The study determines the effects of resilience training on team performance. An investigation was undertaken to: * establish a theoretical foundation for using resilience training to improve performance; * identify parameters and criteria for determining the effects of resilience training on the individual within the team; * gain insight on how learners experienced the resilience training; and * whether they implemented the resilience training within the workplace. This study included the review of literature on various motivational theories, resilience, psycho-education, adult learning and team performance. It also included an empirical investigation on the effects of resilience training on the individual within the team and the team performance as such. Data was collected against the main research question: What is the effect of strengths-focussed training on team performance? / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Didactics)

Lower cost and shorter time-to-market expectations are the major drivers of software productivity improvements. To manage productivity effectively, it is important to identify the most relevant difficulties and develop strategies to cope with them. Agile methods, including Extreme Programming and Scrum, have evolved as approaches to simplify software development process, potentially leading to better productivity. They aim to shorten development time and handle the inevitable changes resulting from market dynamics. Although the industry has extensively adopted agile methods, little research has empirically examined the software development agility construct regarding its dimensions, determinants, and effects on software development performance. Understanding this construct could help determine where to concentrate management efforts (and related financial resources) from a practical standpoint and where to focus research efforts from an academic perspective. Considerable research has been directed at identifying factors that have a significant impact on software development productivity. In general, the studied productivity factors were related to product, personnel, project, process, or organizational issues. Continuously evaluating productivity factors is important, as factors may change under new software engineering practices. However, little research has investigated the major factors influencing agile team productivity. ]The goal of this thesis was to explore productivity definitions, factors, and monitoring in agile teams and to improve the practice based on the collected evidence and gained knowledge. This thesis presents five novel contributions: C1 - Empirical verification of the importance of productivity for companies adopting agile methods and its perceived benefits; C2 - Rationale for the definition of productivity in the context of agile methods; C3 - Empirical verification of agile team productivity factors; C4 - A conceptual framework for agile team productivity factors and their impact; C5 - A team productivity monitoring process considering adaptability and an evaluation of the usefulness of agile team productivity metrics. / Menor custo e expectativa de menor time-to-market são os principais motivadores para melhorias de produtividade de software. Para gerir eficazmente a produtividade, é importante identificar as dificuldades mais relevantes e desenvolver estratégias para lidar com elas. Os métodos ágeis, incluindo Programação Extrema e Scrum, evoluíram como abordagens para simplificar o processo de desenvolvimento de software, potencialmente levando a uma melhor produtividade. Eles visam reduzir o tempo de desenvolvimento e lidar com as mudanças inevitáveis decorrentes da dinâmica do mercado. Embora a indústria tenha adotado amplamente métodos ágeis, há pouco entendimento científico do construto agilidade em desenvolvimento de software em relação às suas dimensões, determinantes e efeitos sobre o desempenho no desenvolvimento de software. Compreender esse construto poderia ajudar a determinar onde concentrar os esforços de gestão (e recursos financeiros relacionados) de um ponto de vista prático, assim como onde concentrar os esforços de investigação de uma perspectiva científica. Pesquisa considerável tem sido direcionada para identificar os fatores com impacto significativo na produtividade de desenvolvimento de software. Em geral, os fatores de produtividade estudados foram relacionadas ao produto, pessoas, projeto, processo ou questões organizacionais. Avaliar fatores de produtividade continuamente é importante, pois os fatores podem mudar quando novas práticas de engenharia de software são adotadas. No entanto, poucos estudos investigaram fatores influenciando a produtividade de times ágeis. O objetivo desta tese é explorar definições, fatores e monitoramento de produtividade em times ágeis e melhorar a prática baseada em evidência. Esta tese apresenta cinco novas contribuições: C1 - Verificação empírica da importância de produtividade para as empresas que adotam métodos ágeis e seus benefícios percebidos; C2 - Justificativa para a definição da produtividade no contexto de métodos ágeis; C3 - A verificação empírica de fatores de produtividade em times ágeis; C4 - Um arcabouço conceitual de fatores de produtividade em times ágeis e seu impacto; C5 - Um processo de acompanhamento de produtividade de times ágeis, considerando adaptabilidade e uma avaliação da utilidade de métricas de produtividade para esses times.

