Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Oct. 22, 2007). Directed by Prashant C. Palvia; submitted to the School of Business and Economics. Includes bibliographical references (p. 192-214).

Organisations worldwide are attempting to increase individual job satisfaction, productivity and efficiency by implementing work teams. This research study evaluates the interventions considered necessary to optimally implement and maintain self-directed work teams (SDWTs). In order to complete this study it was necessary to address the characteristics associated with SDWTs, problems commonly experienced during implementation and functioning of SDWTs and the identification of the interventions used to promote the successful implementation and maintenance of SDWTs. These objectives were achieved by means of a comprehensive literature study. Subsequent to the literature study, a process model for the successful implementation and maintenance of a SDWT within a South African organization was developed. Thereafter, a questionnaire was developed based on the findings of the literature study and distributed to a randomly selected population. The objective of the questionnaire was to evaluate the interventions utilized during the implementation and maintenance of SDWTs. The results of the empirical study were statistically analysed and interpreted. Finally, conclusions and recommendations were made. The most important recommendations are as follows: Firstly, the trade union must be consulted and involved in the decision to implement SDWTs. Members of the team must be exposed to training interventions prior to the implementation of the SDWT. Thereafter, team members must undergo advanced training in interpersonal and problemsolving skills. Salary and reward structures within the organisation must be adapted to suit a teambased environment. Finally, the success of the SDWT will depend on the support provided by management. Management needs to exhibit total commitment to the change on a continuous basis.

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

D.Ing. / An integrated project team strategy (IPTS) does not start with a detailed list of performance measures, but with the appropriate mindset of what is in the interest of the project. The purpose of IPTS is to unite the core project participants (the 20% of project participants responsible for 80% of the impact on the project success) with a common goal, so that they focus on what is in the interest of the project and not on their company’s interest or local optimisation. Like a tripod, Integrated Project Team Strategies (IPTS) is based on three core principles - a common project incentive scheme, well-defined project success criteria and project control systems and procedures that focus on the project’s needs and do not entice local optimisation. The first leg of IPTS is that all the core project participants share in a common project incentive scheme, therefore their actions are focussed on the same target because it determines the size of their bonuses and incentives. Project success criteria are the second leg and represents the common project target. However, determining priorities in a project strategy is regularly done incorrectly with negative impact, therefore the project success and failure criteria must be well defined for all three areas namely project management, product and relationship success. This is essential for measuring the project success because it forms the basis for reporting progress the project wellbeing during the implementation phase as well as the “successful” outcome at project closure Traditional project control systems and metrics, which were used to measure the progress of the project, tend to measure progress in isolation because they do not consider the overall need of the project. Local optimisation in terms of for instance tons steel erected per hour occurs because that is how managers on the project are assessed, however, that is not in the interest of the project. Although conventional project strategies do not exclude integrated team performance evaluation, all their systems and procedures are based on the performance of a single project participant or division of a participant, thereby creating the ideal breeding ground for local optimization and moves the focus away from the overall project. When looking at some of the latest business publications like that of Eliyahu M. Goldratt (“The Goal”, “It is not luck” and the “Critical Chain”[9]) it is clear that IPTS biggest advantage is to eliminate local optimization encouraged by the more conventional project controls strategies. Because the way people are measured has such a big impact on their behaviour, project control systems and metrics are the third leg of the IPTS tripod. For these reasons, IPTS is a completely new game, which relies on deep commitment to provide a broad flexible framework for doing whatever is required in the current context to ensure project success. It is not about what happened since the deal was struck, nor who is actually responsible for it, but about the success of the project because all participants will reap the benefits of a successful project. In a sense, the demand emphasis for IPTS is shifting from a purely financial to a more strategic approach. In so doing, it is prompting more and more clients and managers into systematic re-examinations of their business models’ structures, efficiency and effectiveness for factors such as local optimization. Often stereotypically conservative and with a cultural bias for control, most clients and service providers in the South African mining and mineral commodity industry have been late and reluctant to let go of their control and associated local optimisation. However, the array of challenges confronting the industry makes control for control’s sake a costly indulgence, which cannot be afforded any longer Not only does IPTS have the ability to change lose-lose relationships to win-win relationships, but most importantly it has the ability to unite all the core project participants in a single integrated project team focusing on the same goals. A number of typical IPTS cases have been developed as part of the research and are included in this thesis as guidelines for the implementation of the research results. These cases were also evaluated practically by testing it during interviews with industry practitioners.

