COMMUNICATION TASK: 1) Access to knowledge within the team: Managers and leaders must ensure that each individual

knows the others roles, responsibilities and expertise: that each individuals progress is visibly displayed; and that knowledge about the individuals decision process is available.

2) Making the value of knowledge sharing explicit: Managers and leaders should ensure that members have a clear understanding of the value of the team to the organization, to each individual, non-team members, of working as a virtual team, of sharing knowledge within the team, and of obtaining knowledge from outside the team as well as with inside the team.

3) Motivating members to share knowledge: Managers and leaders should establish shared accountability among members by providing incentives to share knowledge with others on the team, ensure that informationhoarding is not practice, established cultural norm of open information sharing, and resolve intellectual property issue upfront.

4) Ensuring that team members have the ability to synthesize knowledge that is shared: Managers and leaders should ensure members have recognized deep expertise in at least one area critical to the teams objective to ensure that members are aware of and respect each others expertise; that virtual team meetings reserved for synthesis (not coordination); and to

encourage sharing knowledge about decision rationale, decision process, and options and not just individual outputs.

5) Building trust to facilitate greater communication: The team must adopt a communication practice to build trust within the group. (Mathers, 2011) managers should communicate with their members whats going on with the company to create a mind-set that people are informed around what the company is doing and why.

TASK CONSIDERATION: 1. Using IM can sometimes distract the attention of the members during virtual meetings if used in one-on-one communication. Members were encouraged to use the repository for all communication that uses discussion thread.

2. Organizing info into folders based on teams' life cycle rather than creating a sophisticated search engine with a robust knowledge repository. (Chun et al., 2007) advised to hire a knowledge management expert who has the specialization in knowledge management tactics and strategies. They provide credibility to the knowledge management efforts of the organization.

3. Use of information technology to support knowledge sharing practice. Technologies that gather, integrate, and facilitate centralized access to data are the foundation of many knowledge management activities. (Urquhart, 2012) supplement conversations with on-

line meeting software for brainstorming such as GoToMeeting which enable participants to share their screens content of the entire team. Theres also Basecamp or an "internalto-the-team" e-mail functionality so members can have an area where they can pay attention and be responsive to just the other members of the team. This is important in our increasingly multitasking workplace where important e-mails can get lost in an avalanche.

4. (Chun et al., 2007) Establish a near-peer network to have the best opportunities to hear the latest and most effective knowledge management techniques and tools that can be identified and found through discussions with colleagues from other firms by establish informal conferences or technical forums wherein colleagues can demonstrate the latest knowledge.

5. Identify business challenges which are related to knowledge management and focus on knowledge that is important to capture and feasible to maintain. Knowledge management efforts are more challenging to those who are more integrated and heavily dependent on the knowledge of the firm. (Chun, 2007)

References:

Chun, M. (2007). Creating a Community in Southern California that Values Sharing Knowledge. Grazadios Business Review, 10(4). Retrieved from: http://gbr.pepperdine.edu/2010/08/creating-a-community-in-southern-california-thatvalues-sharing-knowledge/

Chun, M., Williams, M., & Granados, N. (2007). Grazadios Business Review,

Managing Organizational Knowledge. 10(2). Retrieved from:

http://gbr.pepperdine.edu/2010/08/managing-organizational-knowledge/

Malhotra, A. and Majchizak, A. (2004). Enabling knowledge creation in far-flung teams: best practices for IT support and knowledge sharing. Journal of Knowledge Management, 8(4).

Mathers, T. (2011). How to keep far-flung staff engaged. Globe and Mail Update. Retrieved from: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-

business/smallbusiness/sbgrowth/going-global/how-to-keep-far-flung-staffengaged/article2070581/

Urquhart, A. (2012). Collaborating with a far-flung team. Globe and Mail Update. Retrieved from: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-growth/thechallenge/collaborating-with-a-far-flung-team/article2305605/