Research has shown that transformational leadership behavior impacts team performance in a traditional work environment; however, no research has evaluated the relationship between transformational leadership and team performance in a virtual setting. Building on the theoretical foundation of Bass' 1990 work, this study examined the relationship between transformational leadership behavior and 3 measures linked to team success: work effort, perceived leader effectiveness, and job satisfaction for virtual teams. The present research focused on the transformational leadership behaviors of 41 senior executives in an information technology (IT) organization and over 300 direct report employees. Employees used the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5x to rate their direct report supervisors' leadership characteristics. Regression analyses were used to evaluate the relationship between transformational leadership and the preceding indicators for successful performance. The findings supported the applicability of Bass' leadership model beyond the traditional workforce. The results of this study will positively impact social change by clarifying how executive leadership behavior directs virtual IT team success, enabling IT organizations to better identify future leaders, and allowing organizations to institute training opportunities to develop internal candidates to become better leaders.

This study examined the growth patterns of action teams over time. Cognitive and non-cognitive (i.e., motivational) team composition variables were hypothesized to differentially predict initial levels of and changes over time in team performance. In order to test the hypotheses 78 two-person teams flew three equivalent missions on a low-fidelity computer-based Apache helicopter simulator. Random Coefficient Modeling analyses indicated that, as expected, team composition of general cognitive ability positively predicted initial team performance, whereas team composition of motivational traits did not. However, none of the team composition variables predicted team performance change. Implications, limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

The present investigation is concerned with shared leadership and team performance in a sample of 20 organizational virtual teams. We examine shared team leadership in terms of cognitive processes (team learning), affective processes (perceived team support), and behavioural processes (team member exchange quality). Our findings document internal validity of the shared leadership model, and high external validity in predicting team performance. Findings are discussed with regard to management of virtual teams in organizations.

Submitted by Emanuel Varela Cardoso (emanuel.varela@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-08-31T19:40:20Z No. of bitstreams: 1 FERNANDO FELIX DO NASCIMENTO JUNIOR – DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGCC).pdf: 3433404 bytes, checksum: b5c42ff5d239a6628e636523baabae45 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-31T19:40:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 FERNANDO FELIX DO NASCIMENTO JUNIOR – DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGCC).pdf: 3433404 bytes, checksum: b5c42ff5d239a6628e636523baabae45 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-12-15 / Capes / Apesar da crescente popularidade dos esportes eletrônicos (eSports), ainda há uma escassez de trabalhos acadêmicos que exploram o comportamento de jogo das equipes. Compreender as características que ajudam discriminar entre equipes bem-sucedidas e malsucedidas poderia ajudar as equipes a melhorar suas estratégias, como determinar métricas de desempenho a serem alcançadas. Nesta dissertação, identificamos e caracterizamos padrões de comportamento de equipes com base nos dados de histórico de partidas de League of Legends, um eSport muito popular. Ao aplicar métodos de mineração de dados, como aprendizado da máquina e análise estatística, agrupamos o desempenho das equipes e investigamos para cada grupo como e em que medida essas características influenciam o sucesso e fracasso das equipes. Alguns grupos são mais propensos a terem equipes mais vencedoras do que outros, os resultados do nosso estudo ajudaram a descobrir as características que estão associadas a essa propensão e permitiram modelar métricas de desempenho de perfis de equipe bem sucedidas e malsucedidas. Encontramos ao todo 7 perfis, que foram categorizados em quatro grandes níveis em termos de proporção de equipes vencedoras: Fraco, Mais ou Menos, Bom e Top. / Despite the increasing popularity of electronic sports (eSports), there is still a scarcity of academic works exploring the playing behavior of teams. Understanding the features that help to discriminate between successful and unsuccessful teams would help teams improving their strategies, such as determine performance metrics to reach. In this dissertation, we identify and characterize team behavior patterns based on historical matches data from League of Legends, a very popular eSport. By applying methods from data mining, such as machine learning and statistical analysis, we clustered teams’ performance and investigate for each cluster how and to what extent these features have an influence on teams’ success and failure. Some clusters are more likely to have winning teams than others, the results of our study helped to discover the characteristics that are associated with this predisposition and allowed us to define performance metrics of successful and unsuccessful team profiles. At all, we found 7 profiles in which were categorized into four big levels in terms of winning team proportion: Weak, So-So, Good and Top.

