Virtual Teamwork Mastering the Art and Practice of Online Learning and Corporate Collaboration Edited by Robert Ubell Virtual Teamwork Virtual Teamwork Mastering the Art and Practice of Online Learning and Corporate Collaboration Edited by Robert Ubell Copyright Ó 2010 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved Published by John Wiley & Sons, lnc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4470, or on the web at www.copyright.com Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permission. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic formats. For more information about Wiley products, visit our web site at www.wiley.com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Virtual teamwork : mastering the art and practice of online learning and corporate collaboration / edited by Robert Ubell. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-470-44994-3 (pbk.) 1. Virtual work teams. 2. Teams in the workplace. 3. Organizational learning. I. Ubell, Robert. HD66.V558 2010 658.4’022–dc22 2009049264 Printed in the United States of America 10987654321 For Rosalyn Contents Acknowledgments ix Contributors xv Foreword xxv Frank Mayadas Preface xxix Jerry M. Hultin Dewey Goes Online xxxiii Robert Ubell Part 1 Managing Virtual Teams 1 1 Building Virtual Teams 3 Edward Volchok 2 Leadership 17 Michael R. Ryan 3 Peer and Self-Assessment 45 Paul Resta and Haekyung Lee 4 Mitigating Conflict 65 Richard Dool 5 Virtual Teams in Very Small Classes 91 Elaine Lehecka Pratt vii viii Contents Part 2 Virtual Team Technology 111 6 Choosing Online Collaborative Tools 113 Phylise Banner, M. Katherine (Kit) Brown-Hoekstra, Brenda Huettner, and Char James-Tanny 7 Communication Technologies 137 Anu Sivunen and Maarit Valo Part 3 Enterprise and Global Teams 159 8 Teaming across Borders 161 Richard Dool 9 Global Corporate Virtual Teams 193 Christine Uber Grosse 10 Corporate Virtual Teaming 211 Luther Tai 11 Virtual Engineering Teams 241 Doug Vogel, Michiel van Genuchten, Carol Saunders, and A.-F. Rutkowski Index 257 Acknowledgments This book is partly the result of more than a decade of engage- ment with online learning that began serendipitously on a visit to Stanford University, where I came upon a remarkable activ- ity that very few had ever witnessed before. It was there, at the Stanford Center for Professional Development in the School of Engineering, where I met Andy DiPaolo and his pioneering colleagues who were launching something, I sensed, that was not merely an experiment suitable for elite students only. I was observing the start of what was then being tentatively practiced in only a handful of universities where online learning was being born. Today, it is part of university life, with some 4.6 million US students online. I flew back to New York, excited by what I had seen, eager to tell my colleagues all about it. At the time, I was working for a small scientific and technical publisher as head of new media. Thinking the company would grasp the implications of what Andy and his colleagues were doing, I proposed that the president consider entering into a partnership with Stanford— we would publish ancillary print materials, while the university would deliver its courses online. “Online learning has no future,” the company’s president predicted. ix x Acknowledgments It didn’t take deep reflection to recognize that my enthusi- asm was unlikely to be supported, and so I retreated. Luckily, soon afterward, I stumbled on an advertisement in The Times seeking someone to head a new venture in “web-based distance learning” at Stevens Institute of Technology, an engineering school just across the Hudson in New Jersey. With no experi- ence—except for my few hours at Stanford—I applied. It turned out that it was all that was required. A dozen years ago, hardly anyone knew anything about online education, so my meager exposure and my enthusiasm were enough of a resume. It wasn’t long before I attended a symposium in midtown Manhattan, sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, where I met Frank Mayadas, program director for what the foundation called “asynchronous learning networks,” an un- likely name