Business need required a holistic and focussed framework for best practices in the functioning of effective virtual teams, despite the fragmented nature of empirical studies in this field. This study endeavoured to explore the best practices in the functioning of effective virtual teams against four prominent and unique themes linked to purpose, processes, people and technology. The value of this study does not vest in the existence of virtual teams, but in their orderly operation, in terms of best practice and the value proposition of effectiveness. Following an exploratory qualitative strategy, the research was conducted according to the interpretivist branch of the phenomenological tradition, with a transcendental orientation in the social research field. A qualitative multi-case research design for the empirical study was selected, resulting in a non-probability sample within the software sector of the technology industry in South Africa. An original and pre-tested Lime Survey 2.0+ electronic questionnaire instrument was utilised as the instrument to collect information within a cross-sectional time horizon, to work in synchronisation with the collaborative asynchronous electronic architecture of virtual teams. Content analysis was applied to analyse data. The main findings indicated that effective virtual teams purposefully orientate themselves toward excellence through electronic management systems, a specific value system, with a knowledge seeking focus, and a seamless linkage in electronic infrastructure, applications, and platforms which contribute to the functionality of the effective virtual team. The main recommendations were that a pre-existing, functional, collaborative, integrated, electronic management system is regarded as the primary step in founding an effective virtual team. The focus of organisational leadership should be to embrace a holistic value system approach encapsulating specific elements of excellence, such as trust and independence. Human networking practices pursuing and sustaining knowledge are regarded as the key enabler for functioning of effective virtual teams. Lastly, a focussed seamless interface between the various electronic applications, platforms and infrastructures is recommended. / Human Resource Management / D. Com. (Human Resource Management)

網路社群中的字幕組，是由一群無償勞動的網友們、透過新科技溝通媒介而組織起來的。在本研究中，筆者將字幕組視為一個虛擬團隊，意圖探討無償虛擬團隊的組織文化與互動方式。近年來，國內的虛擬團隊研究觀點，似乎較偏向學校或者企業，所設定的虛擬團隊也清一色是營利組織或者學校體制內的虛擬團隊。然而，字幕組的工作卻是無償無薪，也缺乏外在的企業體制。 無償的虛擬團隊與營利組織裡的虛擬團隊有何差異呢？網路社群中的P2P資源交換特性或者網路社群中的生態，是否也會影響到字幕組這樣的無償虛擬團隊？本研究採取Potter與Balthazard（2002）所整理出之團隊「互動型態」理論、Dani 與Burns等人（2006）的「組織文化類型」理論，試圖找出不同規模與文化情境的字幕組互動型態、組織文化類型。筆者觀察了數個中國與台灣的字幕組，期望找出具集體知識共作、創造特性的虛擬團隊特色。而這些特色，或許能啟發國內其餘具知識分享、文化創造性質的虛擬團隊。 本研究使用參與觀察、親身實作等方法進行，輔以筆者自身的中國字幕組經驗與其他台灣字幕組成員的深度訪談，同步進行書寫。 研究結果顯示，字幕組的組織文化偏向關係親密的「宗族文化」、以及具有創新特質的「鬆散彈性文化」。而針對字幕組的互動型態分析，則集中於「合作型」、「人際型」，同樣都是關係較親近、競爭壓力較少的互動類型。這些特質顯示出，字幕組這樣的無償虛擬團隊，的確在組織文化、互動風格方面，都有著與企業不同的組織屬性。 / The Subtitle Teams in online communities are formed by volunteers who communicate by virtual technology. This study views the Subtitle Teams as virtual teams, in order to explore their organizational culture and interaction style. In recent years, most Virtual Teams studies in Taiwan focus on teams in school and businesses industries, however, the Subtitle Teams are volunteers without business structure. What is the difference between commercial virtual teams and voluntary subtitle teams? Do P2P communities influence voluntary subtitle teams like Subtitle Teams? We use Potter & Balthazard (2002)’s Interaction Style theory and Dani & Burn(2006)’s Organization Culture Types to explore the traits of Subtitle Teams. The Subtitle Teams in this study includes culture difference between Taiwan and Chinese, also the difference between Drama Subtitle Teams and Animation Subtitle Teams. The goal of this study is to find out some trait of creative, knowledge-based, and cooperative virtual teams, hope these result will help other virtual teams in NPO organizations or Cultural Industry in Taiwan. This study use participant observation, in-depth interviewing and case study to view the experience of the members from four Subtitle Teams. We found out that the Subtitle Team’s Organization Culture might tend to be The Clan Culture and The Adhocracy Culture. As to the Interaction Style analysis, many subtitle teams tend to be Passive Style and Constructive Style at the same time at the same time.