Magister Commercii - MCom / The use of one form or another of team based work organization (TBWO) management policies and practices by firms with the aim of improving organizational performance and employee morale is well documented in popular literature. Empirical research has however found that the implementation of TBWO management policies and practices such as TB training, TB incentive schemes, participation in decision making, work teams etc. had minimal influence on the performance of firms (Locke and Schweiger, 1979). This research investigated the factors, which account for the effective implementation of TBWO management policies and practices with specific emphasis on three firms in the metal fabrications sector. The reason behind the choice of the three firms in the metal fabrication sector in the Western Cape was that these sites offered a rare opportunity to study the process of the implementation of TBWO. It was a rare opportunity because not many firms have embarked on implementing TBWO in South Africa. It was envisaged that the lessons that emerged from this study would be invaluable for firms that intended implementing workplace change. The level of analysis was the shop floor level at the firms as research has shown that this is the level that plays a critical role in the effectiveness of the TB management policies and practices implemented by the firms. / South Africa

Co-located group information management (GIM) is a form of groupware with the aim of enabling users to collaboratively find, store, maintain, organise and share personal and/or group information in support of a group activity. Existing systems aimed at partially supporting GIM activities have been implemented on single user devices. These systems make use of asynchronous communication that may hinder collaboration by misinterpretation, information leaks, etc. Few systems exist, with limited functionality, that support co-located GIM. Multi-touch tabletop interaction has given rise to a new approach for supporting Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). Multi-touch tabletops allow multiple users to naturally interact with a computer device using a shared display and gesture interaction. The tabletop environment also enables users to sit in a natural environment and synchronously communicate without bulky desktops or laptops. Multi-touch tabletops provide the hardware necessary to support co-located GIM. Existing multi-touch interaction techniques were analysed and proved insufficient to support the advanced functional requirements of GIM. The goal of this research was therefore to support co-located GIM by designing new multi-touch tabletop interaction techniques. An architecture was proposed to support co-located GIM with new multi-touch interaction techniques. A software prototype was developed based on the proposed architecture to facilitate the main activities of GIM and to collaboratively compile documents. The prototype was named CollaGIM (Colla – collaborative, GIM – group information management). CollaGIM supports the main activities of GIM using natural gesture interaction on a multi-touch tabletop. An evaluation of the software was conducted by means of a user study where 15 teams of two people participated. High task success rates and user satisfaction results were achieved, which showed that CollaGIM was capable of supporting co-located GIM using the new multi-touch tabletop interaction techniques. CollaGIM also positively supported collaboration between users.

The present study examined the perceptions of teams and managers on team potency levels as a function of stage of team development. Drawing from the power and influence literature, potency was established as a means by which to assess team's internal dynamics. Stage of team development was separated into four categories including pseudo, potential, real and high performance teams. Archival data included 45 teams and managers gathered from the manufacturing and service industries. Results indicated a significant linear relationship between team perceptions of team potency and stage of team development. Additionally, potency perceptions of teams significantly differentiated between the four stages of team development. Manager perceptions of team potency produced non-significant results. Possible explanations of the results as well as implications for practice and future research are provided.

