Virtual Team Basics

Overview/Description
Target Audience
Expected Duration
Lesson Objectives

Overview/Description
 This course introduces the fundamentals of virtual team management and leadership in general. By the end of this course, you will appreciate the evolution of business teams in general, and the revolution in Internet communication and resource sharing that has spawned the competitive global need for virtual teams.

Target Audience
 Top-level managers, training managers, functional managers, supervisors, team leaders and researchers.

Expected Duration
3 hours

Lesson Objectives:

The New Team Paradigm

  • recognize the benefits of creating and using virtual teams.
  • identify the reasons that many companies are shifting toward a more widespread use of virtual teams.
  • differentiate between those traits shared by both virtual and traditional teams and those specific only to virtual teams.
  • identify team member characteristics best suited to a virtual work environment.
  • identify the roles of the emerging "Network Approach" in business and industry.

    • Launching a Virtual Team

  • recognize the importance of resolving various challenges faced by businesses that launch virtual teams.
  • distinguish between effective and ineffectiue commitment building strategies.
  • match the four stages of group development with their effects on team performance.
  • match various "communication barriers" with their effects on virtual team communication.
  • distinguish appropriate vs. inappropriate business responses to cross-cultural challenges posed by virtual teams.

    • Knowledge Management

  • recognize the critical importance of knowledge management as it applies to virtual teams.
  • classify the degree to which it is appropriate to use virtual teams in the management phases of businesses.
  • identify which responses to virtual team information overload are effective or ineffective.
  • distinguish between managing knowledge content and managing knowledge context.

    • Entrepreneurship vs. Intrapreneurship

  • recognize the benefit of shifting from entrepreneurship to intrapreneurship.
  • choose the key ways the Internet and intranets have made an impact on businesses today.
  • identify the positive contributions of Groupware networking to the development of virtual teams.
  • select emerging trends most likely to support the development of virtual teams in the future.

    • Course Number: TEAM0221