosh Pune, India (GMT+05:30) Instant messaging Yes Interpersonal awareness. Use of technology. Self-management. Project management. John Wilmington, NC (Eastern) Telephone No Networking face-to-face. Use of technology. Spanning boundaries. Joyce Norfolk, VA (Eastern) E-mail Yes Self-management. Project management. Networking. Helga Berlin, Germany (Central European) SharePoint; Webconferencing (with video) Yes Use of technology. Interpersonal awareness. Project management. Adam Dallas, TX (Central) Instant messaging, discussion boards No Networking via technology.Use of technology. Spanning boundaries. Brenda New Orleans, LA (Central) Instant messaging; blogs; SharePoint; email Yes Use of technology. Interpersonal awareness. Networking. Spanning boundaries. Self-management. 2 Part II: Building a Virtual Team Lauren has evaluated the challenges and opportunities that could arise as she manages her virtual team. To mitigate challenges and take advantage of opportunities, she decides to conduct a kick-off meeting next week. She wants to set the ground rules for how her team will operate and present them at the kick-off meeting. What topics should Lauren's agenda include? Which ground rules should she mandate and which should she negotiate? How will she build relationships and trust during this initial meeting? In your assigned groups, you are to: Create an agenda for Lauren's kick-off meeting. Explain why you chose each agenda topic. Identify the ground rules for the team, and propose which ground rules she should mandate and which ones she should negotiate. Recommend ways that Lauren could build relationships and trust during this initial meeting. Record your responses in the group discussion forum. Part III: Managing Conflict Virtually Even though your team presented Lauren with an agenda for the kickoff meeting, along with ground rules, she used the agenda below for the kick-off meeting. She set expectations for status reporting, the technologies to be used, and performance management. The types of communication the team agreed on included e-mail, instant messaging, and web conferencing. The team also agreed to use Microsoft SharePoint to report project status and to create a virtual community for team members to build relationships and trust. Lauren asked all team members to upload their pictures and their rsums to jump-start the community. Lauren's Agenda: Getting-to-Know-You Activity Team Goals and Objectives Technologies We Will Use (open discussion) Virtual Community (pictures and bios) Status Reporting Team Meetings One-on-one meetings 3 Despite setting ground rules, the following conflicts arose within Lauren's team: Lags in e-mail responses generated mistrust between two team members. One team member complained that the other team members tried to use instant messaging to solve complex problems and resolutions are never reached. There has been an uneven exchange of project knowledge. Please help in answering the question below 1. Discuss what Lauren could have done to prevent the conflicts from occurring in the first place. 2. Recommend actions Lauren can take to minimize team conflict in the future. 4 Criteria for Grading Group Consulting Project Note: The group's paper should be 7 to 10 pages long, excluding the reference and cover pages. A B Group demonstrated Group demonstrated exceptional knowledge satisfactory knowledge of relevant theories and of relevant theories and concepts from the concepts from the Knowledge of course; all statements course; most Relevant and opinions were statements and Theories and supported by opinions were Concepts appropriate citations supported by (40 pts) from the literature. appropriate citations from the literature. 40 - 36 points 35 - 32 points C F Group demonstrated Group demonstrated less than satisfactory unsatisfactory knowledge of relevant knowledge of relevant theories and concepts theories and concepts from the course; some from the course; many statements and statements and opinions were not opinions were not supported by supported by appropriate citations appropriate citations from the literature. from the literature. 31 - 28 points 27 - 0 points Comments Quality of Research (30 pts) Group did an Group did a satisfactory Group did a less than Group did an exceptional job of job of integrating course satisfactory job of inadequate job of integrating course readings with the team's integrating course integrating course readings with the team's additional research. readings with the team's readings with the team's additional research. Group cited the additional research. additional research. Group cited more than minimum number of Group may not have Group did not cite the the minimum number of references; sources cited the minimum minimum number of references; sources listed were primarily number of references; references; many of the listed were all scholarly scholarly or practitioner some sources listed sources listed were not or practitioner journals, journals, newspapers, were not scholarly or scholarly or practitioner newspapers, annual annual reports, or practitioner journals, journals, newspapers, reports, or academic academic books from newspapers, annual annual reports, or books from the last ten the last ten years. reports, or academic academic books from years. books from the last ten the last ten years. years. 20 - 0 points 30 - 27 points 26 - 24 points 23 - 21 points Comments 5 Group presented ideas Group presented ideas Group presented ideas Group presented ideas in a compelling manner presented in a clear, in a somewhat in a poorly organized or with no distracting coherent manner with organized manner with incoherent manner with grammar or spelling few distracting grammar several distracting many distracting problems; the tone was or spelling problems; grammar or spelling grammar or spelling Presentation consistently the tone was generally problems; the tone was problems; the tone was of Ideas and professional and professional and mostly not consistently unprofessional and not Mechanics appropriate for the appropriate for the professional and appropriate for the (20 pts) audience; the page audience; the page appropriate for the audience; the page length requirement was length requirement was audience; the page length requirement may met. met. length requirement may not have been met. not have been met. 20 - 18 points 17 - 16 points 15 - 14 points 13 - 0 points Comments APA formatting (5 pts) All citations, quotations, Most citations, Some citations, Most citations, and references were quotations, and quotations, and quotations, and properly formatted or references were references were not references were not contained one or two properly formatted or properly formatted or properly formatted or minor errors. contained a few minor contained major errors. contained many errors. errors. 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 - 0 points Comments Instructor's Instructor's Instructor's Instructor's observations and peer observations and peer observations and peer observations and peer Contribution ratings indicate ratings indicate ratings indicate minimal ratings indicate to Group's outstanding satisfactory contributions to the unsatisfactory or no Work contributions to the contributions to the group's work. contributions to the (5 pts) group's work. group's work. group's work. 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 - 0 points Comments Total Points Earned (100 points max) Overall Comments 6