Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Supervisor: Sirkka Jarvenpaa. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available from UMI.

Thesis (M.S. in Modeling, Virtual Environments, and Simulation)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2004. / Thesis advisor(s): Rudolph P. Darken, Susan G. Hutchins. Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-168). Also available online.

The advent of collaborative technologies has enabled people to work together apart. This has brought about the formation of virtual teams where members, usually from different geographies, come together to work on a common objective. Virtual teams encounter similar teaming issues as intact teams, but face additional challenges which include working with communication technologies and with teammates they might never meet. The nature of virtual work requires team members to manage ambiguity, work independently, adopt technology and work in a less structured environment. / The virtual work dimensions can be further mapped to Hofstede's cultural dimensions of Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI), Individualism (IDV), Power Dimension Index (PDI) and Masculinity (MAS). Those working in virtual teams should display a lower UAI working with ambiguity, higher IDV as they need to work independently, lower PDI as they work in a less structured environment and higher MAS as they work around systems and technologies. / Organizations can render support to facilitate virtual teaming, and encourage the growth of virtual teams. The organization can provide, among others, training for members to improve virtual teaming, remuneration such as reward and recognition and/or compensation and benefits, infrastructure support such as upgrade of hardware and software, work life balance programs like including virtual team members in company functions and allowing flexible work hours and finally, creating a positive communication environment. / This paper seeks to explore the virtual work dimensions and satisfaction among virtual team members in Malaysia, and the types of support organizations can provide to enhance virtual teaming. The focus will be on organization's support, team members' virtual status, communication channels used and virtual work satisfaction measurement. The need for this research is apparent as Malaysia progresses into the IT era, and would require a new competitive edge to compete for foreign investment and develop competencies for its workforce. Furthermore, similar research into this area of study is lacking. / The exploratory research findings show that only one of three hypotheses was accepted. The first hypothesis reveals that by providing infrastructure support, the organization is able to increase technology adoption. The second and third hypotheses are rejected. For Hypothesis 2, higher virtual status when interacting with work life balance does not have a positive impact on virtual work satisfaction. In fact, the findings reveal that virtual status does not impact work life balance or any of the organization support dimensions. For Hypothesis 3, face-to-face interaction when interacting with training and development does not have a positive impact on virtual work satisfaction. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2006.

Virtual collaboration-the act of working together across boundaries of space, time, and organization, aided by technology-has become increasingly commonplace in recent years. Doing so, however, presents a number of challenges to those involved. One of these is that because of a lack of experience in collaborating through computer-based collaboration systems, there is little knowledge on how to carry out collaboration virtually. Another is that it is not easy for those not directly involved in the collaboration to know what is, and has been, 'going on' during virtual collaboration. This thesis suggests that both of these challenges can be addressed with the same approach, namely by referring to observations of virtual collaboration. The problem then is how such observations of virtual collaboration can be obtained without requiring those involved in it to document their own actions. To address this problem is the objective of this thesis. The approach proposed here involves three elements: firstly, the collection of data about virtual collaboration; secondly, the modeling of this data; and thirdly, the derivation of increasingly abstract, larger-scale representations of virtual collaboration from this data. These representations are termed patterns of virtual collaboration, which are abstract descriptions of activities of virtual collaboration. A multi-layered conceptual model of information, the Information Pyramid of Virtual Collaboration, is proposed, providing different views of information related to virtual collaboration, at different levels of abstraction. The thesis then suggests how from a given body of data, patterns of virtual collaboration at a corresponding level of the Information Pyramid can be extracted, and how from collections of such patterns more abstract patterns of larger-scale activity can be derived, providing the observations of virtual collaboration sought. In considering how the extraction of patterns of virtual collaboration fits into the larger context of the conception, design, and use of collaboration systems, a Framework for Pattern Extraction and Feedback is proposed. This framework introduces the notion of collaboration memory, a type of organizational memory that contains records of collaborative activity. Moreover, the framework suggests how extracted patterns of virtual collaboration feed back into both ongoing development and use of collaboration systems. Finally, the modeling and extraction of patterns of virtual collaboration is illustrated in a case study involving the LIVENET collaboration system.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Technology, Sydney, 2003. / Includes bibliography and listing of author's associated publications: leaves [257]-271.

Thesis (M.S.D.T.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Jun. 3, 2008). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2006. / "Master of Arts Instructional Design"--T.p. Title from PDF title page (viewed on Aug. 29, 2006). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As organisations expand internationally and continue to conduct business across different time zones and geographical boundaries, distributed project and organisational teams have become increasingly prevalent. Rather than meet face-to-face, developments in information and communication technology have made it possible for these team members to interact electronically thereby creating an alternative means for team member collaboration. Teams that collaborate in this manner are called virtual teams. This study explored effective leadership practice in virtual teams. The process of exploration started with discovering those core competencies considered essential to virtual team leadership. These competencies were then operationalised and tested for their respective contributions to effectiveness in virtual teams as measured by team performance and personal satisfaction. It was suggested and subsequently confirmed by the results of this study that as virtual team leaders begin to display essential leadership competencies, the virtual teams they lead become more effective. Four leadership competencies were identified as integral to effective leadership practice. These were: an ability to coordinate task delivery, an ability to communicate, an ability to build trust and an ability to manage multicultural diversity. In addition, it was determined that virtual team leaders tended to emphasise the more transactional forms of leadership over the more transformational forms with the strongest emphasis on task and communication as predictors of performance rather than satisfaction. In contrast, team members emphasised the more transformational forms of leadership with the strongest emphasis on trust and diversity management as predictors of satisfaction rather than performance. It was also apparent that for team members, task coordination was weakly correlated with performance. These differing results illustrate a distinction in leadership emphasis, which if misunderstood or incorrectly managed, could lead to conflict and low levels of team trust. For team leaders, a desire to perform and deliver against team objectives has an associated risk of inadvertently emphasising task at the expense of fostering healthy team relationships. By comparison, team members emphasise personal satisfaction over performance and are potentially at odds with a strongly taskorientated team leader. This does not mean that team members are disinterested in team performance. On the contrary, performance is important to team members but it would seem that performance follows as a result of first experiencing satisfaction as a virtual team participant.