Behind the Screen: Decoding Team Effectiveness in Virtual and Hybrid Workplaces

Catalog description

Virtual and hybrid teams have become increasingly popular and necessary in organizations around the world across multiple industries and geographies. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic further transforming the way we work and accelerating this trend, the ability to effectively collaborate virtually is critical now more than ever. Yet, virtual and hybrid teams are difficult to get right. Why? What accounts for the persistent challenge of navigating virtual team dynamics in this digital age, especially given our increased knowledge and tools about how to do so? In this course, we will explore the nature of team dynamics and team effectiveness in virtual and hybrid teams and how the unique characteristics of these teams, such as geographical dispersion and high reliance on technology for communication and collaboration, impact team effectiveness. This course draws from multiple disciplines informing these topics, including industrial-organizational psychology, communication, information science, and sociology. Specifically, this course examines the current research and best practices from virtual team literature pertaining to topics such as learning and performing in such teams, building and maintaining trust, identifying and managing conflict, power dynamics, information sharing across boundaries, diversity dynamics, creativity and innovation, and intercultural collaboration. Through case studies, real-world examples, and project work, this course enables students to gain practical skills and actionable insights on the topic and explore ways to apply their learnings in real-world situations. Non-Dynamics students: Please include your job description in your permissions request.