Previous research has demonstrated that customer orientation has a positive effect on business outcomes. Although scholars have provided different explanations for such a relationship, there is still a lack of clear understanding of what leads to such a relationship. In addition, there are only a few studies discussing the boundary conditions of customer orientation- business performance linkage. Drawing on the organizational information processing theory, I propose that inter-functional coordination mediates the relationship between customer orientation and success in marketing new products. A randomly sample of 97 new product development projects across 6 Sino-overseas joint ventures involving 150 car models in the China automobile industry was used to test my hypotheses. The results support my proposed mediating hypothesis. In addition, I demonstrate that the relationship between customer orientation and inter-functional coordination is further strengthened when a new product development strategy is local-oriented rather than when it is import-oriented because of the level of modification affecting the level of staff participation. Furthermore, compared with longer shared team tenure teams, it was found that teams of shorter tenure inter-functional coordination are more likely to trigger success in marketing new product relationship. On the basis of these findings, I discuss their implications for practice and future research.

This dissertation identifies and theorizes a new form by which leaders exert their influence over subordinates: hierarchical-decentralization. To further investigate hierarchical-decentralization and its effects on team outcomes, we develop two research themes which include three independent studies. The first research theme focuses on how hierarchical-decentralization influences team processes and team performance. We conduct an experimental study (Study 1-1) and a field study (Study 1-2) on this research theme. In Study 1-1 (detailed in Chapter 2), we conceptualize hierarchical-decentralization, examine the relationship between hierarchical-decentralization and team performance, and test whether and why hierarchical-decentralization produces higher team performance than either centralization or decentralization. Through an experimental study, we found that hierarchical-decentralization was positively related to team performance, and that hierarchical-decentralization outperformed either centralization or decentralization in steering team performance. Following Study 1-1, we conduct Study 1-2 (described in Chapter 3), which aims to further explore the underlying mechanism that produces the positive effect of hierarchical-decentralization on team performance, and to identify the conditions under which the benefit of hierarchical-decentralization tends to become more noticeable. Through a field study, we found that team coordination mediated the relationship between hierarchical-decentralization and team performance. We further found that inter-team competitive intensity strengthened the positive relationship between hierarchical-decentralization and team coordination, as well as the positive indirect relationship between hierarchical-decentralization and team performance via team coordination. The second research theme focuses on the application of influence structure of hierarchical-decentralization to the research on leader-member exchange (LMX) differentiation. We conduct a field study (Study 2) on this research theme. Specifically, in Study 2 (detailed in Chapter 4), we investigate whether and why the vertical chain of influence among team members (we follow the research conducted by Burderson et al (2016) and refer it to acyclicity) would offset the detrimental effect of LMX differentiation on social relations among team members and ultimately on team performance. Through a field study covering 89 diverse working teams, we found that LMX differentiation became to be not significantly related to status conflict when a team had a high level of acyclicity and meanwhile when its team members' LMX statuses were in line with their influence levels within acyclicity. Although this relationship is not statistically significant, the negative relationship between LMX differentiation and status conflict somewhat suggests that acyclicity, when all of the most influential members within it are of the highest relationship qualities with leaders, might have the potential to turn the detrimental effect of LMX differentiation on social interactions among team members into a beneficial effect (i.e., one that reduces status conflict among team members). We further found that status conflict was negatively related to team performance, and that it mediated the relationship between LMX differentiation and team performance. The theoretical and practical implications of the two research themes are then discussed.

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Community Psychology in the Department of Psychology, University of Zululand, 2001. / Health institutions are faced with a major task of promoting health, preventing and treating different kinds of illnesses in complex contexts. The large numbers of patients demand a high degree of team building and teamwork if these institutions are to be effective and efficient in service delivery. The present study seeks to develop a team building program which will assist in promoting teamwork. An hypothesis was formulated to investigate if a team building program would make any significant change with regard to health service delivery in a psychiatric context as perceived by staff and patients. A total number of 185 participants took part in the study. The population comprised 97 females and 88 males. There were 59 English, 7 Afrikaans and 119 Zulu speakers. Both staff and patients were offered questions relating to team functioning. The staff participants were further given questions relating to the manner in which teams are built. The team building program was informed by the ideas obtained from the responses as well as from literature. The team building program was then offered to the staff members. A statistical analysis of the results was undertaken and the results showed that the program was significantly effective in promoting teamwork as evaluated by staff and patients. / Human Sciences Research Council