This study confined itself to an exploratory interpretive approach aimed at expanding the understanding of some elements that may affect virtual teams. It highlights the advantage of virtual teams over FTF teams.

Thesis (M.S. in Modeling, Virtual Environments, and Simulation)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2004. / Thesis advisor(s): Rudolph P. Darken, Susan G. Hutchins. Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-168). Also available online.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2008. / Title from title screen (site viewed Mar. 31, 2009). PDF text: 193 p. : ill. ; 3 Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3336555. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Technological developments and the modern economy have changed the way teams operate. Most professionals today are mobile and equipped with everything they need to work from anywhere at any time, including blackberries, laptop computers, email, video conferencing and other personal productivity devices. Doing work this way, allows for a wide range of benefits such as flexibility, diversity and an increase in productivity. However, these virtual teams require specific conditions to help them reach their full potential. This paper will identify the four major characteristics of virtual teams (geographic dispersion, electronic dependence, dynamic structure and national diversity) and use a model of virtual team effectiveness to examine the three team processes (transactive memory, work engagement and collective efficacy) that are most strongly affected by these characteristics. It will further suggest ways in which leadership can help to overcome these process losses through the establishment of trust, psychological safety and conflict management. / text

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As organisations expand internationally and continue to conduct business across different time zones and geographical boundaries, distributed project and organisational teams have become increasingly prevalent. Rather than meet face-to-face, developments in information and communication technology have made it possible for these team members to interact electronically thereby creating an alternative means for team member collaboration. Teams that collaborate in this manner are called virtual teams. This study explored effective leadership practice in virtual teams. The process of exploration started with discovering those core competencies considered essential to virtual team leadership. These competencies were then operationalised and tested for their respective contributions to effectiveness in virtual teams as measured by team performance and personal satisfaction. It was suggested and subsequently confirmed by the results of this study that as virtual team leaders begin to display essential leadership competencies, the virtual teams they lead become more effective. Four leadership competencies were identified as integral to effective leadership practice. These were: an ability to coordinate task delivery, an ability to communicate, an ability to build trust and an ability to manage multicultural diversity. In addition, it was determined that virtual team leaders tended to emphasise the more transactional forms of leadership over the more transformational forms with the strongest emphasis on task and communication as predictors of performance rather than satisfaction. In contrast, team members emphasised the more transformational forms of leadership with the strongest emphasis on trust and diversity management as predictors of satisfaction rather than performance. It was also apparent that for team members, task coordination was weakly correlated with performance. These differing results illustrate a distinction in leadership emphasis, which if misunderstood or incorrectly managed, could lead to conflict and low levels of team trust. For team leaders, a desire to perform and deliver against team objectives has an associated risk of inadvertently emphasising task at the expense of fostering healthy team relationships. By comparison, team members emphasise personal satisfaction over performance and are potentially at odds with a strongly taskorientated team leader. This does not mean that team members are disinterested in team performance. On the contrary, performance is important to team members but it would seem that performance follows as a result of first experiencing satisfaction as a virtual team participant.

A popular approach to operating organizations in the 1990s is the implementation of work teams. The current literature offers little information on the use of performance management techniques in work team settings. This case study examined the effects of employing a performance improvement strategy on employee performance in a work team environment comprised of part-time graduate students. The performance improvement strategy included composing job descriptions, job aids (e.g., work organization charts), task request logs and posting weekly and monthly performance feedback. Improvements were observed in some aspects of team performance. Some of the improvement was due to task clarification and improved scheduling produced by the antecedent interventions. Performance feedback had little effect on measured performance but seemed to facilitate discussion and problem-solving.

by Wong Kam Chau. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1990. / Bibliography: leaves 114-121. / Introduction: --- p.1 / Outline of the thesis: --- p.9 / Part I: / List of notations: --- p.12 / Chapter Chapter I: --- Basic model --- p.16 / Chapter Chapter II： --- Self-interested team --- p.21 / Chapter Chapter III --- Altruistic team --- p.33 / Chapter Chapter IV: --- Sub-contracting and supervisory system --- p.45 / Chapter Chapter V: --- Team with leader --- p.55 / Chapter Chapter VI: --- Conclusion of part I --- p.59 / Appendix: --- p.61 / Part II: / Chapter Chapter VII --- The existence theorem of optimal information system of one agent --- p.82 / Chapter Chapter VIII: --- Extension to a team --- p.104 / Reference: --- p.114

<P>The study of work teams has captured the attention of academics and practitioners throughout the latter stages of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century. There has been much debate and one could be forgiven for thinking that we 'know' the answers. However, there are still substantial gaps in our knowledge of the practical operations of work teams.</P><P>The are many complications involved in the study of work teams, including the lack of suitable and consistently used definitions and the failure amongst researchers to distinguish between the nature of different forms of teamworking. Furthermore, the labelling of formal work groups is rather ambiguous, even clichéd. Academics and practitioners hold different perceptions about what makes a team and much of the literature reflects production processes within manufacturing organisations. With the growing size of the service economy further research must be undertaken to understand teams within this context.</P><P>On the basis of these difficulties, one may expect that it is impossible to compare teams that exist in different organisations, different product markets, different labour markets and indeed, different sectors of the economy. However, reflecting upon earlier industrial sociology that compares diverse industries this thesis makes such a comparison. A Government-owned call centre and a food-processing organisation are compared throughout this thesis. Both are smaller worksites of larger organisations. The intent of this thesis is to examine such diverse teams to consider how teams influence factors such as control, cooperation and resistance within organisations.</P><P>This thesis was developed to consider all employee actions in the workplace. This includes actions that would be viewed by management as positive and actions that would be considered by management as deviant or negative. Hence, a research methodology was required that was able to investigate actions that occur below the surface of formal and consensual rules and uncover any covert actions that were present in the workplace. To investigate such actions it was essential for the researcher to develop relationships with the research subjects that allowed a free exchange of information. Consequently, an ethnographic case study method was determined to be the most appropriate form of data collection. With the majority of fieldwork taking place over a period of eight months, the researcher was able to uncover some interesting actions in each workplace. Hence, a contribution to the literature can be made considering employee acts of resistance in new workplaces that are not changing to, but begin with a team structure.</P><P>This thesis investigates how work teams influence the level of control, cooperation and resistance within new organisations. It has been found that the work teams have little clear influence on aspects of worker control; this is primarily driven by managerial strategy. Where management maintain a hierarchical decision-making structure (even if it is flatter than the structure could be), then limited control will be devolved to the members of the work teams. The levels of both cooperation and resistance on the other hand are influenced primarily by the amount of off-task time that the team members have. Where employees have a greater level of off-task time, they have the scope and opportunity to engage in higher levels of cooperative acts, as well as higher levels of resistance. Furthermore, this thesis adds support to the notion that teams can exist in organisations without there being a high level of teamworking present. Teams in these organisations are a structure of social organisation and managerial control rather than employee empowerment. The notion of the managerially constructed work team seems to have some longevity and hence, cannot be completely dismissed as a managerial fad.</P>