The objective of this thesis is to provide theoretical and empirical insights on the subject of group communication and perceived performance within work teams. The theoretical section provides a definition and outlines the importance of work teams, it references selected psychological aspects and factors. This study details aspects of communication and performance in the context of work teams. It reveals opportunities to increase performance in the subject of learning teams, especially, where communication is its foundation. In addition, this thesis describes and interconnects new knowledge regarding the possibilities of improving performance, whilst exploring the relationship between communication and performance. At the same time, it presents an overview of the approaches and methods of measuring these aspects. The empirical section details the various the relationships of various communication parameters and the perceived performance within teams. The empirical section is devoted to the study of relations of communication parameters and perceived performance in teams. It is a built-in measuring tool for measuring three team constructs: group communication, team-member exchange quality and perceived performance. It provides analysis of psychometric properties, reliability and constructive...

Då konflikter i princip är oundvikliga i projekt och på arbetsplatser, är det en central fråga för organisationer (Tonnquist, 2016). Redan 1995 beskrevs det att konflikter kommer bli allt mer förekommande inom organisationer, oavsett branschtillhörighet, på grund av lojalitetsbrist mellan arbetstagare och arbetsgivare (Wall & Callister, 1995). Idag är teamarbete mer regel än undantag (De Dreu & Weingart, 2003) och arbetsformen team beskrivs som ytterligare en bidragande orsak till uppkomsten av konflikter (Wall & Callister, 1995). Då det saknas forskning som belyser teammedlemmens perspektiv och dennes upplevelser av konflikthantering är det ett ämne som är intressant att studera. Syftet med studien är således att bidra till ökad förståelse för hur teammedlemmar upplever konflikthantering.  Teorier om konflikttyper, konflikthanteringsstilar samt temporalitet har i kombination med ett fenomenologiskt perspektiv använts för att uppfylla studiens syfte. För att bidra till ökad förståelse för fenomenet har en komparativ fallstudie om fyra fall genomförts. De fall som har studerats har varit teammedlemmar och empiri har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Fenomenet har studerats i kontexten team och organisation och för att sammanställa och analysera det empiriska materialet användes tematisk analys respektive tvärfallsyntes som verktyg.  I studien framkommer bland annat att teammedlemmar upplever konflikter som någonting positivt, då konflikter kan bidra till utveckling av individers förmåga att förstå människor eller utveckling av teamets prestation. Det har argumenterats för att anammandet av vissa konflikthanteringsstilar leder till uppkomst av nya konflikter (DeChurch, Hamilton & Haas, 2007) men i denna studie framkommer att dessa stilar också kan användas för att motverka uppkomsten av dessa konflikter. / As conflicts more or less are inevitable in projects and workplaces, it is a central issue for organizations (Tonnquist, 2016). As early as in 1995, conflicts were described as becoming increasingly prevalent, due to lack of loyalty between employees and employers (Wall & Callister, 1995). Today, teamwork is the exception that proves the rule (De Dreu & Weingart, 2003) and teamwork as a way of working is described as another contributing factor to the emergence of conflicts (Wall & Callister, 1995). As there is no research that highlights the team member’s perspectives and their experiences of conflict management, this is an interesting subject to study. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to contribute to an increased understanding of how team members experience conflict management.  Theories about types of conflict, conflict management styles and temporality, in combination with a phenomenological perspective, have been used to fulfill the aim of the study. In order to contribute to an increased understanding of the phenomenon, a comparative case study of four cases has been carried out. The cases that have been studied have been team members and empirical data have been collected through semi-structured interviews. The phenomenon has been studied in the context team and organization. To compile and analyze the empirical data, thematic analysis and cross case synthesis were used as tools.  The study reveals, among other things, that team members experience conflicts as something positive, since conflicts can contribute to the development of individuals' ability to understand people or a team's performance. It has been argued that the adoption of certain conflict management styles leads to the emergence of new conflicts (DeChurch, Hamilton & Haas, 2007) but this study shows that these styles can also be used to counteract the emergence of these conflicts. Furthermore, this study shows that managers as third parties have an important role in the management of conflict situations and by taking part of this study, managers can become aware of the consequences of their actions. Finally, the study reveals that when team members manage conflicts themselves, they use their precious experiences concerning conflicts. It has previously been discussed that temporality should be included in the theories used (Hernes, Simpson & Söderlund, 2013) and this study also acknowledges that the time perspective should be integrated into existing theories of conflict and conflict management.

