The use of dispersed (virtual) teams is growing rapidly in the engineering profession. To help prepare students for work in this type of industry, university engineering courses are requiring students to work in teams. Industry leaders and university faculty are interested in improving and measuring the performance of these distributed teams. Surveys, interviews, and observations from the AerosPACE Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering (AerosPACE) capstone design course are examined to demonstrate how different collaboration tools can be used to best enhance a distributed design team's effectiveness. Collaboration tools to which distributed design teams should give extra consideration at different stages of the product development process are identified and presented in a model. Teams that follow this model will be more effective in their communication patterns. This study also consists of examining whether peer ratings can accurately predict team effectiveness (as defined by task and relational effectiveness) within a dispersed multidisciplinary, design team. The hypotheses predict that peer ratings will not be unidimensional over time, and will have a positive, significant relationship with team effectiveness. A longitudinal study was conducted on data gathered form the same capstone design course. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was first used to test unidimensionality of peer ratings and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to model the data and determine any predictive relationships. Model fit statistics are reported to confirm adequate fit for each model. Results showed that while peer ratings are unidimensional at individual time points, they don't behave equally over time and should be considered separately. The structural equation models yielded mixed results, with some parts of peer ratings significantly predicting relational effectiveness and with yet failing to predict task effectiveness. As such, by examining peer assessments, supervisors and faculty will be able to determine and predict relational effectiveness of teams working at different locations, but should use other methods to predict task effectiveness.

Bakgrund: Användningen av särlokaliserade team i organisationer har ökat markant de senaste årtiondena. När ett team arbetar särlokaliserat med hjälp av digitala kommunikationsverktyg ändras förutsättningarna för teamets kommunikation. Den tidigare forskningen om särlokaliserade team har främst behandlat internationella team med stora geografiska avstånd samt team till stor del bestående av experter, men till följd av pandemin covid-19 har särlokaliserat arbete blivit aktuellt för fler typer av team. Det finns därför anledning till att bedriva forskning om hur särlokaliseringen påverkar kommunikationen i dessa team.  Syfte: Syftet med studien är att ge ökad förståelse för hur särlokalisering påverkar kommunikationen i team där teammedlemmarna är vana vid att arbeta samlokaliserat, genom att identifiera och förklara konsekvenser som särlokaliseringen får för teams kommunikation.  Metod: Denna studie är en kvalitativ flerfallsstudie med en abduktiv forskningsansats och ett realistiskt perspektiv. Studiens empiri har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med elva teammedlemmar tillhörande tre olika team bestående av studenter.  Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att särlokaliserat arbete med digitala kommunikationsverktyg får flertalet konsekvenser för kommunikationen i team. Särlokaliseringen bidrar med vissa konsekvenser medan de digitala kommunikationsverktygen bidrar med andra. I denna studie har 13 konsekvenser identifierats inom de kommunikativa aspekterna bekräftelse, konversationens flyt, feedback, gemensam förståelse och kreativitet. Studien fann även att de konsekvenser som identifierats har ett nära samband på så sätt att flertalet påverkar varandra. Varför de intervjuade teamen påverkades på detta sätt kan till viss del förklaras av deras ovana att arbeta särlokaliserat över digitala kommunikationsverktyg och omedvetenhet om vad det innebär för ett teams kommunikation. / Background: The use of dispersed teams in organisations has grown rapidly in the latest decades. A dispersed team that communicates with digital communication tools does not have the same prerequisites for communicating as a co-located team have. The previous research made about dispersed teams has mainly focused on international teams with large geographical distances and teams that for the most part consist of experts. Due to the pandemic covid-19, working in dispersed teams has become necessary for other types of teams. It is thereby motivated to conduct research about how the communication is affected in other types of dispersed teams.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of how team communication is affected by the dispersion in teams where the team members are used to working co-located, by identifying and explaining consequences the dispersion of the team has on team communication.  Method: This study is a qualitative multi-case study with an abductive approach and a realistic perspective. The empirical data has been collected through semi-structured interviews with eleven team members belonging to three different teams of students.  Conclusion: The result of the study shows that dispersed teams using digital communication tools face several consequences regarding their communication. The fact that the team is not co-located leads to certain consequences and the use of digital communication tools leads to others. This study has identified 13 consequences within the communicative aspects: confirmation, the flow of the conversation, feedback, shared understanding and creativity. The study also shows that the consequences identified are closely connected in such a way that many of them affect each other. Why the interviewed teams were affected in this way can to some extent be explained by their inexperience in working with digital communication tools and unawareness of what it means for their communication.

This thesis explores barriers to the establishment of trust needed for high performing teams due to inequality in the context of a global economy. Postcolonial Theory is introduced to illustrate how inequality is a key aspect of diversity in the current context of the global workplace. Different philosophies underlying the values and norms in organizations are examined to make sense of contemporary approaches to diversity management in terms of how power, difference, and identity are addressed. This provides an understanding of the context of current team development praxis in working with diversity. Using autoethnography, the author tells personal stories of working in diverse teams to convey the complex ways in which power, difference, and identity coalesce in real-life experience. Some theoretical foundations are developed for facilitating the building of team trust in contexts with different philosophical approaches to diversity. Addressing social justice in Organization Development work is considered.

This thesis explores barriers to the establishment of trust needed for high performing teams due to inequality in the context of a global economy. Postcolonial Theory is introduced to illustrate how inequality is a key aspect of diversity in the current context of the global workplace. Different philosophies underlying the values and norms in organizations are examined to make sense of contemporary approaches to diversity management in terms of how power, difference, and identity are addressed. This provides an understanding of the context of current team development praxis in working with diversity. Using autoethnography, the author tells personal stories of working in diverse teams to convey the complex ways in which power, difference, and identity coalesce in real-life experience. Some theoretical foundations are developed for facilitating the building of team trust in contexts with different philosophical approaches to diversity. Addressing social justice in Organization Development work is considered.

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