week 4
Course Project: Team Building

The course project has major assignments that will be due in Weeks 3 and 5. It will take more than a week’s effort to adequately complete them. Plan time to start the research and other work for those assignments earlier than the week in which they are due.

Continue to use the organization you selected for your final project in Week 1. This week, you are being placed on a ten-person virtual team. You decide that prior to the team getting started on the project, you want to do some research that will help you identify ways to make your virtual team most effective. You may need to create hypothetical details about the team and its purpose on the basis of what you know of the organization you selected for the final project.

On the basis of your research, write a paper addressing the following:

• Assess the purpose of the team (i.e., what is the project it has been assigned?) and the contribution of key members to team purpose.
• Analyze four to six potential problems that virtual teams typically face. Is the hypothetical team you described susceptible to these problems? What specific problems might it develop?
• Justify four to six viable solutions to make your team effective, including why these solutions will work.

Week 5

Course Project: Leadership Training

It will take more than a week’s effort to adequately complete this major assignment. Plan time to start the research and other work for this assignment earlier than the week in which it is due.

The organization you selected in Week 1 is designing training for all the managers at all levels. It wants to base the training on one leadership theory.

Tasks:

Write a paper recommending a leadership theory. Address the following:

• Summarize key details about the organization and two or three of the most important insights you have developed so far about the organization during your course project. This one paragraph summary should provide just enough information that someone who has not read any of your papers so far would have a brief background for understanding your project organization.

• Why do you believe your chosen leadership theory is the best for your organization? What is your rationale? What research can you cite to support your choice? What are the factors in your organization that make your selected leadership theory the best choice?
• How will using this theory positively impact the following variables?
  • Managers’ behavior toward subordinates and its effect on subordinates
  • Communication
  • Motivation of subordinates
  • Group and team behavior
  • Decision making
  • Culture

Be sure that you conduct the research necessary to support your conclusions and cite your sources appropriately.