The work place is becoming more flexible and an increasing number of employees report to a leader in another location or country. The borders between different countries, work places and cultures are diminished to a greater extent than before. Working from a distance means new opportunities in terms of competence development, flexibility in working hours, tasks and resources, a larger platform for various career opportunities and an expanded network. The purpose with this study is to examine how leaders can create a successful virtual team and motivate remotely. The qualitative study is carried out through interviews with leaders and employees within Nielsen Nordic. The result shows that the distance leader needs to be clear in terms of communication, responsibilities and expectations and allow the employees to “lead themselves”. The leader should encourage knowledge sharing and interaction in the team. Regular physical meetings are crucial for creating good relationships and effective cooperation. To create a motivated team the leader should e.g. involve the employees in decisions, work with feedback and understand the individual motivational factors. / Arbetsplatsen blir i högre utsträckning mer flexibel och fler och fler har en chef på annan ort eller i annat land. Gränserna mellan olika länder, arbetsplatser och kulturer suddas ut i större utsträckning än tidigare. Att arbeta på distans innebär bl.a. nya möjligheter vad gäller kompetensutveckling, större flexibilitet i arbetstid, arbetsuppgifter och resurser, en större plattform för olika karriärmöjligheter och ett utvidgat nätverk. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur chefer kan skapa ett framgångsrikt virtuellt team och motivera på distans. Studien är kvalitativ och har utförts genom intervjuer med chefer och medarbetare på Nielsen i Norden. Resultatet visar att distanschefen måste vara tydlig vad gäller kommunikation, ansvar och förväntningar samt till stor del låta medarbetarna ”leda sig själva”. Chefen bör även uppmuntra kunskapsutbyte och interaktion i teamet. Regelbundna fysiska möten är avgörande för att skapa en god relation och ett effektivt samarbete. För att skapa ett motiverat team bör cheferna bl.a. involvera medarbetarna i beslut, arbeta mycket med feedback samt sätta sig in i medarbetarnas individuella drivkrafter. / Kristina Solbreck

The present investigation is concerned with shared leadership and team performance in a sample of 20 organizational virtual teams. We examine shared team leadership in terms of cognitive processes (team learning), affective processes (perceived team support), and behavioural processes (team member exchange quality). Our findings document internal validity of the shared leadership model, and high external validity in predicting team performance. Findings are discussed with regard to management of virtual teams in organizations.

Abstract Background:  Due to the COVID-19 pandemic a series of regulations and recommendations were imposed. This resulted in firms transitioning their co-located teams into virtual teams in an effort to slow down and prevent the spread of COVID-19. This research focuses on the individual team member’s experience of the transition. The transition is a digital transformation and organizational change and its effects on the individual team member is being studied.  Purpose:  The purpose of this research study is to explore how individual team members experience the transition from a co-located team into a virtual team. Trust, communication and social interactions are previously known challenges for virtual teams. Therefore, we strive to explore how these aspects have been affected by the transition and how the individual team member has experienced it.  Method:  This study follows a qualitative research design and the method of choice is semi-structured interviews that have been carried out in a virtual environment due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Eleven interviewees have contributed to the empirical study. The main findings are presented in chapter 4 and analyzed against existing literature in chapter 5, to finally be concluded in chapter 6.  Conclusion:  Trust has previously been listed as a major challenge for virtual teams. However, our empirical findings have not identified trust as a major challenge and therefore contradict this. Communication has changed and the biggest two contributors to this is that the communication is digital and that body language becomes less effective in a virtual setting as compared to face-to-face communication. However, communication has not been a major issue during the transition but rather a complication. Social interactions were identified as the aspect affecting the team members the hardest since they had become non-existent except for in the virtual environment in many cases. A high level of digital maturity and the teams previously being co-located is seen to have made the transitions easier in terms of trust and communication. Furthermore, team members struggle to find their work life balance and often work more hours.

