abstract: Teams are increasingly indispensable to achievements in any organizations. Despite the organizations' substantial dependency on teams, fundamental knowledge about the conduct of team-enabled operations is lacking, especially at the {\it social, cognitive} and {\it information} level in relation to team performance and network dynamics. The goal of this dissertation is to create new instruments to {\it predict}, {\it optimize} and {\it explain} teams' performance in the context of composite networks (i.e., social-cognitive-information networks). Understanding the dynamic mechanisms that drive the success of high-performing teams can provide the key insights into building the best teams and hence lift the productivity and profitability of the organizations. For this purpose, novel predictive models to forecast the long-term performance of teams ({\it point prediction}) as well as the pathway to impact ({\it trajectory prediction}) have been developed. A joint predictive model by exploring the relationship between team level and individual level performances has also been proposed. For an existing team, it is often desirable to optimize its performance through expanding the team by bringing a new team member with certain expertise, or finding a new candidate to replace an existing under-performing member. I have developed graph kernel based performance optimization algorithms by considering both the structural matching and skill matching to solve the above enhancement scenarios. I have also worked towards real time team optimization by leveraging reinforcement learning techniques. With the increased complexity of the machine learning models for predicting and optimizing teams, it is critical to acquire a deeper understanding of model behavior. For this purpose, I have investigated {\em explainable prediction} -- to provide explanation behind a performance prediction and {\em explainable optimization} -- to give reasons why the model recommendations are good candidates for certain enhancement scenarios. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Computer Science 2018

Workers in modern teams that perform tasks over computer-mediated communication channels encounter challenges in building trust and performing effectively. Finding interventions to mitigate such losses could improve team performance. Collaborative critical thinking (CCT) training has the potential to improve trust, monitoring, and effectiveness in virtual teams. Using a simulated search-and-rescue task, the effects of CCT training, as compared with a control training, were evaluated in 105 three-member teams. No effects of CCT training were found on team positive or negative monitoring, team cognitive or affective trust, team efficacy, or team viability. However, teams trained in CCT reported consistently higher levels of team cooperation. Directions for future research are discussed so as to maximize the possibility that CCT might yet be an effective intervention.

Informationsteknologins utveckling under de senaste decennierna har möjliggjort en utveckling mot en allt mer global värld. Marknaden internationaliseras och geografiskt avstånd väger inte längre lika tungt när ett samarbete ska etableras. Genom att lösningar för elektronisk kommunikation blir mer spridda, lättillgängliga och billiga, och i takt med att teknikmognaden i organisationer och hos medarbetare ökar, har inte bara den teoretiska organisationsbilden utan även vardagen i många företag börjat präglas av en ny geografisk bredd. Den här studien fokuserar på hur projektledare arbetar med lag- eller teamkänsla i projektgrupper som verkar i en miljö där de fysiska mötena är få eller helt saknas. Undersökningen fokuserar på de praktiska verktyg och arbetssätt som projekt­ledaren har och kan använda i projektet för att skapa lag- eller teamkänsla. Undersökningen genomfördes med hjälp av kvalitativa intervjuer med åtta projektledare i Sverige. De representerar olika branscher inom offentlig och privat verksamhet och arbetar med distribuerade team av olika typ och storlek. Materialet analyserades baserat på sju teman identifierade i tidigare forskning. De projektledare som intervjuas arbetar alla med att stärka teamkänslan gruppen men väljer att fokusera på olika aspekter och verktyg. Kommunikation och tydlighet löper som röda trådar genom de strategier som tillämpas. Trots att projekten är virtuella uppfattar respondenterna i undersökningen att gruppens fysiska möte är betydelsefullt för att teamkänsla ska skapas. Grundläggande är också en välfungerande teknisk plattform med stöd för synkron kommunikation. / The development of information technology during the recent decades has enabled a shift towards an increasingly global world. The market becomes international and the geographical distance is of less importance when a new partnership is to be established. As solutions for electronic communication becomes more widespread, accessible and cheap and the technology maturity in organizations and among its employees increase, not only the theoretical organizational image, but also the everyday life of many companies has started to be characterized by a new geographic spread. This study focuses on project teams operating in an environment where the physical meetings are few or non-existent. So-called virtual project teams. The study examines how a project manager for a virtual project works with team cohesiveness within his virtual project team. The study focuses on the practical tools and approaches that the project manager has and can use in the project to create team cohesiveness. The survey is conducted by qualitative interviews with eight project managers working with distributed teams in Sweden, representing various industries in both the public and private sectors. The material is analyzed based on seven themes identified in previous research and in responses. The result shows that the project leaders in the study all are working to strengthen the team cohesiveness. The project managers chose to focus on different aspects and tools in the process. Communication and clarity are common themes in the strategies that the project managers apply. Even though the projects are virtual the physical meeting is pointed out as important in shaping team cohesiveness. Well-functioning technical platforms that support synchronous communication are part of the foundation for the team cohesiveness in a virtual team.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Psychology, 2004. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 43-54).

