[Air-L] CFP for Special Issue of Connexions (Education and Training for Globally Dist. Virtual Teams)

[Pam Brewer]

Dear Colleagues--

Kirk St.Amant and I would like to invite you to submit proposals for a 
special issue of the the journal /connexions/.  This special issue is 
titled Education and Training for Globally Distributed Virtual Teams: 
Preparing the Workforce of the Future.  I am copying the text of the 
call below.  Please let us know if you have any questions.

Best regards,
Pam



connexions

Call for Papers

EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR

GLOBALLY DISTRIBUTED VIRTUAL TEAMS

Preparing the workforce of the future

Special Issue

Guest editors

*Pam Estes Brewer *

/Mercer University /(email: brewerpse at gmail.com)

*Kirk St.Amant *

/East Carolina University /(email: stamantk at 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, the 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:

. 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 at 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 at gmail.com <mailto:connexionsspecialissue at gmail.com>

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


-- 
Pam Estes Brewer, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Director of Undergraduate Studies, English
Department of English
Appalachian State University
Manager, STC Academic Special Interest Group
phone 828-262-2351
fax  828-262-2133
email  brewerpe at appstate.edu