Background: Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the associated restrictions and recommendations has forced a transition into a more digital and virtual environment. Thus, businesses have faced numerous challenges regarding both leading and working at a distance. Leading to an increased need for digital skills and new ways of working, as has been advocated by successful international consulting firms. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop the research about distance leadership, leadership in virtual and digital contexts, and leadership in crisis. Thus, the aim was to investigate and compare team leadership, such as it was before the recommendation and restrictions caused by COVID-19, with the present. Research question: How has the forced digital transformation affected the team leadership from the perspective of both leaders and employees? Methodology: A case study was conducted in which semi-structured interviews, a collection of background information and data from an internal personnel survey was used to gather in-depth information. Conclusion: The results from the case study indicated three main challenges: internal communication, the need for combined and adaptable leadership, and the observed outcomes from the relation-oriented and task-oriented behaviors.

This dissertation provides an innovative mechanism to collaborate two geographically separated people on a physical task and a novel method to measure Complexity Index (CI) and calculate Minimal Complexity Index (MCI) of a collaboration protocol. The protocol is represented as a structure, and the information content of it is measured in bits to understand the complex nature of the protocol. Using the complexity metrics, one can analyze the performance of a collaborative system and a collaboration protocol. Security and privacy of the consumers are vital while seeking remote help; this dissertation also provides a novel authorization framework for dynamic access control of resources on an input-constrained appliance used for completing the physical task. Using the innovative Collaborative Appliance for REmote-help (CARE) and with the support of a remotely located expert, fifty-nine subjects with minimal or no prior mechanical knowledge are able to elevate a car for replacing a tire in an average time of six minutes and 53 seconds and with an average protocol complexity of 171.6 bits. Moreover, thirty subjects with minimal or no prior plumbing knowledge are able to change the cartridge of a faucet in an average time of ten minutes and with an average protocol complexity of 250.6 bits. Our experiments and results show that one can use the developed mechanism and methods for expanding the protocols for a variety of home, vehicle, and appliance repairs and installations.

The problem is that traditional jobs have been office-based, with close supervision. In the Virtual Office (VO) situation managers have a resistance towards the managing of the workforce because they do not know how to manage virtual workers off-site, workers that they cannot see. They feel that managing virtual workers off-site places a huge burden on them. The biggest difference is the shift in management style from direct control to management of results. The biggest challenge for most organisations is to manage the workforce of the VO. The objectives of this research project are to determine how managers can manage a virtual workforce, improve communication and control the workforce. Comprehensive research has been done on the topic VO that includes articles from magazines, newspapers, Internet and textbooks. As sufficient reference resources are not available in South Africa the research was especially based on USA reference resources, due to the reported successful implementation of Virtual Offices in that country. Managers can effective management a virtual workforce by making use of MBO and not by monitoring activities. They can improve communication with the workforce by staying connected and they can control the workforce through feedback and support. This research has proved that the paradigm shift in the corporate world of work, any time, anywhere, in real space or in cyberspace is here to stay. Virtual workers and managers working away from the office is now a reality, and will become more common in the future. Companies who wait for the future to allow the VO to effectively take shape may find themselves at a competitive disadvantage. Now is the time for companies to create the conditions for the VO to emerge. / Business Management / M. Tech. (Business Administration)

The changing world of work that we live in is characterised by forming part of globalisation and virtualness. The previous era managers focused on how to make money and how this money can work for them. The changing world of work is characterised by global competitiveness in delivering quality products quicker and cheaper. Globalisation presents continuous advancements in technology, which requires a new mindset. These technological advancements have a profound effect on culture, training and management of staff. This brings about change in flexible working arrangements and the traditional office made space within certain organisations for virtual offices. The move towards virtualness causes companies to work more closely with their customers to be able to coordinate rapid changes in products (Schuh, Millarg & Gorannson, 1998; Weissenfeld, Fisscher, Pearson & Brockhoff, 200 1). The financial institution referred to in this study was also driven by globalisation and technological advancements to re-engineer the current way in which they do business. It became evidently clear that there was a need for a shift towards virtualness, which called for the identifying of relevant competencies; needed by employees for working in a virtual environment. These competencies will enable the organisation to select the right employees and provide them with information that could be utilised in training the current virtual employees according to the competencies identified. The objectives of this research were firstly to conduct a job analysis to determine the important competencies needed by virtual workers, in a specific job at a financial institution in South Africa. Secondly to compare the current competencies of the virtual workers (who took part in the research) with the competencies identified by the job analysis to be important for this specific job. Thirdly to determine the skills required for virtual workers and compare these skills with the skills ranked by the current virtual workers to be important. Fourthly to identify how these virtual workers experienced the effect of virtualness on their performance. Lastly to make recommendations regarding future training and selection purposes. A survey design (cross-sectional) was used to determine competencies needed by virtual workers for a specific job at a financial institution in South Africa. The study population consisted of (N= 71) employees in a virtual job at a financial institution in South Africa. The Work Profile Systems (WPS), Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ), Performance Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ) and a Skills Audit (SA) were administered. Results of the research indicated that 44% of the study population exhibits the competencies needed by virtual workers as indicated by the Inventory of Management Competencies (IMC) Profile of the WPS. The results of the Performance Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ) indicated that the current virtual workers experienced the greatest impact of virtualness on improving the attainment of personal goals, as well as improving the achievement of organisational goals. The results from the Skills Audit (SA) identified skills that were essential for virtual workers in a specific job within a virtual environment, according to the feedback received from the current virtual workers. They compared favourably with the skills identified by literature as being important. Recommendations to the organisation and for future research have been made and limitations were also discussed. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.