<p>We are currently in an ongoing internationalisation period, demanding organizations to coordinate activities spanning geographically through time and traditional boundaries. Co-workers begin to work more frequently geographically dispersed from each other creating new challenges for leaders and organisations all over the world. The distance requires groups to use technology to cooperate, bringing both advantages and disadvantages. These changes demand organizations to go from traditional team formations to virtual. This leads us to our topic of research, investigating Marina Systems' experience with the previously stated work setting.What problems can be found at Marina Systems regarding their dispersed work setting and how can they be solved?The purpose of our research was to find the challenges and possibilities that Marina Systems perceive, as well as contributing with sustainable solutions for managing their distant teams. We conducted a qualitative case study with interviews. Different theories used in this case study regarded geographically dispersed teams, virtual teams, hybrid teams and distant leadership.The results found in the interviews showed that Marina Systems had some ofthe challenges and problems found in the theory chapter. They can become more successful in their planned expansion if they start considering their employees as members of a hybrid team and start adapting their leadership behavior to what such groups need. Areas of communication and a lacking reward system were some of the opportunities for improvement.</p>

We are currently in an ongoing internationalisation period, demanding organizations to coordinate activities spanning geographically through time and traditional boundaries. Co-workers begin to work more frequently geographically dispersed from each other creating new challenges for leaders and organisations all over the world. The distance requires groups to use technology to cooperate, bringing both advantages and disadvantages. These changes demand organizations to go from traditional team formations to virtual. This leads us to our topic of research, investigating Marina Systems' experience with the previously stated work setting.What problems can be found at Marina Systems regarding their dispersed work setting and how can they be solved?The purpose of our research was to find the challenges and possibilities that Marina Systems perceive, as well as contributing with sustainable solutions for managing their distant teams. We conducted a qualitative case study with interviews. Different theories used in this case study regarded geographically dispersed teams, virtual teams, hybrid teams and distant leadership.The results found in the interviews showed that Marina Systems had some ofthe challenges and problems found in the theory chapter. They can become more successful in their planned expansion if they start considering their employees as members of a hybrid team and start adapting their leadership behavior to what such groups need. Areas of communication and a lacking reward system were some of the opportunities for improvement.