The research was directed at assessing the strengths and weaknesses in the application-to-approval process of social grants up to the payment of social grants at pay-points in the South African Social Security Agency (hereafter SASSA). The general aim of the research project was to assess the application-to-approval process of grant administration in SASSA up to the payment of social grants at pay-points. The specific objectives of the study were therefore: * To describe the current application-to-approval process of grant administration; * To assess the strengths and weaknesses in the grant administration process of specified administrative procedures and structural issues as perceived by attesting officials (front-line staff responsible for taking down the grant applications), data-capturer officials (staff responsible for capturing the information on the application form onto the SOCPEN system, pay-point team members (staff responsible for rendering services at pay-points) and beneficiaries at pay-points; and * To provide a report on the strengths and weaknesses of the grant administration process from application to pay-out to the top management of SASSA. The study was conducted in two regions, namely the Northern Cape and the Western Cape. Various offices in the Northern Cape and the Western Cape were therefore part of the research. The grant administration process from application-to-approval includes various stages. The staff members include the screening official (step one) who checks the completeness of the required documentation, followed by attesting official (step two) who takes down the application and captures it on SOCPEN and then forwards it to the next level, namely quality control (step three). Thereafter a verifying official verifies the information captured on SOCPEN against documentation submitted and approves or rejects the application on SOCPEN (step four). Staff at pay-points (where beneficiaries receive their payments) and beneficiaries at pay-points were also part of the research focus. Four different data-collection instruments were therefore used during the research project. The first data-collection instrument was designed to collect data on the actual grant application process and problems and strengths in this regard (questionnaire front-line staff). The empirical investigation revealed the following with regard to the front-line staff: * The majority of front-line staff have considerable working experience (more than five years) in SASSA; * The majority of front-line staff have inadequate work space; * Training, supervision and mentoring support from supervisors and colleagues occurs haphazardly; * The majority of front-line staff receive between 11-29 applications per day and spent 30 minutes or less to take down an application; * Policy documents that regulate the implementation of new policy changes are not always available; * Grant application files get misplaced or lost after processing; * Staff carelessness is one of the main reasons why files get lost or misplaced and * Front-line staff experience technical difficulties with the computer on a regular basis and it takes one to three days to resolve technical difficulties. The second data-collection instrument was developed to collect data on the capturing of the application (questionnaire data-capturer) onto the SOCPEN system. The empirical investigation revealed the following with regard to data-capturers: * The majority of data-capturers have solid work experience as data-capturers in SASSA although some data-capturers have inadequate work space; * Training on the implementation of new policy changes occurs irregularly; * Supervision, mentoring and support from supervisors happen haphazardly; * Data-capturers receive between 20 and 29 applications per day and they capture all applications successfully; * Data-capturers receive support from colleagues on a more regular basis than from supervisors; * Documents or guidelines that regulate the implementation of policy changes are not always available in the work place; * Applications sometimes get misplaced or lost after capturing; * No proper mechanisms are in place to record the movement of files, staff carelessness and either lack of office space or filing space, are the main reasons why applications get lost or misplaced; * Data-capturers sometimes experience technical problems with computers and it takes one to less than five days to resolve technical difficulties; * Data-capturers receive sometimes incomplete applications from the attesting officials (those staff officials who are responsible for taking down the application) and they usually take such applications back to the first attesting officer; * Backlogs in the capturing and approving of normal applications exist and staff shortages and system-related problems are the main reasons why backlogs exist; * Backlogs exist with regard to the capturing and approving of review cases and * Staff shortages, a centralized review management approach, lack of office space and lack of connectivity points constitute the main reasons why review backlogs exist. The third data-collection instrument (questionnaire pay-point team member) was developed to measure services at pay-points and to determine the problems experienced at pay-points. The