Discuss Success Factors In Virtual Collaboration

In their seminal work, Mastering Virtual Teams (2011), Duarte and Snyder identify seven critical success factors in virtual team collaboration:

1. Human resource policies.
2. Training and development.
3. Standard organizational processes.
4. Communication and collaboration technology.
5. Organizational culture.
6. Leadership.
7. Competence (p. 10).

Note: A custom text containing pertinent excerpts from the Duarte and Snyder text is one of the suggested readings listed in the Resources. If you choose not to purchase the text, you should be able to find a number of resources that address these critical success factors through your research for this assessment.

To prepare for this assessment, research the seven critical success factors in virtual team collaboration. Consider your own real-world experiences with these factors in the workplace.

Deliverable

This assessment incorporates multiple elements. Be sure to thoroughly address each before submitting the assessment.

Use the seven critical success factors to analyze how the practices of your own organization (or another organization with which you are familiar) influence the success of its virtual teams. Base your analysis on your own experience of being a member of a virtual team within the organization.

Note: If you have not participated in a virtual team, base your analysis on a hypothetical virtual team experience, using what you know of your organization’s practices.

In developing this case, it is helpful to assume that you have been tasked by executive management to conduct an audit of your organization’s ability to support virtual team collaboration. Your audit will include a detailed report in each of the seven critical success factors. Go beyond a description of the “as-is” state for each of these factors in your audit to evaluate and analyze each of the factors to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that the current state presents to the organization in terms of its ability to support virtual team collaboration.

Remember that the executive management of your company is not interested in a report about the criteria themselves—they are not interested in reading about human resource policies in the abstract, for example—but about how the organization measures up to the criteria. Use the success factors to analyze the organization—do not fall into the trap of writing about the criteria. Use the criteria to describe, analyze, and evaluate the organization.

Explain how organizational practices influenced (or might influence) the virtual team’s performance. Address all of the following: