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Best Ways to Train Virtual Teams
Organizations are creating virtual teams at a faster pace than ever before. Yet the training required for people to lead and work on a virtual team is still in its infancy, according to UNC Kenan-Flagler faculty who are studying the issue.
A range of important training needs for virtual team leaders and members has been identified by UNC Kenan-Flagler organizational behavior/strategy professors Ben Rosen and Dick Blackburn, along with Stacie Furst (PhD '04), who is now at Louisiana State University. The scholars surveyed a sample of 440 human resources professionals who specialize in training and development. The HR professionals surveyed are members of the Society for Human Resources Management, which funded the study.
A paper about the study, "Identifying Training Needs for Virtual Team Leaders and Members," under review at Human Resources Management, will be presented at the annual Academy of Management meeting in August 2005.
"Competition is becoming more global and requires a faster response time. Managers are finding that all their needs can't be met in one location, so more and more organizations have talented individuals scattered around the world," Blackburn says.
As managers prepare for the growth of virtual teams, training should emphasize understanding new communication technologies as well as the unique interpersonal dynamics of working virtually, the authors write. Organizations surveyed that provide training in virtual teams emphasize both areas.
"One of the things that differentiated most effective virtual team training programs was the inclusion of cultural sensitivity training - understanding different communication styles and not falling back on negative stereotypes," Rosen says.
The vast majority of HR professionals surveyed felt that their organizations could do much more to prepare employees for virtual team assignments.
A needs assessment in the survey identified training topics perceived to be critical to success. Leadership training was a high priority, with the following skills identified as particularly valuable:
- Leading a virtual team meeting (72 percent)
- Coaching and mentoring team members virtually (70 percent)
- Monitoring team progress and taking corrective action (68 percent)
- Managing external relationships with 'local' managers (62 percent)
- Evaluating and rewarding individual contributions to the team (56 percent)
It's critical for a virtual team leader to develop a close working relationship with each team member, even though they are in remote locations, say Rosen and Blackburn.
"Leaders have to be much more proactive in the virtual environment. Human nature might suggest they're more likely to pay attention to a 'co-located' team," Blackburn says. "I was talking recently to a manager who leads several virtual teams. He makes semi-annual visits to each individual team member to learn about them and to determine the best leadership style to use with each team member."
For virtual team members, survey respondents identified development of the following skills as important in training efforts:
- How to establish trust and manage conflict among the team (61 percent)
- Cultural sensitivity and communications (58 percent)
- Teambuilding skills (57 percent)
- Technology skills:
- Using certain communications technologies (65 percent)
- Selecting the necessary technology to fit a team's task (57 percent)
"When people work virtually, their time is often divided between what they can give to the virtual team and the demands of the local work site," Rosen says. "It's easy to respond to demands locally, but the challenge is for the virtual team leader to negotiate with the on-site leader, and to ensure that rewards and credit are given for both on-site and virtual work."
Rosen, Blackburn and Furst also identify best practices among companies that are taking innovative approaches to virtual team training. Examples include:
- Sabre Inc. holds teambuilding sessions with newly established virtual teams to develop a team mission statement, help members set objectives, clarify roles, build personal relationships and create a shared group identity
- Dow Chemical team members take courses on virtual team etiquette and virtual team meeting management
- Rocketdyne provides extensive training to introduce virtual team members to cutting-edge information-sharing technologies such as virtual knowledge repositories
- GlaxoSmithKline uses cultural awareness exercises to break down stereotypes, improve virtual team communication and clarify team leader and member expectations
The authors identify future challenges for virtual team training and development professionals as the following:
- Refining the content of virtual team training
- Creating innovative delivery systems for providing training
- Determining the optimal timing of such training
- Developing timely evaluation approaches to assess training effectiveness
UNC Kenan-Flagler entrepreneurship professor Arvind Malhotra also researches virtual teams. His article, "Virtual Workspace Technologies," appeared in the Winter 2005 issue of MIT Sloan Management Review. Contact Rosen at (919) 962-3166, , Blackburn at (919) 962-3162, and Malhotra at (919) 962-3157, . For a previous e-newsletter article on virtual teams, visit http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/newsletter/alumni/2004/jul/index.cfm.
Students Offer Expertise in Social and Environmental Business Strategy in New Program
UNC Kenan-Flagler's Center for Sustainable Enterprise (CSE) is leveraging the expertise of talented MBA students to provide sustainability consulting services to companies in a unique program launched this summer.
The program, called CSE Consulting, focuses on the services that most directly affect corporate managers' decision-making in the context of global social and environmental trends. The program uses MBA students as consulting associates with specialized training in sustainable business analysis, tools and strategy, says program manager Kelly Boone (MBA '01). The students are working in consultation with technical advisors - faculty and outside experts chosen for their industry-specific knowledge.
