Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/56805
UAL Want your students to learn to resolve conflict, leverage technology, and develop cultural awareness distributed team? If so, consider adding a virtual collaboration project to your next business course. while managing a globally TEAMING B usiness is undoubtedly becoming more multicultural and more global. But not all global business interactions require a pass- port or plane ticket. In fact, more orga- nizations are relying on technology, not travel, to keep their global workforces connected. Business graduates often will be expected to collaborate effectively as members of geographically distrib- uted teams through e-mail, social media, videocon- ferencing, and other digital tools. But without proper preparation, graduates could find that it's more difficult to build effective multinational teams virtually than it is face-to- face. E-mail cannot communicate voice inflections, facial expressions, or body gestures, which can lead to misunderstandings. Conflicts are more likely to arise when workers are separated by thousands of miles and a cultural divide. That's why more business professors are work- ing with their colleagues in different countries to create virtual team projects, which group students at different schools into multicultural global teams. Here, educators at St. Petersburg University in Russia and the University of Mas- sachusetts Boston share their experience imple- menting virtual team projects in their classrooms. They have found these assignments get students used to crossing cultural divides without physi- cally crossing time zones. Most important, they push students to overcome barriers of distance, temperament, and technology to complete their team's objective. BizEd March/April 2012 29 TETRA/GLOW IMAGES