Preparation

Write a 10–12 page report for executive leaders that analyzes the predictable stages of virtual team development and offers recommendations for successfully moving through these stages supported by research.

Virtual teams have become more commonly used in the workplace, as businesses seek to find ways for employees who are not located in the same geographic area to work together efficiently and economically. Some of these newly formed virtual teams achieve great success in their collaboration efforts, while others never seem to get started.

Scenario

You are a member of your company’s organizational development team. Executive leaders have asked this group to help diagnose some of the organization’s problems involving virtual team success. Each year, teams of managers are assembled from across several global business units to tackle issues identified by executive leaders. Each team is expected to work on its assignment for 12 months. Many teams in the past have been very effective; they have delivered specific, workable solutions that were responsible for important improvements to the organization. But just as many teams have become ineffective, stalled, and even disbanded with little or no results to show for their time and effort.

You have been asked to review the scholarly and professional research on virtual team dynamics, including the predictable stages of virtual team development, and to formulate recommendations for your executive leaders to use in helping the next group of teams to recognize and move successfully through these stages. Your report will be used to guide the next group of virtual teams.

Deliverable

Write a report for your executive leaders:

• Recommend organizational best practices for virtual team collaboration.
  • Identify, analyze, and evaluate several policies and practices that characterize organizations that are successful in supporting virtual teams. Make sure that your recommendations are specific, relevant, and actionable—include implementation plans.
  • Support your analyses and recommendations with research.
• Identify and analyze the predictable stages of virtual team development. Defend your choice of developmental models (for example, Tuckman’s seminal work on predictable stages) and explain its relevance to these teams.
• Include enough detail and examples that will allow team members to identify the stages their team is experiencing.
  • How will they know, based on your description and analysis, where they are in the developmental process?
  • What practical advice do you have for the team to keep from getting stuck, and to avoid or resolve unproductive behavior?
  • What are best practices for team members in each of the stages you have identified?
• Offer recommendations for moving successfully through these stages.
  • Include at least one actionable strategy for each recommendation.
• Analyze the technologies that will best support your strategies. Tie your recommendations to each of the predictable stages. Be specific in your recommendations for appropriate technology as it applies to each of the stages.

Your report should include the following section headings:

• Title page.
• Executive summary.
• An overview of organizational best practices for virtual team development.
• A description and overview of the predictable stages of virtual team development.
• Recommendations for moving through each stage.
• At least one specific, actionable strategy for each recommendation.
• An analysis of the technologies that will best support each of your strategies.
• References.

Formatting Requirements

• Ensure written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message and quality.
• Your report should be 10–12 content pages, in addition to a title page and references page.
• Use 12-point, Times New Roman.
• Use at least three scholarly resources.
• Follow APA rules for attributing sources that support your analysis and conclusions. As a reminder related to using APA rules to ensure academic honesty:
  • When using a direct quote (using exact or nearly exact wording), you must enclose the quoted wording in quotation marks, immediately followed by an in-text citation. The source must then be listed in your references page.
  • When paraphrasing (using your own words to describe a nonoriginal idea), the paraphrased idea must be immediately followed by an in-text citation and the source must be listed in your references page.

References

Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63(6), 384–399.

Virtual Team Development Scoring Guide