BUSINESS COMMUNICATION MEMORANDUM
DATE:
Spring 2014
TO:
WRIT 340/BUAD 302/BUCO 458 students
FROM:
Professors Aritz, Cardon, Chrystal, Philadelphia, and Walker
RE:
WRIT 340/BUAD 302/BUCO 458 Virtual team collaboration project: “Successes
and challenges of electronic communication and social media in organizations.”
Purpose
Around the world, a wide range of corporate tasks are being performed by teams of employees
who rarely if ever meet in person.
According to the Wall Street Journal, companies have become more reluctant to bear the
expense of frequent in-person meetings -- and employees increasingly resent the burdens travel
places on their health and personal lives.
The rise of so-called virtual teams is hardly surprising, given the vast investments corporations
are making in internal communications and networks. Technically, it's no longer a challenge to
work closely with colleagues in distant locations or to hold meetings with participants scattered
around the globe.
In practical terms, however, plenty of hurdles remain. Among them: time-zone differences that
make quick exchanges difficult, and cultural miscues that can cause misunderstandings. Teams
that don't meet in person are considered less likely to develop the kind of chemistry seen in
teams that do -- an element that's often seen as a key factor in making teams productive.
This project emphasizes the development of critical-thinking, communication, and team-building
skills among Marshall students with the following specific goals:
(1) To help you experience some of the challenges and benefits of working in virtual teams, to
introduce you to different communication platforms and have you assess their effectiveness in
the virtual collaboration process, and to teach you leadership skills in virtual collaboration
projects.
(2) To examine, analyze, and assess external organizational communication practices and
provide recommendations.
(3) To collaboratively write a professional report about your findings with emphasis on writing
effectively and in appropriate format.
Listen in: Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management at the London Business School, tells the Journal's
Carol Hymowitz about some of the challenges of managing these teams.
http://www.johnq.com/details.htm?cid=4&sid=166&order=oldest
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Project Themes and Details
You will be joining a team comprised of members from different courses. Your membership in
the team will be randomly assigned. Your instructor will provide you with your team assignment
and member contact information.
Your team represents a consulting company that specializes in branding/social media
management consulting. Your task is to analyze and assess external organizational
communication practices and to provide recommendations for how the company can improve its
public image by maximizing the use of social media.
Choosing Your Communication Media
You will work with your team to identify the media you will use for communicating and working
with each other and with the organization about which you will write your report. For example,
you might choose to meet on “Google Hangout,” “Facebook,” or via Skype. We strongly urge
you to resist any attempt to meet in person as this would not resemble a real-life situation—plus
this might be difficult due to team members’ different class times.
Assigning Readings to Team Members
We have posted several readings on Blackboard. Covering organizational reputation
management, internal and external communication issues, these will inform your discussion from
the get go, helping you in your project approach and in making a decision when selecting an
organization. We suggest that you assign readings to team members and exchange article
summaries. Once you’ve selected your organization, focus on the readings that are relevant to
your case. These will later be helpful in writing the team report.
Selecting an Organization
Select an organization that all your team members are interested in. Conduct research by
investigating their external communication— such as their web/twitter/FB/social media
presence, stories in the news about them, product blogs, etc. Depending on your company
choice, we suggest you start by contacting the media relations, communications, or public
relations department. We also recommend you contact their external relations department and
interview one of their members. Carefully develop a set of questions you might want to ask
regarding “the role, impact, and success or challenges of using electronic and social media to
communicate with external audiences of the organization.”
Maintaining Professionalism
Assuming you will be contacting the organization, it is absolutely essential that you maintain the
highest level of professionalism when contacting any organization and its members. Remember
you are not only representing your team but also the Marshall School of Business and USC. This
is an opportunity for you to build professional relationships that may benefit you in your career
in a variety of ways.
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Submitting Progress Updates via the Blackboard Course Blog
As a team you will complete a series of short deliverables (see list below).
Specifics: Even though you may share the same document, each team member is responsible for
submitting these deliverables to his or her own course Blackboard blog. Each element on the list
below will have its own blog title (see list below for details).
Writing the Team Report
Your team should write a four-five page report (excluding cover page, table of contents, and
Works Cited page) on the external electronic communication and social media practices and
methods used by your chosen organization.
 Start by first briefly describing the organization and then provide a discussion of the
practices and methods of communication used by the organization. As appropriate,
provide an explanation of why the methods were chosen and their effectiveness in terms
of supporting organizational communication goals with a particular focus on managing
the organization’s identity and reputation.
 Select the readings that are most relevant for your project.
 Seek out additional professional sources/research that you have found that discuss
challenges and best practices of e-communication in organizations.
 Use the readings as a guide for your analysis and recommendations.
 Develop recommendations based on your findings and the readings. For example,
depending on your report’s focus, your recommendations can be addressing how to
improve your organization’s external communication. But you could also make
suggestions on how your organization could improve their internal communication to be
more effective with their external communication.
Specifics:
 You will present your findings in a traditional report addressed to your professors. The
document will include elements of a traditional report (such as an executive summary). It
should be well organized, using appropriate headings.
 We will go over report writing in class, but you may pre-read about elements of a report
and report writing in your textbook.
 Each team member will post the team report to their specific course Blackboard under
Assignments. At the end of the report include a brief note about which student was
responsible for which part (this is in addition to the page count).
The FIVE best reports of the 42 teams (selected by the group of professors) will be made
available to all participants. The teams of the “Five Best” will be encouraged and guided to
submit their reports to “their” organizations—a great way to extend and support your networking
and building pathways for future professional opportunities.