empirical investigation revealed the following with regard to this category as seen by pay-point team members: * Some pay-points are not disabled-friendly; * There are not always enough chairs, toilet facilities or drinking water available at pay-points; * Payment contractors and SASSA staff sometimes arrive late at pay-points; * Payments are usually delayed between 15 minutes to less than an hour, but beneficiaries are not always informed about delays; * There are sometimes broken machines at pay-points and this causes 15 to 45 minutes delay in payments; * There is not always enough money at pay-points and it takes an hour to just under two hours to get more money; * Grant recipients hardly ever receive wrong grant amounts; * Hawkers and vendors operate mainly outside the pay-point; * Security guards are available at pay-points and there is access control at pay-points (mainly driven by security guards from the payment contractor) * Not all pay-points are fenced all round and * First Aid kits are available at pay-points most of the time. The fourth data-collection instrument (questionnaire for beneficiaries) was developed to target the beneficiaries who receive grant payments at pay-points. The empirical investigation revealed the following: * Some pay-points are not disabled-friendly; * There are not always enough chairs, toilet facilities or drinking water available at pay-points; * Payment contractors and SASSA staff sometimes arrive late at pay-points; * Payments are usually delayed between 15 minutes to less than an hour, but beneficiaries are not always informed about delays; * There are sometimes broken machines at pay-points and this causes 15 to 45 minutes‟ delay in payments; * There is not always enough money at pay-points and it takes an hour to less than two hours to get more money; * Grant recipients rarely receive wrong grant amounts; * Hawkers and vendors operate mainly outside the pay-point, but there are exceptional cases where they operate inside the pay-points; * Beneficiaries do feel safe at pay-points most of the time; * Beneficiaries mostly live within walking distance from the pay-point; * Beneficiaries hardly experience problems at pay-points and if they do, their problems get resolved; * Not all pay-points provide shelter from the elements; * Beneficiaries are satisfied with the services SASSA renders and the grant has improved their quality of life. Grant administration processes in SASSA are labour-intensive and officials play a vital role in the correct administration of social grants. The study has revealed that although there is clearly some strength in the grant administration process from application-to-approval up the payment of social grants at pay-points, it is unfortunately true that the weaknesses are overwhelming. / Thesis (PhD (Social Work))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

The research was directed at assessing the strengths and weaknesses in the application-to-approval process of social grants up to the payment of social grants at pay-points in the South African Social Security Agency (hereafter SASSA). The general aim of the research project was to assess the application-to-approval process of grant administration in SASSA up to the payment of social grants at pay-points. The specific objectives of the study were therefore: * To describe the current application-to-approval process of grant administration; * To assess the strengths and weaknesses in the grant administration process of specified administrative procedures and structural issues as perceived by attesting officials (front-line staff responsible for taking down the grant applications), data-capturer officials (staff responsible for capturing the information on the application form onto the SOCPEN system, pay-point team members (staff responsible for rendering services at pay-points) and beneficiaries at pay-points; and * To provide a report on the strengths and weaknesses of the grant administration process from application to pay-out to the top management of SASSA. The study was conducted in two regions, namely the Northern Cape and the Western Cape. Various offices in the Northern Cape and the Western Cape were therefore part of the research. The grant administration process from application-to-approval includes various stages. The staff members include the screening official (step one) who checks the completeness of the required documentation, followed by attesting official (step two) who takes down the application and captures it on SOCPEN and then forwards it to the next level, namely quality control (step three). Thereafter a verifying official verifies the information captured on SOCPEN against documentation submitted and approves or rejects the application on SOCPEN (step four). Staff at pay-points (where beneficiaries receive their payments) and beneficiaries at pay-points were also part of the research focus. Four different data-collection instruments were therefore used during the research project. The first data-collection instrument was designed to collect data on the actual grant application process and problems and strengths in this regard (questionnaire front-line staff). The empirical investigation revealed the following with regard to the front-line staff: * The majority