Douglas R. Moodie

Using a Simulation to Explore the Challenges of Communicating in a Virtual Team

VIRTUALTEAMShavebecomeanintegralpartofmanyorganizationsbecause of an increase in corporate restructuring, competition, andglobalization (Baker, 2002). Grosse (2002) defined a virtual team asone that conducts its work almost entirely through electronic technol-ogy.Virtualteammembers,whoaretypicallydispersedbothgeograph-ically and organizationally, rarely meet face to face while relying ontechnology for task-related communication (Matthews-Joy & Glad-stone, 2000).Because communication is often seen as the most important factorin coordinating work among team members (Ancona & Caldwell,1992; Dougherty, 1992; Ebadi & Utterback, 1984; Pinto, Pinto, &Prescot, 1993), effective communication is vital for virtual teams(Baker, 2002). However, “in virtual teams, separated by geographicaldistance, the process of developing a shared understanding is morechallenging” (Hinds & Weisband, 2003, p. 21). In particular, suchteams must address three challenges to accomplish their goals. Afterdescribing these challenges, this article presents an exercise in solvinga murder mystery that instructors can use to engage students in virtualteamwork.

Locating Urban Logistics Terminals and Shopping Centres in a Chinese City

This paper demonstrates, through a case study of a Chinese city, a process to locate and size both logistics terminals (LTs) and shopping centres, with the objective of minimising the total costs of retail supply chains, including personal shopping trips. We modelled these supply chains from the intercity transportation nodes, through LTs, through shopping centres (SCs) and on to the final consumers. We found a solution that approached minimising all the operating and capital costs. We compared our solution with reality, and found that our results closely replicated real life. We concluded that this case study supports the use of this planning process. One can use such models to indicate how local planning authorities can reduce environmental costs while at the same time reducing total logistics costs.