The main object of this thesis is to consider the importance of communication and operation of work teams. In the first part of my thesis I have concentrated on the theme of communication in general, on the problem of communication in organization and upon the role of management in finding the solutions to these communication problems. The next part of this thesis is focused upon the theme of work teams, specifically the problem with their formation, the importance of team roles and also about the barriers which are encounter by the operation of these teams. The practical part of my thesis is deals with the company ESSOX s.r.o.. The object of interviews, that have occured there, was to do some subjective evaluation of the level of communication within this company and consider if this company works really in teams. The resulting outcome of this investigation is that this company has some major communication problems. These deficiencies don{\crq}t have any specific relevant character. In other words, it means that this company turns to the matter of team work. My recommendations have been given at the end of this thesis. That mission is to give instructions as to how to make the team work more effectively.

The focus of this study is based on a web development team working within the confines of a Swedish authority. It has been recognized that web development teams are struggling to cooperate and work in high capacity efficiency, mostly due to the nature of the multifarious tasks at hand and their lack of understanding of each respective roles within the team. In lieu of this major downfall, establishing a mental model faceted way of thinking and working may improve effectiveness, communication and collaboration amongst all members of a functioning team. A shared mental model is developed through four stages of cognitive processes; knowing, learning, understanding and executing. The purpose of this study is to examine and show an example of how shared mental models can be developed in an existing web development team. By analyzing two workshop practices, this study aims to answer the following questions: How can workshop practices “visualizing user stories” as well as facilitating “design studio sessions” be used to establish common understanding within the web development team? How can four stages of cognitive processes (knowing, learning, understanding and executing) for developing shared mental models be understood? Participant observation and interviews are among research methods used. The ‘Shared Mental Model’ by Cannon-Bowers et al. (1993) is the primary theoretical framework used here. The results of this study indicate how workshop practices such as visualizing user stories well as conducting design studio sessions contribute to a common understanding due to increased social interaction among team members. The results also indicate that the web development team has been unable to process and exchange relevant information with each other during the initial stages of learning and development due to the lack of team building activities. This, in return affects further development of the shared mental model in the following steps. / I denna studie undersöks en svensk myndighets webbutvecklingsteam som i dag arbetar med att göra om myndighetens webbsida vilket inkluderar framtagning av nya gränssnitt och funktioner. I många fall har det visat sig att system- och webbutvecklingsteam har problem med att förhandla fram en gemensam förståelse. Dels på grund av de olika roller som ingår i ett team men även på grund av arbetsuppgifternas komplexitet och struktur. Svårigheter med att kommunicera, koordinera och samarbeta effektivt upplevs vara centralt i system- och webbutvecklingsprojekt. Att utveckla en gemensam förståelse tillika delade mentala modeller (hädanefter DMM, eng. Shared Mental Models) för lag- och uppgiftsarbetet kan förenkla kommunikation, koordination och samarbete inom ett team. Syftet med denna studie är därmed att illustrera ett exempel på hur DMM skulle kunna utvecklas inom ett webbutvecklingsteam. Webbutvecklingsteamet studeras och analyseras utifrån fyra steg av kognitiva processer (vetande, lärande, förståelse och verkställande) som demonstrerar hur DMM utvecklas steg för steg. Uppsatsen ämnar därmed att besvara följande frågor: Hur kan workshoppraktikerna ”visualisering av användarresa” och ”designstudio” bidra till etableringen av den gemensamma förståelsen inom myndighetens webbutvecklingsteam? Hur kan webbutvecklingsteamet förstås utifrån de fyra stegen av kognitiva processer; vetande, lärande, förståelse och verkställande om hur DMM utvecklas? Studien rymmer inom ramen för en fallstudie där deltagande observationer och intervjuer har nyttjats som metoder för insamling av empiriskt material. Teorin om DMM av Cannon-Bowers et al. (1993) är studiens primära teoretiska utgångspunkt. Sammanfattningsvis har studien lett fram till att de två workshoppraktikerna – visualisering av användarresa och designstudio – har bidragit till etablering av den gemensamma förståelsen i det stora hela genom social interaktion. Vidare har studiens resultat visat att webbutvecklingsteamet brister i vetandefasen eftersom teamet inte har utbyt relevant information om sig själva genom team building aktiviteter. Detta påverkar sedermera vidareutvecklingen av DMM i nästkommande steg.

