Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies

In a global economy where markets and technology change daily, corporations still have to continually train both individuals and teams.

Brad Bell, associate professor of Human Resource Studies and director of ILR Executive Education, focuses his research on these training issues.

For the past few years, he has been researching how people learn in online training modules. Collaborating with Traci Sitzmann of Advanced Distributed Learning, Bell connects his research with the practical needs of industry.

“On average, people aren’t very good self-directed learners,” says Bell. But corporations, faced with the need to continually train staff, often invest in expensive online learning programs.  Based on his research, Bell has developed approaches that both improve learning and reduce the dropout rate.

The problem with online learning

“The key challenge people have with this type of learning is judging their progress,” Bell explains. “But they make poor decisions. They leave the training too early. They spend too little time practicing. They have poor study skills.” The answer: questions after each module to help the learner assess their progress.

Then there are all those interruptions. “Surveys show most online training in companies is done on the employees’ own time,” says Bell. Phone calls, visitors, or impromptu meetings can derail online learning. People also interrupt themselves. “They get bored; they feel like they need a break,” Bell says. Building breaks into the system helps.

When the solution is the problem

Now, however, Bell is returning to the study of developing virtual teams, which he began in 2000. “It’s very interesting, but very hard to study,” he explains. “You can’t do it in the lab, but to research it in the workplace means you have to connect with people around the globe.”

“Even back in 2002 it was a pretty new topic,” Bell notes. “Since then, it’s been steadily growing, not only academically but in practice. Companies are becoming more global. They have to control costs; they can’t send employees around the globe. Technology has advanced.  All those forces have brought virtual teams to the forefront.”

As part of this effort, Bell and his graduate students are working on a project with Air Products and Chemicals, a CAHRS partner company. In doing interviews with the company’s virtual team managers, Bell has learned that the biggest challenge they face is how to build a team in a virtual environment. “The main recommendation in the literature is to have face-to-face meetings—solve the problem by making it not virtual,” Bell laughs.

Along with the usual team building activities, such as spending a day on the Cornell Ropes Course, managers have found creative, virtual approaches. At Air Products, for example, virtual team members each share a personal picture and its story with the team.

The future: measuring the impact of virtual teams

“Up to this point, there hasn’t been a lot of measurement in the research,” Bell explains. “No one has compared the different types of teams.”

Teams may be dispersed in space, time, or culture. They can be differently configured. Some may consist of two subgroups in different locations, and an individual in a third location; others of only subgroups or individuals.

In the study with Air Products, Bell hopes to measure and compare some of those characteristics. “We’ll use the team leaders to identify issues we want to explore, get a larger sample, and then interview the leaders and the members,” explains Bell. “We’ll also look at data from the organization on how well the team is doing.”

Along with Air Products, Bell will also work with L'Oréal in Paris. He made the connection through Emmanuelle Léon, associate professor of HR Management at ESCP Europe, a business school. Léon was visiting CAHRS, and suggested that Bell collaborate with her team. Bell and Léon subsequently facilitated a CAHRS working group in Paris on managing global virtual teams, an experience further laying the groundwork for their research.

“Teams are so widely used today, even more than ten years ago,” Bell concludes. “It’s more and more important to learn how to select, reward, and train groups, not just individuals.”