The impact of globalisation and advanced information technology on service and knowledgebased industries in South Africa contributes to these workplaces becoming increasingly virtual. Virtual teams can be seen as a mechanism that organisations could use to increase their orientation for change through enhancing and integrating key organisational resources such as people, space and information technology to deliver greater business value. The findings of several studies suggest that the implementation of virtual teams is associated with benefits such as cost and time saving, increased employee productivity and employee empowerment. There are however salient barriers to effective virtual teamwork that organisations need to address before engaging in the transformational process towards virtual teamwork. The literature review identified ineffective leadership practices, factors relating to virtual team development, inadequate use of information technology and a paucity of social and organisational cultural integration, as the most salient features that impede effective virtual teamwork. The objective of this research was to develop a basic theoretical framework for the implementation of virtual teams. Since virtual teams emanate from a relatively new area of research an inductive methodology, based on a literature review, was used to achieve the research objective. Several theoretical models on virtual teams and their effectiveness thereon were explored to conceptualise the dynamic nature of virtual teams and the requirements for implementing them in the workplace. The results of the study indicated that an emergent approach to change be followed and that the following factors be addressed to determine an organisation's readiness for the implementation of virtual teams, namely: the degree of interdependence between tasks, structural requirements, technological requirements, process redesign and the selection of appropriate people. A methodology for work transformation towards virtual teamwork was suggested based on an integration of these factors. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Les équipes virtuelles font l’objet de beaucoup d’attention depuis près de deux décennies. Elles font désormais partie des organisations qui ont dû s’ajuster à l’internationalisation des marchés. Elles sont aussi de plus en plus présentes dans les universités qui mettent en place des cours en environnement virtuel pour préparer leurs étudiants aux nouvelles réalités du marché du travail. Elles sont aussi le fruit des modes nées sous l’impulsion de l’approche constructiviste de la pédagogie. Les recherches qui s’intéressent a elles ont des préoccupations principalement téléologiques et utilitaristes qui donnent le point de vue des gestionnaires et des enseignants sur le phénomène. Peu de recherches se sont penchées sur l’expérience vécue par les membres de ces équipes. Par ailleurs, la volonté de dégager les lois générales des équipes virtuelles amène les chercheurs à l’amputer d’une partie de sa complexité. Notre recherche propose d’observer la manière dont des étudiants ont vécu leur expérience de collaboration en équipe virtuelle. Nous adoptons une posture interprétative et une approche narrative pour observer leur «sensemaking». Cette perspective nous permet de tenir compte de la complexité du phénomène. Nos questions de recherche sont : comment les étudiants font-ils sens de leur collaboration? Comment le «sensemaking» individuel contribue-t-il à construire le «sensemaking» collectif? Nos résultats nous renseignent sur l’importance que revêt le «sensegiving», pour les équipes virtuelles, dans la création de «sensemaking» collectif. / Virtual teams have been subject of much attention in the last two decades. Organizations have included them as regular units to adjust with globalization of markets. They are increasingly more common in schools as well. Universities developed virtual learning environments to cope with the market and prepare their students to be competitive. Those environments were also made popular because of the trends instigated by the constructivist approach to learning and educational methods. Researchers have been studying virtual teams most generally with teleological and utilitarian goals giving teachers’ and mangers’ point of view of the phenomenon. In addition, the will to draw general laws of virtual teams lead up researchers to sacrifice a part of its complexity. Our study aims to observe how students made sense of their collaboration experience in a virtual team. We adopt an interpretive perspective with a narrative approach that allows us to access the richness of the phenomenon while studying the sensemaking process. Our research questions are: how do students make sense of the collaboration? And how does individual sensemaking plays a role in constructing collective sensemaking? Our findings show that the sensegiving process is crucial for virtual teams to create collective sensemaking.

