Surinder and I are currently conducting research on the use of online media such as virtual worlds for education and training. In my readings I came across an interesting article about the perceptions of social presence, or the feeling of being with others in an online environment, and perceived learning and satisfaction in an online course. In this study,… Read more →
We have said often and heard from others that maintaining positive social communication and relationships and creating opportunities for socialization are important for effective and satisfying work in virtual teams (e.g. see New Year Resolution: Be Happy ; Spread Your Virtual Smile, Really). Even though team members are often communicating over geographical distances, personal interaction and forming bonds with distant… Read more →
Last week’s Time had an article on how President Obama is using the science of change to transform the country. Specifically, President Obama and his economic team are relying on findings in behavioral economics to make people break old habits and adopt behaviors that are better for them and society. Unlike traditional economics which assumes that human rationality, self-interest, and… Read more →
Surinder and I are currently attending the Mardi Gras conference on virtual worlds in Baton Rouge along with our colleague Rui Huang. We are here to present our paper that I discussed in last week’s post and also to hear the exciting work that others are pursuing in and around virtual worlds. I am amazed by the breadth of interests… Read more →
Effective communication in electronic environments can be vexing to virtual teams. We know intuitively that we need proper communication to achieve high quality and efficient outcomes, but we are not always sure how to best achieve effective communication or even what effective communication is for the task at hand. We have mentioned issues around communication in past posts, such as… Read more →
I recently read an article by Line Dube and Daniel Robey entitled “Surviving the paradoxes of virtual teamwork”. The authors, through their research, determined five paradoxes that are prevalent in the realm of virtual teamwork. They then made some suggestions for dealing with each paradox. In the rest of this post I will: List the authors’ five paradoxes and their… Read more →
It is that time of the year when people begin thinking about their new year’s resolutions. We often resolve to change our habits, thinking that the changes will make us more successful and our success, in turn, will make us happier. During the past decade, new research has emerged on the issue of the relationship between success and happiness…. Read more →
A few weeks back, Surinder posted quick tips that virtual team leaders could use to deal with pressures to make their virtual teams more productive. I believe that sponsors and leaders of virtual team projects ought to also focus on another thing: training. While the times are challenging because of pressures to cut down costs, we strongly believe that the… Read more →
In this post, I would like to get back to a really basic interest of the Leading Virtually group. There are at least a few prominent articles (see, for example, the Seriosity report and an HBR article) that predict multiplayer online games offer us a preview of the future of the business environment and leadership. While this may be true, we are interested primarily in the potential of… Read more →