Due to the progress in information and communication technologies, virtual teams have been widespread developed and adopted. People in different time zones and long-distance places can accomplish the same mission together with the help of virtual tools. It thus forces enterprises to review their structures and systems in their organization for accommodating to globalization economic. The concepts of accomplishing task via virtual team are spreads widely and rapidly in the business circle. It evoked many researches but most of these focused on the issues of communication among virtual team members or the computer-aided of forming groups, etc. There are few researches relative to virtual teams structure and their performances. In this study, we try to explore how the structure of virtual team influences their performances and discover whether the operational process affects the performances. The operational process in a virtual team will also be involved with knowledge management activities such as information gathering & dissemination and knowledge sharing. In this thesis, we explore the relationship among the virtual teams¡¦ structure, operational process, performances and knowledge sharing. The observation groups are 10 virtual teams from a class of Cyber University of NSYSU (http://cu.nsysu.edu.tw). Survey and content analysis research method were adopted to develop and analysis the datum collection and analysis. The finding of this study has proposed an integrated model, which was constructed by the concepts of virtual team¡¦s structure, team process, performances and knowledge sharing. This model may offer a concept as a reference for further research of virtual teams.

The aim of this diploma thesis is the introduction of teamwork and virtual teams. The theoretical part of this work describes the birth of teamwork, its definition, properties, advantages and disadvantages. Next part of diploma thesis is dedicated to the virtual team. It describes the difference among virtual and traditional team, definition and characteristics of virtual team as well as tools that are used in virtual team. The second, practical, unit is focused on virtual teams at universities in the Czech republic. The benefit of this work is the methodology of team work, which should help university virtual teams to easier collaboration, to work efficiently and to create the quality results of teamwork.

Organizations of all types are now able to operate in virtual capacities through time, space, and distance across multinational boundaries; therefore, geography no longer limits business functioning. In fact, many corporate executives and boards employ virtuality in their work regimen. Therefore, organizations employ virtual executives to work teams with ideal skill sets to effectively persevere and complete tasks through distance, space, and time. The purpose of this study was to identify and yet understand the experiences of executive multinational, virtual board members working as a team in a virtual environment. Through this research the virtual dynamics of the virtual team have been studied, prodded, purposely mismatched, and weaved together to understand the culture of the virtual environment in which the team members interact and perform duties. With this particular board, there has been a history of previous work experience or exposure in some capacity; however, it has no great impact on their interaction and work with the entire board. In this study, an exploratory look at the experiences, perceived team dynamics, and strategies used to successfully function as a virtual team are highlighted from a qualitative perspective. The purpose is to describe the individual perspectives of how a multinational executive virtual team best works. The findings of this study reveal that there are many ways to communicate utilizing technology, but the objective for this virtual team is to be multidimensional in use. That means that honest communication is necessary for the board to perform at their optimal level. Therefore, the theoretical framework is based on team performance as a teamwork process-based construct which depends on communication, relationship, and trust to add success for virtual teams The framework results in three step process for team flow and success i.e., the importance of face-to-face meetings; advantages of virtual teaming; and challenges of virtual teaming to result in virtual team performance dependent on the team having communication, relationship, and trust present.

The purpose of the present thesis is to apprise a reader of issues of tools for supporting team collaboration via web 2.0. These tools allow workmates to effectively collaborate from different geographical locations without the need for organizing time-consuming and often unproductive meetings. For example, such tools support teams in the way that ensures an access to shared documents for all project co-workers. A theoretical part of the thesis aims to introduce select definitions of terms which relates to this tools -- the terms collaboration and web 2.0, and furthermore to give reader an overview of existing tools for supporting team collaboration. A practical part of the thesis is aimed at description of one particular tool in the form of instruction manual which can be used by students in the homework process. The practical part also includes realization of research on student's experience with introduced tools. The research has a form of questionnaire. Finally author evaluates results of the research.

Title: Knowledge sharing and relational processes in global, virtual teams – A qualitative casestudy in a global organisation Level: Thesis for master’s degree in international business administration & management Authors: Sofia Martinsson Broström & Nathalie Skoglund Supervisor: Carina Holmgren Date: June 2, 2023 Aim: The aim of this study is to explore the opportunities and challenges in knowledge sharing in virtual global teams. Method: In this case study, a qualitative method has been applied using semi-structured interviews. The study is based on an abductive approach and has been analysed thematically. Results and conclusions: The results of the study show that feedback and inclusion are aspects that emerge as central, and that this is also where focus is needed. Recommendations based on this study are focused on relationship-building processes, where mainly inclusion and openness need to be lifted. Contribution: The theoretical contribution this study conveys is of a strengthening nature. This means that the results of the study do not clearly differ from previous research and that this study makes a strengthening contribution in relation to others research in the field. The practical contribution this study makes can help other organisations that do not have the same experience of the global, virtual work environment; and to see the case study as a guide, where many good aspects are lifted from previous research, and which are connected to the current case.