"We've selected the highest-caliber students because this will be a very challenging internship," Boone says. "Our four consultants, who will work on projects for six organizations, bring a variety of strengths, from finance to marketing to entrepreneurship, to the team."
MBA '06 students Galyna Vasylevska, Bruce Herzer, Supitcha Phitthayanont and Grayson Jones were selected for the CSE Consulting program. They will work on a diverse portfolio of projects for Johnson & Johnson, Progress Energy, Dita Financial, Sustainable North Carolina, Green Earth Builders and Durham Initiatives for Renewable Energy Community Taskforce (DIRECT). For example, for Dita Financial, students will examine socially responsible investing.
"Corporations are increasingly paying attention to the 'triple bottom line' of economic, social and environmental performance," says CSE Executive Director Katie Kross (MBA '04). "We developed this program to give MBA students hands-on experience integrating social and environmental considerations into their analyses of complex business challenges."
Vasylevska, who has chosen sustainable enterprise as a second MBA concentration, is excited about participating in the CSE Consulting program.
"This summer we will work with really incredible projects, companies and people that will provide an invaluable experience and access to real world problems with different focuses and in different industries," she says. "I hope that the most important outcomes of our summer work will be not only successful completion of assigned projects … but also creation of further cases of successful implementation of sustainable [business] principles."
Herzer, who also has chosen to concentrate his studies in sustainable enterprise, says business leaders have an obligation to consider the impact their corporations have on society and the environment.
"Sustainable enterprise is cutting-edge strategy for businesses in the 21st century," he says. "I am hoping to learn how to make a persuasive argument for sustainable enterprise - to convince the skeptics that doing good and doing well are not mutually exclusive goals, and indeed there are unconventional opportunities to yield profit that conventional business models probably overlook."
MAC Alum is CFO and COO at Digital Lifestyle Outfitters
The next time you spot someone listening to an iPod, check out its storage case. Chances are George McLamb had a hand in making it.
McLamb (BSBA '93, MAC '95) is CFO and COO at Digital Lifestyle Outfitters (DLO), a Durham-based company that produces computer and digital music player accessories. DLO products range from cases and cables to remote controls and speaker systems sold at major retailers, including Best Buy, CompUSA, Target and Circuit City.
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| George McLamb |
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"There are a lot of competitors who can make a fabric iPod case, but can they also make an auto charger, an FM cassette player, a leather case, an acrylic clip?" McLamb says. "At DLO, we have the resources and the supply chain to manufacture whatever we want. We're building a brand by designing, creating and distributing accessories that increase the utility of your digital device, whatever that device might be."
McLamb is twice a UNC Kenan-Flagler graduate, earning a BSBA and a MAC degree. His story is one about being ready when opportunity knocked.
In 2001, DLO founder and CEO Jeff Grady bought one of the first iPods sold. After spending more than $500 for it, he was appalled to discover it didn't come with a protective case. So Grady went to Best Buy and bought a digital camera case instead.
"It didn't really fit, and he couldn't access all the buttons, but he could put it on his belt and go jogging, so he started selling them on the Web. And so the business was born," McLamb says. "Jeff Grady then got a call from CompUSA saying, 'We think you are the only guy in the world selling cases for iPod. Can you outfit our stores?' His answer was 'Absolutely.' Then he called me, his old fraternity brother, to ask, 'How do we do this?'"
At the time, McLamb was the corporate controller for a software instruction and training company. While he was intimately familiar with the company's finances, he didn't have the authority to make and execute decisions affecting those finances. Grady offered him that chance at DLO.
"When Jeff called, I wasn't doing the kind of work I knew I was capable of doing, and I realized this was an opportunity that could meet my needs professionally and personally," he says. "I wanted to take all of the positive things I had seen or learned, remember all of the mistakes I or others made, and serve at the top of the decision-making tree with the authority to say, 'This is how the business runs' - and then be accountable for it."
Many of McLamb's decisions involve production. Because digital devices change constantly, DLO's accessory line has to keep pace. That means producing enough accessories to meet current customer demand without winding up with excess or antiquated inventory on the shelves.
"I love the work I'm doing - it's real, it's tangible, and it's all value added," he says. "Our product life cycle is fast - to make it in retail, you have to be the first to market and the best in quality, and you have to execute production so that at the end of the day, you don't have excess inventory."
McLamb credits his UNC Kenan-Flagler education for giving him a strong foundation upon which he bases major day-to-day decisions.
"It's really about fundamentals - everything we do involves project-based break-even analysis, risk assessment, probabilities," he says. "Of the things I learned, one is that I can trust my decision-making, and I'm able to repeat it. Another is that I like to find solutions to business problems. I don't think I could do what I do without my degrees from UNC."
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