of front-line staff have considerable working experience (more than five years) in SASSA; * The majority of front-line staff have inadequate work space; * Training, supervision and mentoring support from supervisors and colleagues occurs haphazardly; * The majority of front-line staff receive between 11-29 applications per day and spent 30 minutes or less to take down an application; * Policy documents that regulate the implementation of new policy changes are not always available; * Grant application files get misplaced or lost after processing; * Staff carelessness is one of the main reasons why files get lost or misplaced and * Front-line staff experience technical difficulties with the computer on a regular basis and it takes one to three days to resolve technical difficulties. The second data-collection instrument was developed to collect data on the capturing of the application (questionnaire data-capturer) onto the SOCPEN system. The empirical investigation revealed the following with regard to data-capturers: * The majority of data-capturers have solid work experience as data-capturers in SASSA although some data-capturers have inadequate work space; * Training on the implementation of new policy changes occurs irregularly; * Supervision, mentoring and support from supervisors happen haphazardly; * Data-capturers receive between 20 and 29 applications per day and they capture all applications successfully; * Data-capturers receive support from colleagues on a more regular basis than from supervisors; * Documents or guidelines that regulate the implementation of policy changes are not always available in the work place; * Applications sometimes get misplaced or lost after capturing; * No proper mechanisms are in place to record the movement of files, staff carelessness and either lack of office space or filing space, are the main reasons why applications get lost or misplaced; * Data-capturers sometimes experience technical problems with computers and it takes one to less than five days to resolve technical difficulties; * Data-capturers receive sometimes incomplete applications from the attesting officials (those staff officials who are responsible for taking down the application) and they usually take such applications back to the first attesting officer; * Backlogs in the capturing and approving of normal applications exist and staff shortages and system-related problems are the main reasons why backlogs exist; * Backlogs exist with regard to the capturing and approving of review cases and * Staff shortages, a centralized review management approach, lack of office space and lack of connectivity points constitute the main reasons why review backlogs exist. The third data-collection instrument (questionnaire pay-point team member) was developed to measure services at pay-points and to determine the problems experienced at pay-points. The empirical investigation revealed the following with regard to this category as seen by pay-point team members: * Some pay-points are not disabled-friendly; * There are not always enough chairs, toilet facilities or drinking water available at pay-points; * Payment contractors and SASSA staff sometimes arrive late at pay-points; * Payments are usually delayed between 15 minutes to less than an hour, but beneficiaries are not always informed about delays; * There are sometimes broken machines at pay-points and this causes 15 to 45 minutes delay in payments; * There is not always enough money at pay-points and it takes an hour to just under two hours to get more money; * Grant recipients hardly ever receive wrong grant amounts; * Hawkers and vendors operate mainly outside the pay-point; * Security guards are available at pay-points and there is access control at pay-points (mainly driven by security guards from the payment contractor) * Not all pay-points are fenced all round and * First Aid kits are available at pay-points most of the time. The fourth data-collection instrument (questionnaire for beneficiaries) was developed to target the beneficiaries who receive grant payments at pay-points. The empirical investigation revealed the following: * Some pay-points are not disabled-friendly; * There are not always enough chairs, toilet facilities or drinking water available at pay-points; * Payment contractors and SASSA staff sometimes arrive late at pay-points; * Payments are usually delayed between 15 minutes to less than an hour, but beneficiaries are not always informed about delays; * There are sometimes broken machines at pay-points and this causes 15 to 45 minutes‟ delay in payments; * There is not always enough money at pay-points and it takes an hour to less than two hours to get more money; * Grant recipients rarely receive wrong grant amounts; * Hawkers and vendors operate mainly outside the pay-point, but there are exceptional cases where they operate inside the pay-points; * Beneficiaries do feel safe at pay-points most of the time; * Beneficiaries mostly live within walking distance from the pay-point; * Beneficiaries hardly experience problems at pay-points and if they do, their problems get resolved; * Not all pay-points provide shelter from the elements; * Beneficiaries are satisfied with the services SASSA renders and the grant has improved their quality of life. Grant administration processes in SASSA are labour-intensive and officials play a vital role in the correct administration of social grants. The study has revealed that although there is clearly some strength in the grant administration process from application-to-approval up the payment of social grants at pay-points, it is unfortunately true that the weaknesses are overwhelming. / Thesis (PhD (Social Work))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