The impact of globalisation and advanced information technology on service and knowledgebased industries in South Africa contributes to these workplaces becoming increasingly virtual. Virtual teams can be seen as a mechanism that organisations could use to increase their orientation for change through enhancing and integrating key organisational resources such as people, space and information technology to deliver greater business value. The findings of several studies suggest that the implementation of virtual teams is associated with benefits such as cost and time saving, increased employee productivity and employee empowerment. There are however salient barriers to effective virtual teamwork that organisations need to address before engaging in the transformational process towards virtual teamwork. The literature review identified ineffective leadership practices, factors relating to virtual team development, inadequate use of information technology and a paucity of social and organisational cultural integration, as the most salient features that impede effective virtual teamwork. The objective of this research was to develop a basic theoretical framework for the implementation of virtual teams. Since virtual teams emanate from a relatively new area of research an inductive methodology, based on a literature review, was used to achieve the research objective. Several theoretical models on virtual teams and their effectiveness thereon were explored to conceptualise the dynamic nature of virtual teams and the requirements for implementing them in the workplace. The results of the study indicated that an emergent approach to change be followed and that the following factors be addressed to determine an organisation's readiness for the implementation of virtual teams, namely: the degree of interdependence between tasks, structural requirements, technological requirements, process redesign and the selection of appropriate people. A methodology for work transformation towards virtual teamwork was suggested based on an integration of these factors. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Metateams are both largely unexplored in the IS literature and economically important to major corporations and their IT vendors. Metateams are temporary groups composed of two or more geographically and inter-organisationally dispersed teams, commercially linked by project-specific agreements and enabled by electronic means of communication. Each one of these teams fulfils a particular and measurable objective, enshrined in the team's goal hierarchy and contractual obligations. The combination of efforts from every team in a metateam, contributes to achieving a common distant goal of project implementation. Thus, metateams are temporary teams (or groups) of distributed teams working across distance, firms, and cultures. In metateams, each participant team works with other teams on organisationally heterogeneous collaborative projects. Metateams are new and potentially powerful work structures resulting from the convergence of outsourcing, virtual organisations, and demands for global competitiveness. They promise to build IT solutions of high complexity, by integrating expertise from different fields and organisations. With the assistance of communication technologies, metateams can conquer barriers of time and space, enabling collaborative endeavours across a nation or across the globe. In a global business environment that demands innovation, flexibility, and responsiveness, metateams represent a revolution in the way organisations and practitioners do IT projects. However, as this study found, managing metateams presents unique difficulties due to conflicting demands arising from multiple realities. This dissertation presents an empirical research using a grounded theory approach that studies a major IT project performed by a metateam. The conceptual account emerges from an exploratory study of a major IT development and implementation project in the telecommunication industry. The project involved three key organisations and teams based in Australia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. The core pattern emerging from this study is one of constant conflict discovery and resolution, a process that progressively, and at a cost, allows the project to evolve from its initial incongruence into either a working solution or into project abandonment. This theory-building study presents a theoretical model, grounded on rich empirical data, interrelating key concepts of cost, conflict, communication, and