Making connections: an intercultural virtual team project in professional communication

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Andrews ◽  
D. Starke-Meyerring
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Team ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Team Project

Tools for Teaching Virtual Teams: A Comparative Resource Review

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Larson ◽  
Opal Leung ◽  
Kenneth Mullane
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Virtual Work ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Synchronous Communication ◽  
Work Skills ◽  
Professional Programs ◽  
Team Projects ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Comparative Review ◽  
Team Project

As the ubiquity of virtual work—and particularly virtual project teams—increases in the professional environment, management and other professional programs are increasingly teaching students skills related to virtual work. One of the most common forms of teaching virtual work skills is a virtual team project, in which students collaborate with each other at a distance (and sometimes between multiple institutions) to accomplish a shared task. These projects differ from most management topics in their technology requirements. In this comparative review, we describe the features and trade-offs inherent in some of the asynchronous and synchronous communication technology tools commonly used to run virtual team projects.

Virtual Leadership

2021 ◽  
pp. 1678-1691
Author(s):  
Christian Graham ◽  
Harold Daniel ◽  
Brian Doore
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Leadership Style ◽  
Team Effectiveness ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Relationship Building ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Team Project ◽  
Leadership Research

This chapter is an updated review of the results of a study completed in 2015 on leadership's impact on virtual team effectiveness and the quality of the completed virtual team project. Findings in 2015 suggested that leadership style and virtual team effectiveness did predict project quality, and specific leadership styles had a negative relationship with virtual team effectiveness. After summarizing the results of the studies purpose, methodology, and findings, the chapter concludes with a literature review of virtual team's leadership research between 2015 and present. It provides a discussion on the relationship between the previous studies' findings and what has been found since with recommendations on future research on shared leadership and relationship building in virtual teams.

Short-Term International Virtual Teams

2021 ◽  
pp. 205-227
Author(s):  
Debra D. Burleson ◽  
Uchenna Peters
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
Workplace Communication ◽  
Global Mindset ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Us ◽  
Spatial Differences ◽  
Team Project

Workplace communication is changing exponentially, and these changes have directly impacted employees. Employees, who learned more traditional face-to-face practices, have had to adapt to a global mindset. In 2014, 3,000 managers surveyed from more than 100 countries reported that 40% of their employees spent at least half of their time on virtual teams, and over 77% of the teams were multicultural. Preparing employees and students for a global workplace that uses digital tools is challenging. The authors developed resources and tools for a 3-week virtual team project with students at universities in the US and Europe. Resources include details about assigning teams, preparing students for the virtual team experience, launching the project, and providing context for the cultural and spatial differences that students may experience.

Virtual Teamwork and Commitments Impact on Project Quality

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 42-58
Author(s):  
Harold Daniel ◽  
Christian Graham ◽  
Brian Doore
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Virtual Teamwork ◽  
Project Quality ◽  
Team Projects ◽  
Project Outcome ◽  
Team Project

This article examines how commitment among individuals involved in a short term, virtual team projects influence the quality of the project outcome. Results indicate that forced and habitual commitment types had a negative impact on virtual team project quality but found no evidence of the hypothesized positive influences of affective, normative or economic commitment. Findings suggest that commitment in virtual teams, particularly those virtual teams that engage in short term projects, may not exert the influence observed in co-located teams involved in longer duration projects. Further, forced and habitual commitment may actually be destructive. As such, the findings of this study suggest that for project quality to be achieved, other forces may be necessary.

scholarly journals USING GLOBAL VIRTUAL TEAMS TO SUPPORT A SUSTAINABILITY MINDSET IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anuli Ndubuisi ◽  
James Slotta
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Mixed Methods Approach ◽  
Intercultural Competency ◽  
Team Projects ◽  
Intercultural Competencies ◽  
Successful Approach ◽  
Team Project

In an increasingly interconnected economy, future engineers require a sustainability mindset, which necessitates a global perspective, to enable them to work together with diverse partners to tackle the world’s problems in a sustainable manner. This study explores engineering students’ development of intercultural competencies within the context of culturally diverse global virtual team projects. We report on two consecutive iterations of an Intercultural Competency Module (ICM) delivered within a global virtual team project setting, in which engineering students are engaged in collaborative technical projects. Each study iteration comprised of a presurveyto gain insights into student’s prior knowledge and cultural background and a post-survey to determine students’ perceptions of their intercultural learning and experiences. Employing a mixed-methods approach, we found that blending ICM with global virtual team projects was a successful approach for helping engineering students acquire international experience and develop intercultural competencies in addition to technical engineering knowledge.

scholarly journals A Grounded Theory of Virtual Facilitation: Building Relationships with Virtual Team Members

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
David J Pauleen
Keyword(s):  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Training Program ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
Action Learning ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Building Relationships ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Team Project

<p>The purpose of this study was to develop a deeper understanding of the issues facing virtual team facilitators as they implement and facilitate virtual teams. The study asked the following research question: How do facilitators of virtual teams build relationships with their virtual team members? Because virtual teams are a new form of highly dynamic and ambiguous collaborative interaction, a major challenge of this study was the need to generate relevant data and analyze it in an appropriate manner. To achieve this, a research framework involving a training program format was instituted based on methods developed in Action Learning (AL), with data collection and analysis based on grounded theory approaches (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). The AL-based 'virtual team facilitation' training program used in this study was designed to achieve the following three goals: to generate interest and incentive for would-be participants, to give participants information and skills to initiate and facilitate their own virtual teams, and to generate data for analysis. After being recruited, participants were broadly interviewed to determine their prior experience with virtual teams and their perceived needs and concerns in implementing and facilitating their own virtual team. The researcher then developed a ten-week training program to meet these needs. A pilot program and two subsequent training programs were held. During the training programs, each participant planned for, or actually initiated and facilitated a virtual team within their own organizational context. Every two weeks the participants met with the researcher to investigate issues related to initiating and facilitating virtual teams and to discuss issues that were arising in their own virtual teams. In all seven participants from a variety of New Zealand organizations took part in the study. The seven participants formed a diverse group, from the managing director of a one-man, global virtual organization who worked exclusively in global virtual team settings to a self-employed consultant managing a local virtual work team. The participants were in various stages of their virtual team lifecycle, from planning through initiation to full-scale facilitation and evaluation of a just-completed virtual team project. The participants' virtual team project tasks ranged from managing a political campaign on the other side of the world to developing and running a national web-based academic assessment center. A unique feature of this study is that it involves organizational professionals as opposed to students. Data was collected from face-to-face and telephone interviews, group discussions and e-mail correspondences. Data collection extended to several months beyond the end of the training sessions. Using grounded theory techniques, the data was analyzed using "a general method of (constant) comparative analysis". Data was collected and coded simultaneously over the course of the training sessions, with subsequent coding confirming, refining, extending and modify the data. The data showed very clearly that the facilitators considered it essential to build some level of personal relationship with their virtual team members before commencing a virtual working relationship. Further, a unifying framework of three inter-related theoretical steps in the overall process a virtual facilitator goes through when building relationships with virtual team members was inductively derived from this study. These three steps are Assessing Conditions, Choosing Level of Relationship, and Creating Strategies. This study is the first to identify the steps a virtual team facilitator undertakes when building relationships with virtual team members. It has implications for virtual team practice, research and training.</p>

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