Writing Your Individual Journal Entry
You will write a brief journal entry in which you assess the effectiveness of your virtual team
communication. Identify the things that worked well, the things that did not, and explain why.
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Then for the things that did not work well, provide recommendations for what you would do
differently the next time to ensure a better outcome.
Specifics: You will post this to your course Blackboard under Journals.
Grading
The grading for the bulk of this assignment is based on your participation in the project and
completion of all of the assigned steps. These steps are listed below along with their possible
participation points (please add the word count at the end of blog entries as indicated):
Postings to Blackboard Blog, or under Assignments (TP = Team Project):
 TP1: Establish contact with teammates (50 to 100 words; BB Blog)
 TP2: Submit team charter (1 to 2 pages; BB Assignments, use
Template in Appendix)
 TP3: Identify organization, project approach, and
estimated scope of research (about 3 paragraphs, 250 to 350 words; BB Blog)
 TP4: Submit project progress report (about 3 paragraphs, 250 to 350 words;
BB Blog)
 TP5: Submit team effectiveness assessment (about 3 paragraphs,
250 to 350 words; BB Blog)
 TP6: Submit team report (5 pages; BB Assignments)
 TP7: Submit individual journal entry (about 250-500 words; BB Journal)
5
10
5
10
10
100
10
Complete two brief project surveys/survey-monkey
 TP8 + 9:
Complete one survey at the start and one at the end of the project (mandatory to
receive credit for the project)
______
TOTAL POINTS
150
On the next page, you will find a schedule of the tasks listed above and their deadlines.
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Virtual Teams Project Schedule
Task
Official start of the project, students placed on teams
Complete Pre-Project Survey (Mandatory to receive credit for project)
Submission: Use the URL for the survey provided to you by your instructor.
The software checks for random response patterns – surveys with random
answers will be disqualified.
Deadline 1. Report on Establishing Contact with Teammates: By this
date, you are expected to exchange at least a few messages with your
teammates. At this point, you might begin sharing ideas with one another about
which companies you are interested in. If some teammates are not responding,
you are expected to send at least three email reminders to them by this
deadline.
Deadlines
(All deadlines are for
Sundays, 11:59 PM)
Feb. 10-14
Feb. 16
Feb. 23
Submission (TP1/5 points): You should report your progress for this task to
the Virtual Team Project blog created on Blackboard.
Deadline 2. Team Charter: Your first task is to create a team charter in
which you establish expectations for your team (see APPENDIX A for a
template). We expect that by this date you have discussed with your team
how to handle communication, work coordination, scheduling, workload
distribution, team member roles, and emergencies, including situations
when one or more team members do not complete their work or submit
work that contains plagiarism. A team charter is meant to communicate
clear task process and completion expectations and will be the “contract”
that you all agree to.
Submission (TP2/10 points): The results of the discussion should be posted
to the Assignment folder for the Team Charter that has been created on
Blackboard.
Deadline 3. Identify organization, project approach, and
estimated scope of research. By this date, your team must select an
organization and create a plan for examining its external electronic
communication and social media practices. This information will be the
basis of your team report due at the end of this project.
March 2
March 9
Submission (TP3/5 points): About 3 paragraphs, 250 to 350 words; post to
BB Blog.
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Deadline 4. Project Progress Report: You should post a short progress
report that identifies what your group has accomplished since Deadline 5
and any problems you have encountered. If you have encountered problems,
identify ways that you might solve them in a timely way.
Submission (TP4/10 points): About 3 paragraphs, 250 to 350 words;
post to BB Blog.
Deadline 5. Submit Team Effectiveness Assessment. Following the inclass discussion, where you learn about team experiences and progress of
the other virtual teams, reflect upon your team’s effectiveness. How have
team members performed so far? How accountable are they? Did they fulfill
tasks on time? Is your team abiding by the team charter you established?
What steps do you plan to take to address any challenges you may be having
at this time?
Submission (TP5/10 points): About 3 paragraphs, 250 to 350 words; post to
BB Blog)
Deadline 6. Team FINAL Report: You should post your finalized team
report.
Submission (TP6/100 points): The report should be posted to the
Assignment folder for the Report Draft on Blackboard.
Deadline 7. Individual Journal Entry. Analyze the challenges you faced
working on a virtual team and provide recommendations for avoiding these
challenges in the future.
March 30
April 6
April 27
May 4
Submission (TP7/10 points): Journal entry, post to BB (about 250-500
words)
Complete Post-project survey (Mandatory to receive credit for project):
You will be asked to comment on your experiences and evaluate
performance of your team members. Please note, all questions must be
answered. The software checks for random response patterns – surveys with
random answers will be disqualified.
May 4
Submission: Use the URL for the survey provided to you by your instructor
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APPENDIX A
Team Charter Template
Team Charter for [INSERT TEAM NAME]
Purpose:
Goals:
Team Member Roles and Responsibilities
Name & email
Role
Task
Team Rules
Ground Rules:
Communication Protocol:
1. Meetings will start on time (penalties will
be enforced for lateness)
Primary mode of communication:
Frequency of communication:
2.
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Response time:
3.
4.
Who is primary communication coordinator?
5.
Who will communicate what to whom (meaning,
not all members necessarily need all information)
Task Completion Agenda
(Enter your step by step approach include dates for deliverables, meaning: Who has to do what
until when)
What to do:
Who until When:
What to do:
Who until When:
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9
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