trust, which serves to explain the pattern of actions and to propose a number of practical conclusions and recommendations. This research was guided by two key research objectives: (a) to add theoretical content to the understanding of key processes enacted by metateams in performing IT project work; and (b), to develop a framework that assists researchers and practitioners in predicting, explaining, and evaluating events and process associated with metateams. To the author's best knowledge, this study describes for the first time in the IS literature, the metateam organisation and the significant contextual issues they confront. In doing so, the study develops an understanding, grounded on rich empirical data from the substantive field of metateams. This new understanding contributes to both IS research and practice and provides guidance for future research.

Η παρούσα έρευνα εντάσσεται στο πεδίο της διερεύνησης των περιβαλλόντων Διαδικτυακών Παιχνιδιών Μεγάλου Πλήθους Παικτών (ΔΠΜΠΠ) σε σχέση με το μαθησιακό δυναμικό τους. Προτείνεται ένα πλαίσιο διερεύνησης της μάθησης σε ΔΠΜΠΠ, στο οποίο συνδυάζεται η γνωστική, η συναισθηματική και η κοινωνική διάσταση της μάθησης και ένα εννοιολογικό μοντέλο που συμπεριλαμβάνει χαρακτηριστικά του παίκτη, της ομάδας, της δραστηριότητας, του σχεδιασμένου και του κοινωνικού περιβάλλοντος, και των αλληλεπιδράσεων μεταξύ των παικτών. Επιπλέον, χαρτογραφείται βάσει αυτού του πλαισίου, η περιοχή των ΔΠΜΠΠ σε σχέση με παράγοντες που αφορούν άμεσα ή έμμεσα την ανάπτυξη διαδικασιών μάθησης. Ακολουθήθηκε Μικτή Μεθοδολογία Έρευνας, με το συνδυασμό ποιοτικών και ποσοτικών δεδομένων, έτσι ώστε να επιτευχθεί η σφαιρικότερη κατανόηση των φαινομένων που αναδύονται. Τα δεδομένα συγκεντρώθηκαν μέσω συμμετοχικής παρατήρησης σε περιβάλλοντα ΔΠΜΠΠ (σημειώσεις πεδίου, βίντεο, εικόνες), μέσω παρατήρησης σε σχετικούς διαδικτυακούς τόπους και fora (συζητήσεις παικτών, οδηγούς παιχνιδιού), από βίντεο καταγραφής παιχνιδιού εθελοντών παικτών, ατομικές και ομαδικές συνεντεύξεις με παίκτες ΔΠΜΠΠ και ερωτηματολόγια. Από την ανάλυση των δεδομένων (ποιοτική, στατιστική) αναδύθηκε ένα σύνολο φαινομένων και παραγόντων που αφορούν δημογραφικά στοιχεία των παικτών, τα κίνητρα παιχνιδιού, τον προσδιορισμό και την ανάδειξη της εμπειρίας, τις δεξιότητες που ασκούνται, τις διαδικασίες και πηγές μάθησης, τις αλληλεπιδράσεις των παικτών, πρακτικές και διαδικασίες που αναπτύσσονται στις ομάδες των παικτών και γενικότερα στην κοινότητα των παικτών, και χαρακτηριστικά σχεδιασμού όπως ο εικονικός χαρακτήρας, οι λειτουργίες υποστήριξης αλληλεπιδράσεων και επικοινωνίας, οι οργανωμένες δραστηριότητες και οι λειτουργίες υποστήριξης της μάθησης. Η επιβεβαιωτική ανάλυση με χρήση μοντέλων δομικών εξισώσεων (structural equation modeling) που πραγματοποιήθηκε στα ποσοτικά δεδομένα της έρευνας επιβεβαίωσε άμεσες και έμμεσες σχέσεις παραγόντων όπως οι κοινωνικές πρακτικές μάθησης, η κοινωνική διάσταση και το μέγεθος της ομάδας, τα εργαλεία υποστήριξης της επικοινωνίας, και η ηλικία και οι προτιμήσεις των παικτών, με την αντίληψη ανάπτυξης δεξιοτήτων μέσω του παιχνιδιού. Η μάθηση φαίνεται να αποτελεί αποτέλεσμα τόσο των σχεδιαστικών επιλογών όσο και των πρακτικών των παικτών που παρατηρούνται σε αυτά. Κίνητρα που σχετίζονται τόσο με το σχεδιασμό του περιβάλλοντος όσο και με τις αλληλεπιδράσεις και σχέσεις μεταξύ των παικτών ενισχύουν τη συμμετοχή, την εμπλοκή και την εκμάθηση γνώσεων και δεξιοτήτων που αφορούν την εξέλιξη στο περιβάλλον. Παράλληλα οι παίκτες δημιουργούν αυθόρμητα ομάδες και κοινότητες μάθησης του παιχνιδιού και συνεργατικής επίτευξης των δραστηριοτήτων. Η κατανόηση των πρακτικών και των διαδικασιών που αναπτύσσονται στο πλαίσιο του παιχνιδιού και η σχέση τους με τις σχεδιαστικές επιλογές του περιβάλλοντος μπορούν να παράσχουν πολύτιμα στοιχεία τόσο για τη συνεργασία των ατόμων σε κατανεμημένες ομάδες μέσω διαδικτυακών εικονικών περιβαλλόντων, όσο και για την ανάπτυξη αποτελεσματικών συνεργατικών μαθησιακών περιβαλλόντων με ή χωρίς την υποστήριξη υπολογιστή. / This study is situated within the research field of learning in Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) and aims at mapping the field. Through this study, a research framework for the study of learning in MMOGs is proposed. The framework combines the cognitive, the emotional, and the social aspects of learning, and also a conceptual model including features of the players, the groups, the tasks, the designed and the social environment, and the interactions among the players. Furthermore, phenomena and factors directly or indirectly relevant to the