A Major Engineering Firm Has Introduced Virtual Teams Around the Globe

question 114

Essay

A major engineering firm has introduced virtual teams around the globe to resolve client emergencies. Although some of these emergencies are routine (they occur often enough that the engineers have ready-made action plans), several are novel. Furthermore, information about the client emergencies often comes second-hand from employees of the client, so some of the details are missing or ambiguous. Although the company plans to eventually offer a variety of communication media that these virtual teams can use, engineers are currently limited to e-mail, telephone, fax machine, and an instant messaging program that was recently introduced. Based on your knowledge of media richness, how can this engineering firm maximize communication effectiveness with the existing resources in this situation?

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Definitions:

Thomas Malthus

An English economist and demographer known for his theory that population growth would outpace agricultural production, leading to widespread famine and hardship.

Pestilence

A fatal epidemic disease, particularly bubonic plague.

Geometrically

Pertaining to geometry; in a manner that relates to the properties, measurements, and relationships of points, lines, angles, surfaces, and solids.

Arithmetically

In a manner related to arithmetic; involving the basic operations of mathematics, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.