[Xmca-l] Fwd: [Air-L] Final Reminder -- CFP for Special Issue on Training/Education for Virtual Teams

Fri Jan 10 18:37:56 PST 2014

Interesting sort of thing to think about, I think.
mike

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Pam Brewer <brewer_pe@mercer.edu>
Date: Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 5:22 PM
Subject: [Air-L] Final Reminder -- CFP for Special Issue on
Training/Education for Virtual Teams
To: "air-l@listserv.aoir.org" <air-l@listserv.aoir.org>

Hello all—

I am sending final reminder that proposals for the special issue of
Connexions entitled Education and Training for Globally Distributed Virtual
Teams are due January 15.  These proposals are short, and I have copied the
text of the call (with the production schedule) below for your convenience.
 The issue will be published in Dec. 2014.  Please consider submitting.
 Contact me or Kirk if you would like to discuss an idea.

Best wishes,
Pam

Pam Estes Brewer, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Technical Communication
Mercer University
brewer_pe@mercer.edu<mailto:brewer_pe@mercer.edu>
478.301.4146
Associate Fellow, STC
Academic SIG Manager, STC

Call for Proposals

EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR

GLOBALLY DISTRIBUTED VIRTUAL TEAMS

Preparing the workforce of the future

Special Issue

Guest editors

Pam Estes Brewer

Mercer University (email: brewer_pe@mercer.edu)

Kirk St.Amant

East Carolina University (email: stamantk@ecu.edu)

Today, information and communication technologies (ICTs) allow individuals
located in different nations to collaborate almost as easily as if they
were located in the same physical office. As a result, globally distributed
virtual teams now support the work of organizations across the spectrum of
products and services. Such teams are used by a range of for-profit and
non-profit organizations including businesses, government organizations,
military, and educational institutions. These organizations are
increasingly employing individuals located in different nations to engage
in various types of collaborative work via ICTs.

As a result of such factors, much of the modern workforce is now migrating
toward a virtual model of work, and forces associated with globalization
are changing the nature of competitiveness in the new economy. Individuals,
in turn, must often adapt rapidly to virtual environments and do so with
little or no formal preparation in the types of professional communication
practices essential to success in such contexts. As a result, individuals
working in internationally distributed teams must generally learn from
their mistakes, an effective but often costly approach. Moreover,
individuals must also often adapt to working in an environment in which
they are regularly paired with new colleagues and clients from different
nations, cultures, and language groups.

Thus, the modern distributed workplace requires employees to account for
and address three central factors—technology, culture, and language—in
order to succeed in most work-related tasks.  An all-important question
arising from this situation is, “How can we better prepare these
individuals for this international, online context?”

A 2012 IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication special issue on
global training reveals, however, that very little information on
training—particularly global virtual communication training—has been
published in the major professional communication journals in the last ten
years. Such a gap needs to be closed if educators and trainers alike wish
to prepare adult learners to be successful participants in current (and
future) business practices and processes.

This special issue on education and training for globally distributed
virtual teams seeks to address this topic through articles on how best to
prepare individuals to succeed in this new workplace.

In particular, the editors are interested in articles that answer questions
such as:

•         What types of education and training are most desired by managers
and participants of global virtual teams?

•         How can organizations best prepare virtual team members for
working across boundaries of language? What issues affect translation and
terminology? What do team members most need to know about World Englishes,
English as a Second Language, or English for Specific Purposes?

•         How can organizations better prepare employees to collaborate and
cooperate online and across cultural boundaries?

•         How can social media be used to prepare individuals for working
in intercultural online contexts?

•         What legal issues can affect or should be included in global
virtual team training? What should participants in global virtual teams
know about proprietary information and privacy?

In addition, the editors of this special issue welcome articles such as:

•         Industry commentaries (refer to “types of articles” below).

•         Critical analyses of the many published task/technology models
that support global virtual teams.

•         Critical analyses of virtual team studies in areas such as
technical training, adult education, human resources development,
educational technology, human performance technology, technical
communication, and user experience design.

The guest editors are also interested in discussing other prospective
topics with potential contributors.

Types of articles

connexions publishes four types of articles:

•         Original research articles of 5,000 to 7,000 words in length

•         Review articles of 3,000 to 5,000 words in length

•         Focused commentary and industry perspectives articles of 500 to
3,000 words in length

•         Teaching cases of 3,000 to 5,000 words in length

Submission Guidelines

Interested individuals should send a 150-200 word proposal to
connexionsspecialissue@gmail.com

Proposals should be sent as a .docx, .doc, or .rtf file attached to an
email message with the subject line:

“Proposal for Special Issue on Globally Distributed Virtual Teams.”

All proposals should include the submitter’s name, affiliation, and email
address as well as a working title for the proposed article.

Production Schedule

The schedule for the special issue is as follows:

•         15 Jan. 2014 –Proposals due

•         15 Feb. 2014 – Decisions on proposals sent to proposal submitters

•         15 June 2014 – Manuscripts due

•         15 Aug. 2014 – Reviewer comments to authors

•         15 Oct. 2014 – Final manuscripts due to editors

•         Dec. 2014 – Publication of special issue

Contact Information

Completed proposals or questions about either proposal topics or this
special issue should be sent to Pam Estes Brewer and Kirk St.Amant at
connexionsspecialissue@gmail.com<mailto:connexionsspecialissue@gmail.com>

connexions • international professional communication journal (ISSN
2325-6044)

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