The majority of database system development projects end in failure. Reasons that include, the system not being developed on time, the system was developed over budget, and the system developed did not meet the planned project's criteria. These failures are compounded by the use of virtual teams which includes problems with team formation, the organizational environment in which the team operates, and the technology used for collaboration and communication. As more organizations use virtual teams, these problems have continued to impede the successful completion of database system development. The goal of the study was to determine what leadership type, transformational, transactional, or management-by-exception (passive-avoidant leadership) is most effective in leading a virtual team in developing a database management system. The target population for this study was Generation Y students at the Maine Business School who were assigned to virtual teams tasked with developing a database management system. Specifically this study answered these three research questions: 1) What is the effect of leadership type, as self-reported through the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire on the quality of completed team projects? 2) What is the impact of type of leadership on virtual team effectiveness as measured by the Virtual Teams Survey? 3) What is the joint effect of type of leadership, and virtual team effectiveness on the quality and uniqueness of the completed team project? Virtual team effectiveness was defined as the level of involvement in team formation, job characteristics, technical proficiency of team members, relationship between team members, teams process and attributes about the team leader, organizational environment in which the team operates, and technology the team used for collaboration and communication. The quality of the completed team project was defined as one that meets the team project criteria which included tables, relationships, forms, queries, and reports. Other attributes included the uniqueness of product defined by the addition of extra functions and controls added to the database system that go above and beyond the project criteria. The study found that for research question 1, only transformational and transactional leadership types had a significant and negative impact on the quality of completed team projects. Research question 2 found no significant correlation between leadership type and virtual team effectiveness. Research question 3 showed that none of the variables were significantly associated with the quality of the completed team project. These findings suggest that traditional concepts of leadership types do not work well in virtual environments.

This study investigates the effects of eight organizational support systems on virtual team effectiveness in five areas: communication, planning tasks and setting goals, solving problems and making decisions, resolving conflict, and responding to customer requirements. One hundred and eighty surveys were sent to information technology managers and collaborative team members, representing 43 companies. The results indicated that developing new roles for IT professionals and senior managers significantly increased virtual team effectiveness in several areas. The findings support the theory that organizations that utilize virtual teams must create high-level structures, policies, and systems to support the teams and the information tools they use.

This quantitative research study focuses on the capabilities of ICT tools used by virtualteams and seeks to find out what, if any, correlation between the ICT tools capabilitiesand challenges that virtual teams face exist. The study addresses four prominent virtualteam challenges: forming trust and relationships, information overload, communicationbreakdown, lack of team synergy and cohesion. It analyses ICT tools and establishhypothesis using MST theory and the existing research in this field. The data analysis isconducted using Spearman’s Rho correlation. The findings show that the correlationbetween ICT tools usage and the challenges that virtual teams face are not statisticallysignificant to establish a link between virtual team challenges and ICT tools usage. Thiscould mean that a significantly larger sample is required to establish the link betweenthese two variables. It could also mean that the virtual team challenges need to be reevaluatedas the collected data suggests that the discussed challenges are rarelyexperienced by virtual teams. Therefore, further studies are needed in order to establishthe correlation between the virtual team challenges and ICT tools usage.

Companies from across the globe move from traditional towards virtual organisations to be able to respond effectively to developments and changes in the global economy. As a consequence, the leadership of virtual teams will evolve as one of the major challenges future leaders will have to face. Hence, this triggers a growing demand in knowledge and understanding of virtual teams from both science and practice. So far, there is only basic research available on key elements of virtual teaming and limited literature on the leadership of virtual teams. With the increasing significance of a corporate culture in organisations, science will want to investigate its impact on virtual team leadership. Shedding light into this matter is hence this dissertation\'s main objective. After a thorough literature review and a pre-study, a leading EURO STOXX 50 company which has rolled out a global corporate culture in the past years was investigated using interviews with experienced virtual team leaders. Their experiences from before and after the introduction of a global corporate culture were assessed and analysed. Finally, focus groups were conducted to validate the results. In order to provide a holistic picture of the influence of a global corporate culture on the leaders of virtual teams, each empirical component follows a three phase sequence. First, it seeks to understand the environment of a virtual team leader, aiming specifically at investigating how the corporate culture shifts the behaviour of virtual team members. In the next phase, it focuses on how virtual leaders then react to the shift in team member behaviour. The last phase focuses on how the leaders are directly influenced by the global corporate culture themselves. The results of the study show that a common global corporate culture positively influences the collaboration of virtual team members and increases harmony between them. This leads to higher team performance. In response to this shift in team behaviour as well as due to the direct impact of the corporate culture, the leader himself switches gradually from a transactional towards a transformational leadership style, thereby again increasing the performance of the team. The results of the empirical research are channelled into a final product, namely detailed best practices for virtual team leaders on how to develop themselves and their team into effective virtual collaborators. This model uses corporate culture as a catalyst.

The thesis is focused on utilization of social networking sites as a tool for virtual team collaboration support. The first goal is to identify critical success factors of virtual teamwork, which are currently not supported by groupware tools, based on description of virtual team characteristics and processes. Identified critical success factors represent the basis for the completion of next goal, which is to describe aspects of social networking sites, which are able to support the identified critical success factors. That leads to the main goal of the thesis, which consists of two main parts. First part is the analysis of social networking sites aspects influence on virtual teamwork critical success factors. The second part is the practical solution of utilization of social networking sites for virtual teamwork support. Final solution includes all social networking sites implementation phases starting from choosing the product, implementation process and ending with setting of team processes and utilization principles. Social networking sites aspects description is based on current enterprise information systems trends and the final solution results from the analysis and synthesis of findings from both previous thesis parts. The main contribution of the thesis is the solution of social networking sites utilization inside the organization and providing of practical instructions for implementation of social networking sites in order to support virtual teamwork.