I början av år 2020 blev världen medveten om viruset covid-19 som orsakade en pandemi. Människor och företag har behövt anpassa sig till följd av den rådande situationen för att minska smittspridningen vilket har gjort att anställda tvingats till att arbeta på distans. Tidigare forskning har visat att det finns utmaningar att arbeta med agila metoder på distans där team eller delar av team arbetar distribuerat. Dock berör dessa forskningar till största del agila utvecklingsprojekt där IT-företag är verksamma globalt. Denna studie har undersökt hur arbetet bedrivs på distans där alla teammedlemmar arbetar distribuerat till följd av andra orsaker än att mjukvaruutvecklingen sker globalt. Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka hur anställda som ingår i teams upplever arbetet med agila utvecklingsprojekt som bedrivs på distans till följd av rådande pandemi. Därför har följande två frågeställningar formulerats “På vilka sätt upplever anställda som ingår i teams att interaktionen gentemot kollegor fungerar under den rådande pandemin?” och “Hur upplever anställda att arbetet på distans fungerar när de arbetar distribuerat till följd av covid-19?”. För att undersöka detta genomfördes åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med mjukvaruutvecklare som arbetar med Scrum inom ett medelstort IT-företag beläget i västra Sverige. Majoriteten av respondenterna har ingått i samma teams under flera år och har därför en bra relation till sina kollegor. Resultatet visade att arbetet med agila utvecklingsprojekt som bedrivs på distans till följd av pandemin har fungerat bra. Respondenterna har inte upplevt några svårigheter med att överföra Scrum till distans vilket kan bero på att de arbetat inom samma teams en längre tid. För att kunna utföra arbetet krävs det interaktion och kommunikation, något som respondenterna upplever som väl fungerande även på distans. Dock har den informella kommunikationen inte kunnat ersättas fullt ut av digitala verktyg, något som tidigare forskning lyft fram som en begränsning när team arbetar distribuerat. / At the beginning of 2020, the world became aware of the covid-19 virus that caused a pandemic. People and companies have had to adapt as a result of the current situation in order to reduce the spread of the virus, which has forced employees to work remotely. Previous research has shown that there are challenges in working with agile methods remotely where teams or parts of teams work distributed. However, these researches largely concern agile software development projects in which IT companies operate globally. This study has examined how the work is conducted remotely where all team members work distributed as a result of other reasons than the global software development. The purpose of this study has been to investigate how employees who are part of teams experience the work with agile development projects that are conducted remotely as a result of the current pandemic. Therefore, the following two research questions have been formulated as “In what ways do employees who are part of teams feel that the interaction with colleagues works during the current pandemic?” and “How do employees feel that remote work functions when they work distributed as a result of covid-19?”. To investigate this, eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with software developers working with Scrum within a medium-sized IT company located in western Sweden. The majority of the respondents have been part of the same team for several years and therefore have a good relationship with their colleagues. The results showed that the work with agile development projects conducted remotely as a result of the pandemic has functioned well. The respondents have not experienced any difficulties intransferring Scrum in regards to distance work, which could depend on the fact that they have worked within the same team for a long period of time. In order to be able to perform the job, both interaction and communication are required, something that the respondents experienceas working well even remotely. However, informal communication has not been able to be fully replaced by digital tools, something that previous research highlights as a limitation when teams work distributed.

No description available.

The 'flattening of the world', using Thomas Friedman's phraseology, is driving corporations to increasingly use collaborative engineering processes and global teams to operate on a global scale. Globalization of the traditional university engineering curriculum is necessary to help students prepare to work in a global environment. More scalable and economically sustainable program types are needed to enable the majority of students to obtain a globalized education. The purpose of this research was to determine how effectively a global team- and project-based computer aided engineering course provided learning opportunities that enabled students to develop elements of global competence in comparison to existing engineering study abroad programs. To accomplish this, research was necessary to identify, aggregate, and validate a comprehensive set of global competencies for engineering students. From a review of the literature and subsequent analysis, a set of twenty-three global competencies with an associated conceptual model was developed to group the competencies by contextual topics. Two surveys were then developed and distributed separately to academic and industry professionals, each of which groups largely confirmed that it was important for engineering students to develop these global competencies. Next, the traditional ME 471 class was restructured into a Global ME 471 course. A pilot program was conducted from which lessons learned were incorporated into the global course. Selected global competencies were included as new learning outcomes. Course learning materials, labs, and lectures were also updated to reflect the new course emphasis. A survey was developed to be sent to BYU engineering study abroad students and the Global ME 471 course during 2010. A statistical analysis of responses was used to identify significant differences between the response groups. In addition to the global competencies which were identified and validated, global collaborative project-based courses such as Global ME 471 were shown to be effective in enabling students to learn and develop selected global competencies. Study abroad programs and the Global ME 471 course were seen both to be complementary in their emphasis and supportive of global engineering. In addition, global collaborative project-based courses were shown to play an important part of a globalized engineering curriculum.

