Thesis (Ed.D.)--Pepperdine University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-71).

Univ., Diss.--Göteborg, 2004.

Thesis (doctoral)--Göteborg University, 2004. / "November 2004." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Drexel University, 2008. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-122).

D.Phil. / This exploratory study looks at the barriers to virtual working as experienced by members of global virtual teams in a major Information Technology company. The data were collected by means of an online survey, and were subjected to detailed analysis. The initial survey measured respondents' levels of agreement with statements in the areas of Trust, Communications, Conflict and Virtual Work Self-Efficacy, which had all been identified by earlier research and literature review. Data reduction of the responses revealed the emergence of several factors, including ones related to virtual work facility, conflict, communications and vicarious learning. The research uncovered interesting facts about the barriers that virtual workers perceive to working virtually, as well as their views on the effectiveness of virtual working and the need for physical contact with fellow workers. The study ends with interpretation of the emergent factors and their interrelationships, and with the significance of this for organisations wishing to implement virtual team working

A research report submitted to the School of Construction Economics and Management Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Witwatersrand 15 February 2018 / This thesis aims to explore the impact of virtual communication among professionals within the South African construction industry by analysis of responses to a distributed questionnaire and interviews which will highlight trends and hindrances to effective communication. It hopes to answer the key question of key factors affecting virtual communication from a global perspective to that of the current South African state in order to improve future forms of ICT to maintain and enhance global competitiveness. To date, many construction organisations are autocratic and have a hierarchical organisational structure, which is often static and unable to change to current market needs. However, there is a growing trend for organisations to form specialised decentralised teams. These units are dynamic and are more flexible with knowledge transfer allowing their organisation to adapt to the ever changing global market. One particular adaptation in the construction industry is in information communication technology (ICT) which has resulted in organisations becoming more globally competitive. ICT is becoming more widely used in the construction project life cycle. While the development of virtual collaborations has allowed for companies to be globally competitive, there are areas in need of improvement such as communication and information processing. The use of current communication methods and processes are technologically driven and do not consider the individual’s psychological aspects. Social interaction within a workplace is important with a move away from autocratic information dissemination. These aspects have a direct effect on project delivery efficiency; productivity of labour force; as well as quality of the final product. There is a distinct shift in the use of different media for communication and effective those medium has proved to be. The reluctance to change and how quickly individuals adapt to technological advancements also impact on the efficiency of communication. / MT 2018

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The constant acceleration in the rate of technological innovation, and the ever growing emphasis on the importance of information for competition has seen organisations around the world strive for the technologies that give them global customer reach. One of the most pervasive technological innovations developed is the internet, and its unique quality of being able to draw people from across the world together in one virtual space has given birth to the concept of virtual teams. Organisations have seized the advantages of such virtual teams to give them the cost and time reductions they need to stay competitive in the global marketplace. In the software industry, where product and service development is always a race against time, forward thinking software companies in the developed world have taken full advantage of the cost and time saving benefits that virtual teams have to offer. In addition, the rate of expansion of technology and software to support such teams is also growing exponentially, offering increasingly faster ways of virtual working. Despite the immense advantages offered by such teams, South African software development companies do not seem to engage in distributed work to any great degree. The importance of this research rests on the belief that South African software development companies will be unable to avoid engaging in distributed software development if they are to achieve and maintain competitiveness in the global marketplace. This research focuses on a sub-section of the software development process with a specific reference to South African software development. The requirements elicitation phase of software development is one of the initial stages of any software project. It is here that developers work with the users in order to identify requirements for the system to be built. It is acknowledged that other phases of distributed development also bring to bear their own problems, however, in the interests of scoping this research, only the requirements elicitation process is focused on. The research shows that most techniques of requirements elicitation can be adapted for use within the virtual environment, although each technique has its share of advantages and disadvantages. In addition, virtual team members experience problems during their general, day-to-day interactions, many of these arising from the dependence on technology for communication and task performance. The research identifies the problems in both categories, and develops a holistic model of virtual requirements elicitation to prevent or solve the problems experienced by virtual teams engaged in distributed requirements elicitation. The model is made up of three key frameworks, each of which prescribes actions to be taken to ensure the success of the virtual team within the requirements elicitation process. The model is verified through the testing of its critical success factors. Certain aspects of the model were adapted based on the findings of the study, but it was confirmed that the rationale behind the model is sound, indicating that it has the potential to solve the problems of virtual RE when implemented.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Virtual team research is very relevant today as organisations have become more distributed and the use of so-called distributed teams has become more common. These virtual teams allow organisations to combine expertise from almost anywhere through the use of information and communication technology (ICT) across space and time to complete interdependent organisational tasks. To date research efforts have yielded insights into many factors that affect virtual teamwork, but the research has become somewhat fragmented. By means of a case study approach, this research paper aims to provide virtual team leaders with a more holistic understanding of the factors that influence virtual team performance. The researcher interviewed five virtual team leaders who have many years of working experience with virtual teams. All the participants work in the ICT industry sector and make extensive use of distributed teams to perform day-to-day tasks, provide business services and to implement large scale projects. The research assignment was constructed by completing a detailed literature review in order to develop a broad framework to evaluate five broad virtual team perspectives that influence virtual team performance. The five perspectives included organisation design, leadership, human resources, ICT technology and process considerations. The following findings were identified for each of these perspectives. Organisational design perspective: The importance of a clearly defined organisation structure helps to create a better understanding of responsibility and ownership. It was also identified that an additional layer of management within the virtual team structure reduces some of the complexities of virtual team management and simplifies the communication structure. The study also provides further insight into the type of person, and the experience and skills of people suitable to work in the virtual team environment. Leadership perspective: The importance of management controls was identified, like process orientation, practical awareness and management awareness in terms of cultural and importantly emotional awareness. Practical considerations for the performance management and rewards systems include the need for a broader team focus rather than rewarding individualist behaviour and performance. Human resources perspective (people): The clear goals and objectives of the organisation or project create the necessary focus, direction and understanding that guide the individual virtual team members and allow them to self-regulate. This is further supported by the a shared understanding of functional and role requirements that promote ownership and accountability which are considered to be the basis for a successful empowering approach and which allow individual team members to make decisions within the boundaries of their functions. Subsequently, the effect of social and interpersonal factors was identified as having a significant impact on virtual team performance and success. The use of various activities to build relations and to create an informal connectedness improves communication and promotes team commitment, cohesion, knowledge and information sharing. Technology perspective: The use of technologies that share the relevant context and supporting information reduces ambiguity and provides a mechanism to share information. All participants make use of collaborative technologies to facilitate the day-to-day team interaction, with a preference for technologies that promote easy participation and sharing of information in real-time (synchronously). Interestingly, none of the respondents provide ICT tool training to improve the effective use of these communication technologies and they expect their virtual team members to be able to use all the relevant technologies as a basic skill. Process perspective: The reliance on clear and agreed processes is important in virtual teamwork and requires upfront alignment. The study identified that a shared understanding by all team members of the underlying delivery process, including all in-and-output controls is a critical success factor for virtual teamwork and, because of the fragmented nature of the delivery process, there is a greater reliance on the efficient facilitation and coordination of specialised work. It also further supports the additional layer of management, in which a team leader and project manager facilitate and coordinate the facilitation of work that relies on a well-developed communication structure.