Cassandra Smith, M.Ed.
 Understand
different student roles that
might emerge in virtual teams.
 Understand the importance of taking an
active role as the instructor in virtual teams.
 Identify roles and characteristics that
influence team dynamics.
 Identify conflict strategies that can help
resolve issues in virtual teams.
 O’Leary
and Cummings (2007 as cited in
Dube & Robey, 2008) defined virtual teams as
an interdependent group of people working
towards a common goal while separated by
geographic distance, time and/or location.
 You
are a manager for the IT department.
Two employees on a team come to you at
different times explaining that one employee
isn’t contributing to the team work and the
other feels as if when he contributes his
ideas are not well received. How would you
intervene?
I
don’t like virtual teams…
 I returned to school online to work
independently not to be forced to work in a
virtual team…
 I do not like my grade contingent upon
others…
 I do not think it is fair that some students
have to submit most of the work when other
members slack…
 I do not feel a strong instructor presence
when conflicts arise…
 Leadership
 Assess
skills (patience, organization)
 Goal setting (accountable/deadlines)
 Project management (guide/set timelines)
 Collaborative learning (relinquish personal
agendas)
 Critical thinking (logical thought processes)
Side note: Qualitative and
Quantitative data
 The
Aggressive Role
 The Passive Role
 The Slacker Role
 The I’ll Do It Role
 Aggressive
role – person who exhibits this
role wants to do the majority of the
assignment (control the assignment) or tells
everyone else what to do on the team. He or
she is more of a dominator on the team than
innovator especially if no one has responded.
Maybe you should do it! You
are only compiling the
assignment.
 Example





Assignment: Instructional Plan
Team A consists of Tina, Jerry, San, and Bob
Tina sends an email to the team forum and says she
thinks the team should do an Instructional Plan on
“How to give a Creative Presentation”
The team agrees.
Tina completes the assignment. Everything is
complete except the conclusion, and she sends a
message to the team saying someone else on the
team can add the finishing touches.
 Passive
role – a person who
exhibits this role on the
team waits for everyone
else to respond before
selecting an assignment
section. He or she will not
volunteer.
 Slacker
Role – a
person who exhibits
this role on the
team does little to
help the team. He
has no time for
team assignments…
 I’ll
Do It Role – a person who exhibits this
role on the team fulfills several
responsibilities on the team and volunteers and will do any part of the assignment when
no one else on the team wants to work or
volunteers.

He carries the brunt of the team projects.
 Conflict
is defined as “An expressed struggle
between at least two interdependent parties
who perceive incompatible goals, scarce
rewards and interference from the other
party in achieving their goals” Hocker and
Wilmont (1992).
 Conflict
management involves executing
resolution and includes the principle that all
conflicts cannot necessarily be resolved, but
learning how to manage conflicts can
decrease the odds of nonproductive
escalation (Bakhare, 2010).
 Miscommunication
 Student
inconsistency
 Student work ethics
 Lack of reading
 Unclear assignment instruction
 Not enough sections to write for
assignments

Dyad: Have students work in class in the team
assigned section
 Preparation
Conflict (slow start, unclear
instructions, duplicated sections, leader
confusion (Volunteering someone)
 Leadership Conflict (dominator versus
innovator, same person lead - other team
members not volunteering, changing
assignment)
 Withdrawal Conflict (male versus female
scenarios, or students not fully participated
because of conflict, plagiarizing part of the
work)
 Instructor








Must take an Active Role
Monitor (often, 3x a day)
Weekly Check-in (email or message thread
worth points)
Intervene (send message)
Team Document (guidelines, assignment sections)
Assign a team leader (to compile the assignment)
Team Agreement (ground rules, meetings)
Grade (specific individual team feedback)
Syllabus Alert
Accountability
Model the behavior
 Intervene
 Reinforce
 Post
messages
 Syllabus alert
 Team document
Well, maybe not that
angry!
This is much better!





Extraversion
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Neuroticism
Openness




John & Srivastava, 1999 as cited
in Jacques, Garger, Brown, &
Deale.

Individual is talkative,
full of energy, and
emotionally expressive
Individual is helpful and
unselfish with others,
Individual does a
thorough job, is reliable
Individual is tense
worries more than
others
Individual is original
curious about many
things, and inventive








Cassandra Smith, M.Ed.
Cassiesmith41@gmail.com
Follow me on Twitter: CjdistanceEdu and FirstNovel
Author of books:
Who Let this Disaster in My Classroom
Ethical Behavior in the
E-Classroom
Both Available on Amazon.com

Bakhare, R. (2010). The Manager and Conflict Management. SCMS
Journal of Indian Management. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Dube, L., & Robey, D. (2008). Surviving the paradoxes of virtual
teamwork. Information Systems, 19. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Hocker, J.L., & Wilmot, W.W. (1991). Interpersonal conflict.
Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown. Retrieved from Conflict
Management for Teams.
http://www.uni.edu/riedmill/conflict_article.htm

Jacques P.H., Garger, J., Brown, C.A., & Deale, C.S. (2009).
Personality and virtual reality team candidates: The roles of
personality traits, technology anxiety and trust as predictors of
perceptions of virtual reality teams. Journal of Business and
Management,15(2). Retrieved from EBSCOhost.