Bakgrund: En av vår tids största omställningar är digitaliseringen. Den digitala innovationen har varit avgörande och öppnat möjligheter för kommunikation och samarbete hos företag runt om i världen. Virtuella team har kommit att blivit en stor del av dagens arbetssituation. Digitaliseringen har skapat större utmaningar för ledare att engagera och motivera medarbetare. För att främja varje individs begåvning, kreativa idéer, drivkraft samt prestationer finns det ett ramverk, kallat performance management som främjar denna typ av arbetskraft. En viktig aspekt av performance management anses även vara “lärande”. Så långt det är praktiskt möjligt bör lärande och arbete integreras. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att undersöka digitaliseringens påverkan på digitalt teamledarskap, arbete med performance management samt organisatoriskt lärande. Metod: Studien använder både kvalitativ och kvantitativ data men har främst ett kvalitativt fokus där en multipel fallstudie hos fyra företag gjorde det möjligt att uppnå syftet. I uppsatsen benämns dem som Företag A, B, C och D. Det genomfördes en triangulering som bestod av intervjuer med personer i ledande positioner, en enkätundersökning med medarbetare på samtliga företag samt insamling av dokumentation från företagen och deras hemsidor. Slutsats: I undersökningen har Företag A, B, C och D blivit exempel på hur digitaliseringens påverkan sett ut för olika företag och branscher vad gäller digitalt teamledarskap, arbete med performance management samt organisatoriskt lärande. Studien visar att digitaliseringen i stor utsträckning har påverkat det digitala teamledarskapet. Däremot var digitaliseringens påverkan vad gäller arbetet med performance management inte särskilt påtaglig då samtliga företag arbetar med digitala verktyg och system sedan innan. Vad gäller organisatoriskt lärande visar studien slutligen att digitaliseringen haft en inverkan på processen att bli en lärande organisation. / Background: One of the biggest changes of our time is digitalization. Digital innovation has been crucial and opened opportunities for communication and collaboration with companies around the world. Virtual teams have become a big part of today's work situation. Digitalization has created greater challenges for leaders to engage and motivate employees. To promote each individual's talent, creative ideas, driving force and performance, there is a framework, called performance management, that promotes this type of labor. An important aspect of performance management is also considered to be “learning”. As far as is practically possible, learning and work should be integrated. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of digitalization on digital team leadership, performance management and organizational learning. Method: The study uses both qualitative and quantitative data but mainly has a qualitative focus where a multiple case study at four companies made it possible to achieve the purpose. In the thesis, they are referred to as Company A, B, C and D. There, a triangulation was carried out which consisted of interviews with people in leading positions, an employee survey at all companies was implemented and collection of documentation from the companies and their websites. Conclusion: In the survey, Company A, B, C and D have become examples of how the impact of digitalization looked for different companies and industries in terms of digital team leadership, work with performance management and organizational learning. The study showed that digitalization has greatly affected digital team leadership. On the other hand, the impact of digitalization in terms of work with performance management was not very significant as all companies have been working with digital tools and systems before. In terms of organizational learning, the study finally shows that digitalization has had an impact on the process of becoming a learning organization.

