Basic Idea
An effective global manager has a set of interpersonal tools. These include skills in communication, conflict management, teamwork, power and influence, and negotiation. These skills, of course, cannot be learned in one course. This course offers a general introduction to skills in these areas, and practice in using these skills in a global context.
You will be required to complete a team project. This team project simulates the reality of the international workplace, in that you will be a team member of a GDMT (a globally distant, multinational team). Working on such teams requires the application of creative problem solving and innovation skills.
Each team will consist of students from UTC, University of Missouri, and University of Saarland, which is located Saarbrücken, Germany. You will work in a virtual team, via the internet, to complete your team project. Ideally at least two students from each location will be members of a team.
Dates for Teamwork
Monday, 20.01.2003 – Friday, 31.01.2002 (Deadline for Submission: Midnight, CST)
Teams
General Topic for Teamwork
Develop an idea and design proposal for an appropriate website for a specific demographic population (e.g., senior citizens, boys 10-12 years old, teenage girls 13-18, paragliders, teddy bear collectors, and so forth). The reasons for the decisions, why something is on this website and why other things are not, should be described – especially the idea of the global fit.
- Finish your report as a WinWord file recorded as *.htm.
- Send it to Saarbrücken (gdmt@orga.uni-sb.de) via attachment. There, it will be placed on the netserver. Also send your team webpages, if you have created any.
Coordination among Students
mainly via E-Mail
Grading
Each team as a whole will be graded for this report by all three professors; each professor will grade a different component of the project:
- 33% Allan Bird (on “global sensemaking”: does the website apply cross-culturally?)
- 33% Mark Mendenhall (on creativity)
- 33% Chris Scholz (on media and webdesign)
The group mean of the professors’ evaluations will constitute your grade on this assignment. The evaluation will take place according to traditional criteria upon which excellent research and analysis is based (e.g., valid use of sources and citations, a valid, logical and clear structure, created insight from the analysis, rigor of implications that are derived from the analysis, etc.).
Further General Information
…see http://www.gdmt.net