Gaps. Building an effective team and optimizing team functioning in sport is an important, albeit complex and challenging endeavour involving several processes (Bloom, Stevens, & Wickwire, 2003; Collins & Durand-Bush, 2010; Yukelson, 1997). Unfortunately, our knowledge of what constitutes optimal team processes, and how these are developed and maintained within specific sports, remains limited. Although several frameworks targeting a few or several group processes have been put forth in the literature, limitations regarding their theoretical foundation, comprehensiveness, and application have been identified. Collins and Durand-Bush (2015a) made a call for grounded theory research in order to provide an in-depth understanding of team processes required for optimal functioning in specific sports. Given that none of the existing frameworks in the literature have been developed using a grounded theory approach, and none have been tailored to meet the needs of particular sports, this type of inductive research is warranted. Aims. This dissertation had two general aims. The first aim was to critically review theoretical/conceptual frameworks in the literature directly or indirectly addressing team processes in sport and derive implications for professional practice (Article 1). The second aim was to use a grounded theory research approach to investigate (a) factors that contribute to the development and maintenance of optimal team functioning within high performance curling (Article 2), (b) strategies used by high performance coaches and athletes to optimize team functioning (Article 3), and (c) specific roles that curling coaches play in this process (Article 4). Methods. To address the first aim, a critical review of frameworks targeting team processes that were used to guide research and/or practice in sport was performed by first identifying frameworks by searching electronic databases, then doing a content analysis to identify specific team processes that were explicitly reported or could be implicitly inferred based on the literature, conducting a second level of analysis to extract broader team processes, followed by a third level of analysis to identify general themes, and finally comparing specific team processes, broader team processes, and general themes. To address the second aim, a constructivist grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2006) was used to collect data from 19 high performance curling teams (N = 78 athletes and N = 10 coaches). Of these, seven were men’s teams, 12 were women’s teams, and the 10 coaches were men. Overall, data collection and analysis involved eight steps: (a) conducting interviews (face-to-face focus group interviews with teams of athletes and individual telephone interviews with coaches), (b) transcribing the data (c) reflecting and writing memos, (d) coding the data, (e) performing multiple coder checks, (f) verifying and re-coding the data, (g) developing the grounded theory model, and (h) verifying the model. Results. As indicated in Article 1, seven frameworks used to guide research and/or practice in sport were identified. Three frameworks were borrowed from general psychology while the other four stemmed from the sport psychology literature. On average, the frameworks targeted five general themes (e.g., roles/norms, personal characteristics), six broader team processes (e.g., establish roles, identify team characteristics,) and the outcome of cohesion. The general theme pertaining to roles/norms was the most prevalent one as it was addressed in six out of the seven frameworks. One of the least prevalent general themes related to goals; it was only discussed in two of the seven frameworks. Results show that all of the frameworks were developed using a deductive approach. Article 2 shows that developing and maintaining optimal team functioning in high performance curling is a dynamic process involving numerous factors that influence each other. The Optimal Team Functioning (OTF) model was inductively created to outline key attributes (N=4) and processes (N=17) deemed necessary by high performance curling coaches and athletes for optimal functioning within different contexts. The model comprises eight components under which attributes and processes are grouped: (a) Individual Attributes, (b) Team Attributes, (c) Foundational Process of Communication, (d) Structural Team Processes, (e) Individual Regulation Processes, (f) Team Regulation Processes, (g) Context, and (h) Desired Outcomes. The OTF model is unique because it is comprehensive, sport-specific, inductively derived, and applicable with a strong focus on actions. As seen in Article 3, coaches and athletes reported using many strategies to develop and sustain optimal team functioning. A total of 155 strategies were linked to the eight aforementioned components of the OTF model, which can be targeted when working with teams. Both individual (e.g., journal, apologize for mistakes, do self-assessments) and team strategies (e.g., establish a decision-making process, establish a support team, discuss leadership behaviours) were identified, some of which served multiple purposes (e.g., create a player contract). Unique to the present study was the importance of individual regulation strategies, suggesting that team building interventions should focus on both the team itself and individual members. Communication was involved in most of the strategies, thus methods aimed at enhancing communication within teams should be prioritized. Finally, Article 4 demonstrates that coaches played five major roles in optimizing team functioning: technical/tactical specialist, mediator, facilitator, manager, and motivator. Both coaches and athletes saw value in each of these roles, however, they did not necessarily perceive the importance and characteristics of these roles the same way. Perceptions were dependent on athletes’ needs as well as both coaches and athletes’ personal characteristics and competencies. In order for coaches to effectively help teams optimize functioning and achieve desired outcomes, specific training should be provided as both coaches and athletes reported that skills and attributes to successfully perform roles were sometimes lacking.

With constant technological advancements, the attacks against existing infrastructure is constantly increasing and causing more damage. The current Red and Blue team approach to cybersecurity assessments is used to test the effectiveness of security defenses and in identifying vulnerabilities before they are exploited. Due to a lack of collaboration and inherently contradicting natures of these teams, the credibility of audits is impacted. While this has led to the synergistic and collaborative Purple team, it is important to understand how cybersecurity professionals perceive this new concept and its function. Analyzing perceptions of self-reported cybersecurity professionals via an online survey showed most believed Purple teams were beneficial and should be created from and collaborate with Red and Blue teams. However, past Red team experience was negatively linked to perceived benefit. Those who had more years of experience or had been on Red teams were more likely to believe Purple teams may have ownership or learning issues. Furthermore, professionals identified active managerial involvement and project clarity as critical success factors for Purple teams. Alongside these, management could help find the right skillset, provide resources, and offer active direction in order to avoid issues and maximize outcomes. Based on assessment relevance, a collaborative agreed-upon methodology for Red, Blue, and Purple teams was provided.

In my thesis I deal with teamwork in a construction company, focusing on team communication. In selected company I will try to correctly reveal the communication problems and propose a solution.

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