Human Resource Management

This assignment gives you an opportunity to work with a group of peers to synthesize and apply what you have learned this term about effective virtual teams.  Your consulting report should be the original work of your team; the team may not use 
papers or any part of papers from a previous class or from another person.  If you have any questions about this assignment, please post them in the Ask the Professor discussion forum so that everyone can benefit from the answers.  This assignment addresses Course Objectives 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.  This assignment is worth 20% of your grade.

Task

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

Directions: In your groups, you will review, discuss, and address questions in each of these parts in order to arrive at your collective responses.  As part of your discussion, you are to apply what you have read and discussed in our course as well as outside sources in order to justify your recommendations.  Use the group discussion forum prepared for your team to summarize your group responses to each part of the case study. 

After your team discusses all three parts associated with this case, you will prepare a 7-10 page paper that addresses the questions in each of the three parts.  This paper will serve as your team voice to coach Lauren on how to lead her cross-functional team to success and overcome the issues presented in the case study.  In other words, the team members will collaborate to write the paper, and each team member will upload the paper to the assignment folder to facilitate grading.  Your team paper should include a minimum of 10 references from sources published within the last ten years. 

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: 

· Analyze the supplied team member matrix. 

· Identify challenges and opportunities Lauren’s team might face. 

· Brainstorm ways to capitalize on opportunities and address challenges.

· Record your ideas in the group discussion forum.

Team Member Matrix

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.

· Describe what technology Lauren might use to conduct the kick-off meeting.

· Identify ground rules for the team, and propose which ground rules Lauren 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 résumés 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

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.

In your assigned groups, you are to:

· Recommend actions Lauren should take now to resolve each of these conflicts.

· Discuss what Lauren could have done to prevent the conflicts from occurring in the first place. 

· Recommend actions Lauren can take to minimize team conflict in the future. 

· Record your responses in the group discussion forum

Greetings Kody,

As advised, I’m checking back in.  For the sake of time, we can complete the part 3 instead of waiting for any responses. As of today, we are getting points deducted. I will work on a portion 3-4 citations, and if you will also work on the portion and 3=4 citations. The referenced portion is below with your name. We can add as the final element and submit tomorrow.  Any questions or concerns just send me a note. I return to my home 2morrow afternoon, so I’ll respond then.

Assignment: Despite setting ground rules, the following conflicts arose within Lauren’s team:

(Dea)Lags in e-mail responses generated mistrust between two team members.

(Dea)One team member complained that the other team members tried to use instant messaging to solve complex problems and resolutions are never reached. 

·
Recommend actions Lauren should take now to resolve each of these conflicts.

·
Discuss what Lauren could have done to prevent the conflicts from occurring in the first place. 

·
Recommend actions Lauren can take to minimize team conflict in the future. 

(Kody)There has been an uneven exchange of project knowledge.

·
Recommend actions Lauren should take now to resolve each of these conflicts.

·
Discuss what Lauren could have done to prevent the conflicts from occurring in the first place. 

·
Recommend actions Lauren can take to minimize team conflict in the future.   below are 2 of the references from wk 8 that were useful

·


Information and Knowledge Sharing Within Virtual Communities of Practice

Ogbamichael, H. B., & Warden, S. (2018). Information and knowledge sharing within virtual communities of practice. 
South African Journal of Information Management, 20(1), 1–11. 

ETEC510: Organizational Knowledge Sharing Practices

Hamilton, S. (2018, January 29). 
ETEC510: Organizational knowledge sharing practices. [Video]. YouTube.