The study determines the effects of resilience training on team performance. An investigation was undertaken to: * establish a theoretical foundation for using resilience training to improve performance; * identify parameters and criteria for determining the effects of resilience training on the individual within the team; * gain insight on how learners experienced the resilience training; and * whether they implemented the resilience training within the workplace. This study included the review of literature on various motivational theories, resilience, psycho-education, adult learning and team performance. It also included an empirical investigation on the effects of resilience training on the individual within the team and the team performance as such. Data was collected against the main research question: What is the effect of strengths-focussed training on team performance? / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Didactics)

Context. Large-scale software development projects are those consisting of a large number of teams, maybe even spread across multiple locations, and working on large and complex software tasks. That means that neither a team member individually nor an entire team holds all the knowledge about the software being developed and teams have to communicate and coordinate their knowledge. Therefore, teams and team members in large-scale software development projects must acquire and manage expertise as one of the critical resources for high-quality work. Objectives. We aim at understanding whether software teams in different contexts develop transactive memory systems (TMS) and whether well-developed TMS leads to performance benefits as suggested by research conducted in other knowledge-intensive disciplines. Because multiple factors may influence the development of TMS, based on related TMS literature we also suggest to focus on task allocation strategies, task characteristics and management decisions regarding the project structure, team structure and team composition. Methods. We use the data from two large-scale distributed development companies and 9 teams, including quantitative data collected through a survey and qualitative data from interviews to measure transactive memory systems and their role in determining team performance. We measure teams’ TMS with a latent variable model. Finally, we use focus group interviews to analyze different organizational practices with respect to team management, as a set of decisions based on two aspects: team structure and composition, and task allocation. Results. Data from two companies and 9 teams are analyzed and the positive influence of well-developed TMS on team performance is found. We found that in large-scale software development, teams need not only well-developed team’s internal TMS, but also have well- developed and effective team’s external TMS. Furthermore, we identified practices that help of hinder development of TMS in large-scale projects. Conclusions. Our findings suggest that teams working in large-scale software development can achieve performance benefits if transactive memory practices within the team are supported with networking practices in the organization.

Submitted by Nadir Basilio (nadirsb@uninove.br) on 2017-08-04T16:01:17Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernando Andre Zemuner Garcia.pdf: 3727885 bytes, checksum: 69021978691074b2fb37201b781421e7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-04T16:01:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernando Andre Zemuner Garcia.pdf: 3727885 bytes, checksum: 69021978691074b2fb37201b781421e7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-28 / The team leadership is a topic that have been studied in the last 70 years by several authors, to understand their challenges and exploit the opportunities of the same within organizations and more recently within the design environment. The team leadership has changed considerably over the years because of changes in the culture and how businesses and designs come dealing with their employees and subordinates. Because it is an important factor for the team’s performance the leaders are changing the forma of lead, so that impose the wills and simply ordering already no longer part of the current management methods, having to be a shared leadership or based on exchanges so that the led can follow their leader. With the transformation of companies, many have adopted the Project management to develop their products or internal systems, making the leader Always seek greater adaptability to lead and generate the success or profit expected for companies. This dissertation seeks to identify the influence of the type of leadership in performance of the project team as the methods applied in the management of software development projects. The study was conducted via an online electronic questionnaire distributed to team leaders or projects members who have participated in software developments projects. After analyzing the data collected, it was identified that the project management method does not affect the existing relationship between the types of leadership studied and the performance of the team. Another important factor derived from the analysis is that transactional and transformational leadership are positively related to team performance, despite the weak relationship existing for transactional leadership, while empowerment leadership is strongly related to team performance, but in a negative way. The derivation of the analyzes is that companies working with software development projects must invest in leadership development as a measure to increase team performance, especially the transformational leaders, a style that presented the highest positive relation to team performance Among the three leaderships studied, regardless of the method of project management used. / A liderança de equipes é um tema que vêm sendo estudado nos últimos 70 anos por diversos autores, com a finalidade de entender seus desafios e explorar as oportunidades da mesma dentro das organizações e mais recentemente dentro do ambiente de projetos. A liderança de equipes sofreu grandes transformações ao longo dos anos devido a modificação da cultura e da forma como as empresas vêm lidando com os seus empregados e subordinados. Por se tratar de um fator importante para a performance da equipe, os líderes vêm alterando a forma de liderar, impor as vontades e simplesmente ordenar já não fazem mais parte dos métodos de gerenciamento atuais, tendo que haver uma liderança compartilhada ou baseada em trocas para que os liderados possam seguir o seu líder. Com a transformação das empresas, muitas adotaram o gerenciamento de projetos como forma de desenvolver seus produtos ou sistemas internos, fazendo com que o líder busque sempre uma maior adaptabilidade para liderar e gerar o sucesso ou lucro esperado para as empresas. Esta dissertação buscou identificar a influência do tipo de liderança na performance da equipe de projetos, conforme os métodos aplicados na gestão de projetos de desenvolvimento de software. O estudo foi realizado via questionário eletrônico distribuído de forma on-line para líderes de equipes ou membros de projetos que participaram de projetos de desenvolvimento de software. Após as análises dos dados coletados, foi identificado que o método de gestão de projetos não afeta a relação existente entre os tipos de liderança estudados e a performance da equipe. Outro fator importante derivado das análises é que as lideranças transacional e transformacional se relacionam de forma positiva com a performance da equipe, apesar da fraca relação existente para a liderança transacional, enquanto que a liderança empoderamento se relaciona de forma forte com a performance da equipe, porém de forma negativa. A derivação das análises é que as empresas que trabalham com projetos de desenvolvimento de software devem investir no desenvolvimento da liderança como medida para incrementar o desempenho da equipe, principalmente os líderes transformacionais, estilo que apresentou a maior relação positiva com a performance de equipe dentre as três lideranças estudadas, independentemente do método de gerenciamento de projetos utilizado.