A flexible working environment in the form of teleworking is becoming more common among both managers and employees, where the office of the future should consist of flexibility. The digital capabilities that have increased in recent years, such as cloud services, other powerful software and accessibility to the Internet, can be seen as some of the crucial factors that have made this feasible. This creates opportunities as it provides access to work materials, whether they are in the office or elsewhere. Given the increased distance work, this study finds a reason to explore functionality and the use of digital tools. For this, the study should be able to serve as a guideline in, for example, operations in their distance work. The study has applied a qualitative approach together with a deductive approach. First, theory was collected and after that linked to the phenomena that are of interest to the study and then the empirical collection was collected by means of open interviews. These interviews have been analyzed to find recurring themes and categories, which have been the base of the study and its associated theory. The five themes that emerged during analyzes were the following: teleworking, leadership, digital tools, functionality in digital tools, future functionality in digital tools. The study shows that the needs have changed over the past decade, which has increased the interest in the functionality of the digital tools. What is evident from all respondents is that the IT industry is one step ahead in this development. The major challenge lies in recreating the physical space, where the study shows that the digital tools cannot yet satisfy the wishes of the interviewed mid-level managers. / En flexibel arbetsmiljö i form av distansarbete, blir allt mer vanlig både bland chefer och medarbetare, där framtidens kontor bör bestå av flexibilitet. De digitala möjligheterna som ökat på senare år, så som molntjänster, andra kraftfulla mjukvaror och tillgänglighet till internet, kan ses som några av de avgörande faktorer som gjort detta genomförbart. Detta öppnar upp för möjligheter då det ger tillgång till arbetsmaterial oavsett om de befinner sig på kontoret eller på annan plats. Med tanke på det ökade distansarbetet finner denna studie en anledning till att utforska funktionalitet samt användningen av de digitala verktygen. För detta skall studien kunna fungera som en vägledning för exempelvis verksamheter i sitt distansarbete. Studien har tillämpat ett kvalitativt angreppsätt tillsammans med en deduktiv ansats. Först samlades teori in kopplat till fenomenen som är intressanta för studien och därefter genomfördes insamling av empirin med hjälp av öppna intervjuer. Dessa intervjuer har analyserats för att finna återkommande teman och kategorier, som sedan varit grunden för studien och dess tillhörande teori. De fem teman som har framkommit under analysen var följande: distansarbete, ledarskap, digitala verktyg, funktionalitet i digitala verktyg, framtidens funktionalitet i digitala verktyg. Studien visar att behoven har förändrats det senaste decenniet jämfört med tidigare forskning, något som har gjort att intresset för funktionaliteten i de digitala verktygen har ökat. Vad som framgår hos samtliga respondenter är att IT-branschen ligger steget före i denna utveckling. Den stora utmaningen ligger i att återskapa det fysiska rummet, där det av studien framkommer att de digitala verktygen ännu inte kan tillfredsställa de önskemål som finns hos de intervjuade mellancheferna.

Knowledge-sharing practices are all the actions aimed at improving the internal flow and use of knowledge within a virtual team. The collective knowledge of team members only becomes powerful if it is shared among those who possess common goals. The main purpose of this study was to explore the knowledge-sharing practices of Hogan Lovells’ virtual team of legal information professionals and establish how these practices could be enhanced in order to provide a superior information service to the firm’s lawyers. Hogan Lovells is a multinational law firm with offices in South Africa and England, and its virtual team of legal information professionals were experiencing challenges in sharing knowledge. The study adopted a qualitative methodology and a case-study research design. Interview guides were used to collect qualitative data from study Participants. Out of the 23 potential interviewees from the London and Johannesburg team who were purposively selected as the target population for the study, the researcher interviewed 14 on reaching the point of saturation. The Participants interviewed were in possession of suitable information related to the objectives of the study. Qualitative data collected were analysed using content analysis; findings were then made from the completed analysis. From the findings, it emerged that there were several gaps in the knowledge-sharing practices. Several enablers to the knowledge-sharing practices by legal information professionals were identified. The study recommended several ways by which the knowledge-sharing practices at Hogan Lovells’ virtual team of legal information professionals may be enhanced, amongst which are: formalising team meetings as a virtual community of practice, stimulating informal peer mentoring, valuing storytelling and regularly conducting After-Action Reviews. In addition to this, the virtual team should use other knowledge-sharing practices, such as brainstorming, subject-matter experts, and face-to-face virtual meetings. The study suggested that additional studies, particularly surveys and quantitative studies, be conducted on other virtual teams of legal information professionals in South Africa in order to explore their knowledge-sharing practices. / Information Science / M. A. (Information Science)