Week 4

Prior to beginning work on this assignment,

• Read sections 8.0 and 8.2-8.4 in Chapter 8 of the required textbook, Operations and Supply Chain Management.
• Read Virtual Teams: Meaning, Types, Advantages and Disadvantages (Links to an external site.).

One of the major trends in business is a move toward virtual workplaces. In a virtual team, members are dispersed, either geographically or organizationally, with their primary communication through electronic means, as opposed to face-to-face communication. Management concepts of virtual teams can also be utilized within a more traditional workplace.

Research and write a paper on the advantages and disadvantages of virtual teams in today’s digital environment.

In your paper,

• Describe the advantages and disadvantages of virtual teams in today’s digital environment.

The Virtual Teams paper

• Must be four to five double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA Style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.).
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of paper
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted

For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).

• Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance.
• Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
  • For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.
• Must use at least three scholarly, peer-reviewed, or credible sources in addition to the course text.
  • The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
  • To assist you in completing the research required for this assignment, view this Ashford University Library Quick ‘n’ Dirty (Links to an external site.) tutorial, which introduces the Ashford University Library and the research process, and provides some library search tips.
• Must document any information used from sources in APA Style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA: Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.).
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA Style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the APA: Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.