Massachusetts Institute of Technology s2

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Sloan School of Management

15.580 Managing in a Virtual World: eLancers, Virtual Teams, and Online Communities

Spring 2001/2002

Class Times: Tuesdays, 2:30-5:30 p.m. E56-Penthouse

Instructors: JoAnne Yates Wanda Orlikowski

Office Hours: By appointment

Readings: The course material will be made available through Graphic Arts (E52-045). Supplemental readings may also be distributed in class or on SloanSpace during the semester.

Grading:

 Class Participation 20%

 Virtual Team Assignment 40% -- Team report 20% -- Individual paper 20%

 Online Community Assignment 40% -- Community 20% -- In-class presentation 20%

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Overview In the past several years, new communication technologies have enabled new forms of working and organizing—virtual worlds that seem significantly different from traditional forms of doing business. But at the core of these new forms of doing business, as with their traditional predecessors, are the people who use the technologies and the contexts in which they are using them. The successful management of these new virtual worlds thus lies in understanding their human dimension. This course explores the human dimension of new forms of doing business enabled by information technologies. At the same time, it aims to provide participants with the understandings required to manage new and future ways of working.

We will explore the human dimension of managing in a virtual world on three levels: individual, team, and community. In particular, we will address the challenges and opportunities of virtuality by examining three forms of virtual working and interacting: eLancers, virtual teams, and online communities. The object of the course is to prepare you to become better managers of new work practices by understanding the interactions between technology, users, and their work contexts. We will explore these interactions through readings, in-class discussions, guest speakers, and hands-on experiences with new ways of organizing.

There will be two primary assignments during the semester, one based on virtual teams and one on online communities. A description of each of these assignments can be found at the end of this document.

Class Participation Class participation accounts for 20 percent of the grade. You will work in two teams during the semester (one for each of the two assignments) and we will use the online community teams in class as reflecting and learning groups. Thus attendance is critical for the learning of all class members. Engaging in the class, in your teams, and with the readings is the most effective way to learn. I will consider your attendance at and active participation in these in assigning the participation part of your grade.

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# Date I. INTRODUCTION AND MANAGING VIRTUALLY -- INDIVIDUALS Assignments

1 T 2/5 Introduction to the Course Elancers and Remote Workers Telecommuting and remote workers

2 T 2/12 Elancers and Remote Workers Working solo Introduction to Virtual Teams

Readings: Malone, T. and Laubacher, R.J. (1998)."The Dawn of the E-lance Economy." Harvard Business Review. 76, 5; pp. 144-152. Davenport, T. and Pearlson, K. (1998). "Two Cheers for the Virtual Office." Sloan Management Review. 39, 4. Raffoni, M. (2000). “Managing Your Virtual Company: Create a Communication Plan.” Harvard Management Communication Letter, 3, 4; pp. 7-8.

II. MANAGING VIRTUALLY -- TEAMS

T 2/26 Virtual Teams Wed. 2/27, p.m. Introduction to virtual teams and project kick-off Begin contacting team Visitor (from Firmenich) members and doing virtual team project Readings: with IESE Background readings on Firmenich (for Virtual Team Assignment) students. Armstrong, David J. and Cole, Paul (forthcoming 2002). "Managing Distances and Differences in Geographically Distributed Work Groups," in Hinds, P. and Kiesler, S. (eds)., Distributed Work (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press). Sessa, V.L., Hansen, Michael C., Prestridge, S., and Kossler, M.E. (1999). Geographically Dispersed Teams: An Annotated Bibliography. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership. [pp. 1-8 only]

4 T 3/5 Designing and Leading Effective Virtual Teams How to manage virtual teams. Time to work on virtual team

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project. Visitors: Panel of managers of virtual teams Readings: Maruca, R.F. (1998). "How do you Manage an Off-Site Team - Case Study," Harvard Business Review, July-August, pp. 22-35. Cramton, C.D. (forthcoming). “Finding Common Ground in Dispersed Collaboration,” Organizational Dynamics. 5 T 3/12 Trust and Teams Intangible aspects of teams such as trust. Time to work on virtual team project. Readings: Handy, C. (1995). "Trust and the Virtual Organization." Harvard Business Review, 73, 3, pp. 40-50. (background reading)

6 T 3/19 Team Presentations Virtual Teams Assignment: Written team project due. Presentations from each team Team report due

Spring Break

7 T 4/2 Learning from Teams Virtual Teams Assignment: Debrief on individual learnings from virtual team project. Individual Visitors (vendors of groupware) paper due Readings: Web sites to be assigned

IV. MANAGING VIRTUALLY -- COMMUNITIES

8 T 4/9 Online Communities Online Community Readings: Assignment: In- Williams, R. and Cothrel, J. (2000). "Four Smart Ways To Run class demo Online Communities." Sloan Management Review. 41, 4. Fonstad, N., Orlikowski, W. and Yates, J. (2000). "Notes on Online Communities." Young, M.L., and Levine, J. (2000). Poor Richard's Building Online Communities: Create a Web Community for Your Business, Club, Association, or Family. Chapters 1-3 – optional background reading for Online Community Project. [On reserve in Dewey Library] T 4/16 Patriot's Day

9 T 4/23 Organizational and Occupational Communities Communities of practice

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Visitor: William Snyder Readings: Wenger, E. and Snyder, W. (2000). "Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier." Harvard Business Review.78, 1. 10 T 4/30 Affinity Communities Concept and value Visitor (from Class of 2001 and/or Admissions Office) Readings: Orlikowski, W., Yates, J., and Fonstad, N. (2001). "Sloan 2001: A Virtual Odyssey,” in Our Virtual World: The Transformation of Work, Play, and Life Via Technology, edited by Ilze Zigurs and Laku Chidambaram, (Idea Group Publishing, 2001). Fonstad, N. (2001) "PlanetOut — A Case Study." Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, MA. 11 T 5/7 Affinity Communities Issues and challenges Visitors: Panel on creating and sustaining affinity communities Readings: To be handed out in class 12 T 5/14 Learning from Communities Online Community Presentations on online community projects Assignment: Course wrap-up Presentation and project due

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