In consulting firms one of the goals is to have the consultants on an assignment with an external client to bring in capital. In some consulting firms, when the consultants are not on an assignment with a client, they work on internal projects until a new assignment arrives. Since most of the team members do not work for more than a few days or weeks on the projects, it leads to a high team member turnover. In projects with such a turnover, problems such as hasty handovers, unclear roles and responsibilities and low-quality documentation may occur. The purpose of this thesis was to create guidelines to improve teamwork in teams with a high team member turnover. This thesis was based on a case study of a company specializing in information technology and management consulting. To begin to tackle this problem, a literature review was conducted and the data was collected by conducting interviews. The interviews were performed with team members that had been on a project for the longest and shortest period of time in order to identify problems from different perspectives. Based on the interviews and the literature study, guidelines were created to counteract the problems experienced in this type of volatile teams. The guidelines are categorized in four areas: processes, resources, people and long-term perspective. The areas cover the problems experienced and can be ultimately implemented in all teams with high team member turnover to improve teamwork in software projects. / I konsultföretag är ett av målen att konsulterna ska vara på uppdrag hos en extern kund för att dra in pengar. I vissa konsultföretag, när konsulterna inte är hos en extern kund, arbetar de på interna projekt tills dess att ett nytt uppdrag kommer. Eftersom de flesta teammedlemmar inte jobbar i mer än några dagar på dessa interna projekt leder det till en hög omsättning av projektmedlemmar. I projekt med den typen av höga omsättning kan problem uppstå som förhastade överlämningar, otydliga roller och skyldigheter samt lågkvalitativ dokumentation. Målet med denna uppsats var att skapa riktlinjer för att förbättra lagarbete i teams med hög omsättning av projektmedlemmar. Denna uppsats var baserad på ett fallstudie på ett företag som är specialiserat på informationsteknik och management consulting. För att börja tackla detta problem utfördes en litteraturstudie och data samlades in genom intervjuer. Intervjuerna utfördes med de teammedlemmar som har deltagit i projektet längst respektive kortast tid, för att identifiera problemen utifrån olika perspektiv. Baserat på intervjuerna och litteraturstudien, skapades riktlinjer för att motverka dessa problem som uppstår i sådana typer av rörliga team. Riktlinjerna kan kategoriseras i fyra områden: processer, resurser, människor och långtids perspektiv. Dessa områden täcker de upplevda problemen och kan implementeras av teams som har hög omsättning av medlemmar för att förbättra arbetet inom teamet i mjukvaruprojekt.

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近幾年來遊戲軟硬體的進步以及遊玩人數的增加，虛擬世界中的使用者行為已經開始受到注目，也有研究指出人們在虛擬世界的行為會反應他們在現實世界的行為並且交互影響。現今最熱門的線上遊戲更是提供多樣化的機制讓玩家們進行合作、競爭、交流等活動，遊戲開發者也會根據不同的目的開始分析玩家的行為，希望能藉此發現遊戲中更多的可能性。 遊戲的種類繁多，遊玩機制也相當多元，目前是以MOBA這類的線上遊戲最為熱門、擁有最多的玩家基數，MOBA是基於團隊合作的對戰型遊戲，玩家可以自由選擇多種職業（或稱作角色）的其中一種並和其他4位玩家組成隊伍，而對手也是同樣由5位玩家組成的隊伍。這類遊戲最大特色是職業的組合關係以及玩家之間的合作關係。在各個遊戲論壇或電競場合中，玩家們對於找出最佳的團隊組成或遊戲技巧提高勝率的分析相當熱衷，但在學術研究領域上目前針對線上遊戲團隊還沒有太多深入的研究。 本研究的目標旨在提出一個結合資料探勘與社群網路分析的方法來分析玩家與團隊績效之間的關係，並用於團隊績效預測與團隊組成上，藉此進行隊友的推薦。首先從抓取來的資料中取出三種玩家與英雄之間的關係，考量玩家的合作關係與英雄的組合關係，藉此篩選出具有高相關度的玩家作為推薦候選人。而在團隊績效預測的部分，取出對玩家個人表現或團隊表現具有影響的特徵值，並分析勝利的玩家或團隊通常會具備什麼樣的特質，再進行團隊表現的預測模型的建置。最後再結合兩者推薦出適合此隊伍的隊友供團隊選擇。 / Multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBA) is a subgenre of strategy games and has become the most popular online game genres recently. Teams of players could fight against each other in arena environments. To find good team members when playing MOBA is a challenge. In this thesis, we proposed a team member recommender mechanism to recommend team members for MOBA. The proposed mechanism first takes the team chemistry into consideration and generates the candidates based on the cooperation history among players and associated heroes. Then the proposed win/lose prediction model is employed to predict the win rate of each candidate by considering characteristics and proficiency of players and associated heroes. The recommended team members are ranked according to the predicted win rates. The experiments show that the proposed win/lose prediction model achieves approximately 91.6% accuracy and our mechanism could recommend players who have close cooperation with query players instead of considering the win rate only. Our proposed method could help the team formation and may enhance team performance of the on-line game.

Department of Advanced Nursing Science / MCur