: (Read Research Brief on page 275. Write a 7 page paper in APA format.) The research paper should include the following sections.

Once the team charter is established, core team members and senior managers must negotiate a contract book. The contract book defines in detail the basic plan to achieve the goal laid out in the project charter. Typically, the contract book will estimate the resources required, the development time schedule, and the results that will be achieved. The contract book provides a tool for monitoring and evaluating the team’s performance in meeting objectives by providing a set of performance benchmarks and deadlines to which the team’s performance can be compared. More important, however, the contract book is an important mechanism for establishing team commitment to the project and a sense of ownership over the project. After negotiation and acceptance of this contract, all parties often sign the contract book as an indication of their intention to honor the plan and achieve the results. Team members who sign the contract book typically feel a greater sense of duty to work toward the project’s goals. Furthermore, signing the contract book can give team members a sense of ownership over the project and empowerment to make decisions about the project. This ownership and empowerment can help team members identify with a project’s outcome and can encourage them to exert extra effort to ensure its success.32 Managing Virtual Teams Recent advances in information technology have enabled companies to make greater use of virtual teams. Virtual teams are teams in which members may be a great distance from each other, but are still able to collaborate intensively via advanced information technologies such as videoconferencing, groupware, and e-mail or Internet chat programs. Virtual teaming can enable individuals with unique skills to work on a project, regardless of their location. By meeting virtually, individuals who live at great distances can collaborate without incurring travel costs or disruption to their lives.33 This is especially valuable for a company whose operations are highly global. For example, SAP Aktiengesellschaft is headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, but has large R&D centers in India, China, Israel, and the United States. Each location has deep expertise in particular areas but lacks functional breadth due to specialization. SAP’s managers choose employees from different locations to assemble virtual teams that optimally integrate the expertise needed for a given project.34 Similarly, when IBM began deploying more of its products globally, it increased its use of virtual teams. About one-third of IBM’s employees will participate in virtual teams at some point in their career. When IBM needs to staff a project, it gives a list of the needed skills to the human resource division, which identifies an appropriate pool of people. If the skills and talent of the people are more important than their ability to meet face-to-face, a virtual team is formed.35 virtual teamsTeams in which members may be a great distance from each other, but are still able to collaborate intensively via advanced information tech-nologies such as videoconferenc-ing, groupware, and e-mail or Internet chat programs.