The Department of Defense's (DoD's) budgetary and personnel challenges are affecting readiness, thus encouraging the use of effective teams to improve efficiency. This qualitative, descriptive case study examined how public sector DoD members experienced characteristics of high-performing teams (HPTs), defined by their members' shared sense of purpose, interdependent commitment, and exceptional team effectiveness. The documentation of these experiences may aid other DoD teams seeking to improve performance. Lewin and Sherif's theories on group dynamics, Johnson and Johnson's theory on groups, Katzenbach and Smith's theory of HPTs, and Edmondson's work on teams comprised the theoretical framework. Thirty-nine public sector DoD members provided responses to semistructured questions that were developed to seek insights into DoD members' team experiences and practices. Data were analyzed and categorized based on codes derived from the literature. Emergent themes from participant responses confirmed that public sector DoD team members experienced some characteristics of HPTs. Study participants perceived that these teams made positive organizational impacts, but transferring knowledge about these teams' best practices was inconsistent. These findings may contribute to positive social change by improving awareness among DoD practitioners about related HPT benefits and practices; informing public policy makers and practitioners about the value of HPTs in increasing financial and operational efficiencies; improving managerial quality and team experiences; encouraging innovation, openness, and action; and fostering an high-quality DoD workforce exemplifying long-term commitment to excellence and continuous improvement.

Background. With the growing trend in using Agile development method in thesoftware industry, the importance of "people" in the software development processhas risen up. As much as the technical aspects contribute to a better software processand products, it is ultimately people that make the software. Hence, studying thehuman factors in the perspective of software development can be considered significant especially in studying the effect of these factors on performance of the teams intoday’s Agile based development scenario. Objectives. The objective of this thesis is to identify the individual based humanfactors that influence the software team performance.Methods. For this project, we use the methods systematic literature review(snowballingstudy) and survey to identify and understand the influence of the human aspects onteam performance and possibly arrive at an understanding of these factors tendingtowards high-performing Agile teams. Results. The results of the thesis indicate that there are 19 factors that impactthe team performance. The results show that personality, professional knowledge,formal education, leadership style, work experience etc., are all impacting factorsof the performance of a team. Though, personality was the most mentioned factorfollowed by communication and professional knowledge. These results when weretried to verify through a survey showed similarities as well as some aberrations tothe results obtained from SLR. According to survey, professional knowledge has thehighest importance while personality scored lower than expected in the practitioner’sperspective. Although, many factors had similar degree of importance as for the results from both methods. Conclusions. It is essential to study the impact of the individual based factors onteam performance and several factors can be indicated that show their effect on theperformance of a team. Essentially, the study of the factors can be used to buildprocesses and teams focused to better their performance which can ultimately leadto better softwares. Individuals contribute to the team and studying the factors thatrely on their characteristics helps understand the team as a whole in a better waywhich can in-turn aid in improvement.

This thesis explores barriers to the establishment of trust needed for high performing teams due to inequality in the context of a global economy. Postcolonial Theory is introduced to illustrate how inequality is a key aspect of diversity in the current context of the global workplace. Different philosophies underlying the values and norms in organizations are examined to make sense of contemporary approaches to diversity management in terms of how power, difference, and identity are addressed. This provides an understanding of the context of current team development praxis in working with diversity. Using autoethnography, the author tells personal stories of working in diverse teams to convey the complex ways in which power, difference, and identity coalesce in real-life experience. Some theoretical foundations are developed for facilitating the building of team trust in contexts with different philosophical approaches to diversity. Addressing social justice in Organization Development work is considered.

This thesis explores barriers to the establishment of trust needed for high performing teams due to inequality in the context of a global economy. Postcolonial Theory is introduced to illustrate how inequality is a key aspect of diversity in the current context of the global workplace. Different philosophies underlying the values and norms in organizations are examined to make sense of contemporary approaches to diversity management in terms of how power, difference, and identity are addressed. This provides an understanding of the context of current team development praxis in working with diversity. Using autoethnography, the author tells personal stories of working in diverse teams to convey the complex ways in which power, difference, and identity coalesce in real-life experience. Some theoretical foundations are developed for facilitating the building of team trust in contexts with different philosophical approaches to diversity. Addressing social justice in Organization Development work is considered.