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)

Neste trabalho estudam-se diversos aspectos conceituais relativos à modelagem mecânico-matemática para a descrição do comportamento estrutural não-linear geométrico. Apresenta-se, inicialmente, a aplicação do Princípio dos Trabalhos Virtuais na caracterização do equilíbrio na posição deslocada. Em seguida, a partir do emprego do Método dos Elementos Finitos, analisam-se as formas discretizadas Lagrangiana e Euleriana da expressão do equilíbrio, que resultam em função da descrição adotada para o movimento. A questão da estabilidade estrutural é tratada, abordando-se os conceitos de ponto limite e de bifurcação. Estudam-se, finalmente, os procedimentos incrementais, em combinação com o Método de Newton, para a solução do sistema não-linear de equações e para a caracterização de pontos singulares de equilíbrio. Exemplos consistindo na análise do comportamento de estruturas reticulares compõem as aplicações numéricas. / In this work, several conceptual aspects related to the mechanic-mathematical modeling for description of the geometrical nonlinear stuctural behavior are studied. First of all the Principle of Virtual Work is presented in order to characterize the equilibrium in the displaced position. Then, from the use of finite element method one analyses the Lagrangian and Eulerian forms which result from the adopted description of the motion. Stability of the structural response is treated by discussing the concepts of limit and bifurcation points. Finally, the incremental procedures in combination with the Newton schemes for solution of nonlinear equations and characterization of the singular points of equilibrium are studied. The numerical applications are related to the analysis of simple linear structures.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-03T18:32:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alexandre_Abbud_Sato.pdf: 1372942 bytes, checksum: 4e91cbb15d29adda9df58c5fae6dd52f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-11-23 / The present study aimed at investigating virtual teams within organizations. It was guided by the hypothesis that significant differences are found in the behavioral and social characteristics of the members of these two kinds of teams. The strategy was to match those characteristics as found in attendance and virtual teams with factors such as requirements, difficulties, outcomes and work flow to search for differences, which would they be? and which kind of team would be favored by them?. That hypothesis was investigated under the differentiation of gender and nationality, as the independent variables. The survey was carried out entirely through e-mails by the means of a questionnaire composed by closed and open questions in order to provide data for qualitative and quantitative analysis. The hypothesis was confirmed by the findings not only in the whole group of subjects but also in the two subgroups according to the independent variables. Effectiveness, lower costs and better quality of life were the main results favoring virtual teams although the latter do not apply homogeneously to the several sorts of tasks. Yet, the findings disclosed that hybrid models of teams were seen by the subjects as the ideal form of team-work. / O presente estudo teve como prop??sito investigar as equipes virtuais nas organiza????es. A pesquisa foi baseada na hip??tese de que h?? diferen??as significativas no tocante ??s caracter??sticas sociocomportamentais dos integrantes desses dois tipos de equipe. A estrat??gia foi comparar essas caracter??sticas entre equipes presenciais e virtuais quanto a fatores como necessidade, dificuldade, resultado e processo de trabalho para determinar se h?? e quais eram as diferen??as? e em qual tipo de equipe elas eram maiores?. A hip??tese foi investigada tanto em rela????o ao g??nero quanto ?? nacionalidade, como vari??veis independentes. A pesquisa foi realizada apenas com a utiliza????o de emails por meio de question??rio composto de perguntas fechadas e abertas, com vistas ?? an??lise qualitativa e quantitativa dos dados. A hip??tese foi confirmada pelos resultados, n??o somente no grupo geral de sujeitos mas tamb??m nos dois subgrupos, de acordo com as vari??veis independentes. Efic??cia, redu????o de custos e melhor qualidade de vida foram os principais resultados que favorecem as equipes virtuais, embora isso n??o ocorra homogeneamente para os v??rios tipos de tarefa. Os resultados revelaram ainda que o modelo h??brido de equipe, presencial-virtual, foi visto pelos sujeitos da pesquisa como ideal para o trabalho em equipe.

The introduction of the virtual work environment has resulted in the creation of a new work structure where interaction between employees and leaders occurs through technological innovations such as teleconferencing, emails, and text messages. The absence of physical workspace has also created a diverse work environment with people from various cultural backgrounds working together as virtual teams. Existing studies have been conducted on leadership styles and culture in the traditional work environment, but few empirical studies have been conducted on leadership styles and culture in the virtual work environment. The purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental survey study was to identify the relationship between cultural backgrounds and leadership styles in the virtual work environment. The data were collected by an online survey using the Bass and Avolio multifactor leadership questionnaire and Hofstede's cultural value survey module from a random sample of 303 participants with leadership roles in virtual work environments. Pearson correlation analysis was used to test the relationship between the dependent variables, transactional and transformational leadership styles, with the independent variables, being power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and masculinity. The results of the study showed a negative correlation between the transformational and transactional leadership styles for individualism and uncertainty avoidance. There were no correlations between femininity and power distance for the transformational and transactional leadership styles. The study contributes to social change by confirming that cultural backgrounds can impact the effectiveness of the transactional and transformational leadership styles, regardless of the work environment.

Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.

This qualitative study examined fifteen organizational members across four international technology companies to discover how they behave and manage daily interactions in a virtual environment within a geographically distributed team. Using a grounded theory methodology, an extensive analysis of the interview data was conducted. Three core themes emerged that focus on the individuals’ attempts to manage impressions in an environment that demands multicommunication. The themes of time stacking, participation predications and performance are discussed in detail using the theoretical lens of impression management. / text