Lower cost and shorter time-to-market expectations are the major drivers of software productivity improvements. To manage productivity effectively, it is important to identify the most relevant difficulties and develop strategies to cope with them. Agile methods, including Extreme Programming and Scrum, have evolved as approaches to simplify software development process, potentially leading to better productivity. They aim to shorten development time and handle the inevitable changes resulting from market dynamics. Although the industry has extensively adopted agile methods, little research has empirically examined the software development agility construct regarding its dimensions, determinants, and effects on software development performance. Understanding this construct could help determine where to concentrate management efforts (and related financial resources) from a practical standpoint and where to focus research efforts from an academic perspective. Considerable research has been directed at identifying factors that have a significant impact on software development productivity. In general, the studied productivity factors were related to product, personnel, project, process, or organizational issues. Continuously evaluating productivity factors is important, as factors may change under new software engineering practices. However, little research has investigated the major factors influencing agile team productivity. ]The goal of this thesis was to explore productivity definitions, factors, and monitoring in agile teams and to improve the practice based on the collected evidence and gained knowledge. This thesis presents five novel contributions: C1 - Empirical verification of the importance of productivity for companies adopting agile methods and its perceived benefits; C2 - Rationale for the definition of productivity in the context of agile methods; C3 - Empirical verification of agile team productivity factors; C4 - A conceptual framework for agile team productivity factors and their impact; C5 - A team productivity monitoring process considering adaptability and an evaluation of the usefulness of agile team productivity metrics. / Menor custo e expectativa de menor time-to-market são os principais motivadores para melhorias de produtividade de software. Para gerir eficazmente a produtividade, é importante identificar as dificuldades mais relevantes e desenvolver estratégias para lidar com elas. Os métodos ágeis, incluindo Programação Extrema e Scrum, evoluíram como abordagens para simplificar o processo de desenvolvimento de software, potencialmente levando a uma melhor produtividade. Eles visam reduzir o tempo de desenvolvimento e lidar com as mudanças inevitáveis decorrentes da dinâmica do mercado. Embora a indústria tenha adotado amplamente métodos ágeis, há pouco entendimento científico do construto agilidade em desenvolvimento de software em relação às suas dimensões, determinantes e efeitos sobre o desempenho no desenvolvimento de software. Compreender esse construto poderia ajudar a determinar onde concentrar os esforços de gestão (e recursos financeiros relacionados) de um ponto de vista prático, assim como onde concentrar os esforços de investigação de uma perspectiva científica. Pesquisa considerável tem sido direcionada para identificar os fatores com impacto significativo na produtividade de desenvolvimento de software. Em geral, os fatores de produtividade estudados foram relacionadas ao produto, pessoas, projeto, processo ou questões organizacionais. Avaliar fatores de produtividade continuamente é importante, pois os fatores podem mudar quando novas práticas de engenharia de software são adotadas. No entanto, poucos estudos investigaram fatores influenciando a produtividade de times ágeis. O objetivo desta tese é explorar definições, fatores e monitoramento de produtividade em times ágeis e melhorar a prática baseada em evidência. Esta tese apresenta cinco novas contribuições: C1 - Verificação empírica da importância de produtividade para as empresas que adotam métodos ágeis e seus benefícios percebidos; C2 - Justificativa para a definição da produtividade no contexto de métodos ágeis; C3 - A verificação empírica de fatores de produtividade em times ágeis; C4 - Um arcabouço conceitual de fatores de produtividade em times ágeis e seu impacto; C5 - Um processo de acompanhamento de produtividade de times ágeis, considerando adaptabilidade e uma avaliação da utilidade de métricas de produtividade para esses times.