support of learning in MMOGs are mapped, based on this framework. A mixed method research approach was employed. The main research methodologies and tools employed were virtual ethnography and questionnaires, for the qualitative and the quantitative approaches respectively. Data were collected through participant observation in different MMOGs, observation in relevant websites and fora, videos of volunteers expert players, individual and group interviews with MMOG players, and questionnaires. Through the combination of qualitative and quantitative data it was possible to investigate and understand the different perspectives of the phenomena emerging. Through the data analysis, a complex set of phenomena and factors emerged, relevant to demographic data of the players, motivations for play, the definition and the emergence of expertise, the skills employed, the learning practices, the interactions of the players, the practices and process in the groups and the community of players, and features of the environment design such as the virtual characters, tools for the support of interactions and communication, the tasks and quests, and functionalities for the support of learning. Confirmatory analysis of the quantitative data through structural equation modeling confirmed the direct and indirect relations of factors such as the social practices for learning, the social aspect and the size of the group, the tools for communication support, and the age and preferences of the players, with the perceptions of skill development through the game. Learning in MMOGs seems to emerge from the combination of both design decisions as well as the practices of the players. Motives relevant to the design of the environment and the interactions among the players engage the players in the acquisition of game-related skills and progress in the environment. Players spontaneously develop groups and communities for learning the environment and collaboratively accomplishing tasks. Understanding of the practices and processes emerging within the framework of the game, and their relations to the design of the environment can provide valuable insights of the way people interact and collaborate in distributed online teams, and also for the development of effective collaborative learning environments with or without the support of computers.

I takt med att det blir vanligare att arbeta i team inom organisationer, utförs allt mer forskning om teamprocesser som påverkar teamens resultat och prestanda. Teamkommunikation är en teamprocess som vid upprepade tillfällen har identifierats som en av de teamprocesser som har en stor inverkan på teamens arbetsresultat. Även användandet av agila mjukvaruutvecklingsmetoder och distribuerad mjukvaruutveckling ökar och det råder delade meningar om hur väl egentligen distribuerat arbete och agila metoder fungerar i kombination. Å ena sidan bygger agila metoder på att utvecklarna har kontrollen själva, å andra sidan blir teamkommunikationen mer omständlig, eftersom den elektroniska kommunikationen kan verka begränsande. Uppsatsens syfte är att identifiera faktorer som påverkar virtuella teams kommunikationsprocesser inom agila mjukvaruutvecklingsprojekt. Fallstudiemetoden har tillämpats för att samla in relevant empiri och det valda fallföretaget är konsultföretaget Altran. Altran har ett konsultuppdrag hos en stor aktör inom fordonsindustrin och arbetar i distribuerade team inom ett agilt mjukvaruutvecklingsprojekt. Studien har utförts med hjälp av flera kvalitativa metoder; ostrukturerade observationer, en sonderande intervju och sex semi-semistrukturerade intervjuer med konsulter från utvecklingsteamen på Altran. Slutsatserna av studien är att flera faktorer påverkar virtuella teams kommunikationsprocesser. Några faktorer har dock varit mer framträdande än andra: Mångfald i teamet, som har en tydlig inverkan på kommunikationsprocesserna, eftersom Mångfalden i teamet sätter förutsättningarna för vilken grad teammedlemmarna är engagerade i kommunikationsprocesserna. Även Teamkommunikation i relation till Tillit mellan teammedlemmarna är viktig. Teamkommunikationen har en tydlig positiv inverkan på Tillit och Tillit har i sin tur en viktig funktion, eftersom det är den som avgör hur väl samarbetet mellan teammedlemmarna inom teamet fungerar. En tredje faktor som identifierats under studien är Teamkommunikationen i relation till Mentala modeller. Mentala modeller skapas med hjälp av Teamkommunikation och är en förutsättning för att teammedlemmarna ska kunna arbeta mot gemensamma mål och få ett bra arbetsresultat.