for what was later called “e-learning.” “Join me for lunch,” Mayadas encouraged. We set a date to meet at an Indian restaurant not far from Rockefeller Center, where the Sloan Foundation has its headquarters. Over curry and dal, I sketched what I was doing—hoping to create an online graduate program in science, engineering, and manage- ment. But it was early days and I was struggling with tepid faculty response at best, hostility at worst. Only the most adventurous had agreed to participate, with merely 3 courses and 23 students enrolled in the first semester. While quite sympathetic, Frank nonetheless proposed that I move forward even more boldly. By the time we took our last bites of watermelon for dessert, Frank offered me a Sloan grant to launch an online master’s degree in wireless communica- tions, a graduate program that was being offered at Stevens on campus but had not yet migrated online. With the promise of Sloan Foundation funding in my pocket, I took a PATH commuter train back to Stevens’ campus in Hoboken. Elated, I nearly flew into the office of the head of the graduate school with the news. “You must have Acknowledgments xi misunderstood,” he shook his head. “Nobody gets a grant over lunch.” Frank’s unexpected generous investment was among the early encouragements that eventually led WebCampus, Stevens’ online graduate program, to attract nearly 25,000 enrollments over 10 years. This book would never have been possible without Frank Mayadas’ foresight and personal and professional support and friendship. Without Frank’s evange- lism and the Sloan Foundation’s seed money, online learning would not now be practiced by some 4.6 million college and university students who take at least one online class. Online learning students represent nearly 25% of all students in higher education. I am grateful to my many colleagues whom I had encoun- tered owing to my engagement with the Sloan Foundation. For their generosity in sharing their knowledge and insight, I owe my appreciation to Eric Fredericksen, University of Rochester; Jacquie Maloney, University of Massachusetts; Tony Picciano, City University of New York; Peter Shea, University of Albany; and Karen Swan, University of Illinois. MembersoftheBoardofDirectorsofWebCampustire- lessly offered their wisdom and experience, helping the pro- gram achieve national and international recognition. For their invaluable support as well as for their personal commitment, I thank Phil Long, University of Queensland; Luther Tai, Consolidated Edison; Peter Wiesner, IEEE; Kee Meng Yeo, Amway; and Ronald Schlosser and Martin Tuchman. I am also enormously grateful to Stevens’ faculty and staff who served on the board as well as those who were especially supportive as WebCampus professors—Larry Bernstein, Stephen Bloom, Hong-Liang Cui, Celia Desmond, Peter Dominick, Sven Esche, Hosein Fallah, Thomas Herrington, John Horgan, Peter Jurkat, Dilhan Kalyon, Donald Lombardi, Manu Malek, Barbara Migliori, Ann Mooney, Barbara O’Connor, Richard Reilly, xii Acknowledgments Kevin Ryan, Steven Savitz, Charles Suffel, B. J. Taylor, and Yu-Dong Yao. At the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, President Jerry Hultin has been enormously supportive, easing the way for me and my staff to build on the e-learning founda- tions established earlier at the school. To Jerry and his collea- gues at the Polytechnic Institute, I owe an enormous debt for their welcome and encouragement. I offer my deep apprecia- tion to Lilana Avery, Kurt Becker, John Bernhard, Ria Best, JeanCarlo Bonilla, Lea Bowie, George Bugliarello, Brian Casey, Crystal Chavis, Ji Mi Choi, Jonathan Chao, Joy Colelli, Mary Cowman, Dennis Dintino, Dawn Duncan, Alan Fisher, Robert Flynn, Andres Fortino, Barbara Kates Garnick, Steven Goss, Ardis Kadiu, Iraj Kalkhoran, Meera Kumar, Sunil Kumar, Erich Kunhardt, Joseph Lathan, Marlene Leekang, Kalle Levon, I-Tai Lu, Nasir Memon, Peter Morales, Felice Nudelman, Shivendra Panwar, Susan Puglia, Bharat Rao, Dianne Rekow, Jana Richman, Keith Ross, Carl Skelton, Kate Smith, Harvey Stein, Richard Thorsen, Jay VanDerwerken, Philip Venables, Yao Wang, Nina Weber, Allan Weisberg and T.