Virtual collaboration-the act of working together across boundaries of space, time, and organization, aided by technology-has become increasingly commonplace in recent years. Doing so, however, presents a number of challenges to those involved. One of these is that because of a lack of experience in collaborating through computer-based collaboration systems, there is little knowledge on how to carry out collaboration virtually. Another is that it is not easy for those not directly involved in the collaboration to know what is, and has been, 'going on' during virtual collaboration. This thesis suggests that both of these challenges can be addressed with the same approach, namely by referring to observations of virtual collaboration. The problem then is how such observations of virtual collaboration can be obtained without requiring those involved in it to document their own actions. To address this problem is the objective of this thesis. The approach proposed here involves three elements: firstly, the collection of data about virtual collaboration; secondly, the modeling of this data; and thirdly, the derivation of increasingly abstract, larger-scale representations of virtual collaboration from this data. These representations are termed patterns of virtual collaboration, which are abstract descriptions of activities of virtual collaboration. A multi-layered conceptual model of information, the Information Pyramid of Virtual Collaboration, is proposed, providing different views of information related to virtual collaboration, at different levels of abstraction. The thesis then suggests how from a given body of data, patterns of virtual collaboration at a corresponding level of the Information Pyramid can be extracted, and how from collections of such patterns more abstract patterns of larger-scale activity can be derived, providing the observations of virtual collaboration sought. In considering how the extraction of patterns of virtual collaboration fits into the larger context of the conception, design, and use of collaboration systems, a Framework for Pattern Extraction and Feedback is proposed. This framework introduces the notion of collaboration memory, a type of organizational memory that contains records of collaborative activity. Moreover, the framework suggests how extracted patterns of virtual collaboration feed back into both ongoing development and use of collaboration systems. Finally, the modeling and extraction of patterns of virtual collaboration is illustrated in a case study involving the LIVENET collaboration system.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Technology, Sydney, 2003. / Includes bibliography and listing of author's associated publications: leaves [257]-271.

Thesis (M.S.D.T.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Jun. 3, 2008). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2006. / "Master of Arts Instructional Design"--T.p. Title from PDF title page (viewed on Aug. 29, 2006). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As organisations expand internationally and continue to conduct business across different time zones and geographical boundaries, distributed project and organisational teams have become increasingly prevalent. Rather than meet face-to-face, developments in information and communication technology have made it possible for these team members to interact electronically thereby creating an alternative means for team member collaboration. Teams that collaborate in this manner are called virtual teams. This study explored effective leadership practice in virtual teams. The process of exploration started with discovering those core competencies considered essential to virtual team leadership. These competencies were then operationalised and tested for their respective contributions to effectiveness in virtual teams as measured by team performance and personal satisfaction. It was suggested and subsequently confirmed by the results of this study that as virtual team leaders begin to display essential leadership competencies, the virtual teams they lead become more effective. Four leadership competencies were identified as integral to effective leadership practice. These were: an ability to coordinate task delivery, an ability to communicate, an ability to build trust and an ability to manage multicultural diversity. In addition, it was determined that virtual team leaders tended to emphasise the more transactional forms of leadership over the more transformational forms with the strongest emphasis on task and communication as predictors of performance rather than satisfaction. In contrast, team members emphasised the more transformational forms of leadership with the strongest emphasis on trust and diversity management as predictors of satisfaction rather than performance. It was also apparent that for team members, task coordination was weakly correlated with performance. These differing results illustrate a distinction in leadership emphasis, which if misunderstood or incorrectly managed, could lead to conflict and low levels of team trust. For team leaders, a desire to perform and deliver against team objectives has an associated risk of inadvertently emphasising task at the expense of fostering healthy team relationships. By comparison, team members emphasise personal satisfaction over performance and are potentially at odds with a strongly taskorientated team leader. This does not mean that team members are disinterested in team performance. On the contrary, performance is important to team members but it would seem that performance follows as a result of first experiencing satisfaction as a virtual team participant.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Aug., 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Increasingly, knowledge-based tasks such as new product development and market research are being conducted by geographically dispersed teams. Early evidence from knowledge-based view of the firm and geographically dispersed work literatures suggests that at least four kinds of knowledge gaps---transactive memory system, mutual knowledge, categorization and situated knowledge---exist because of the (dispersed) structure of the knowledge management context . Dispersed members therefore cannot take for granted that they have a common context, making dispersed collaboration problematic. / The dissertation - a qualitative, theory-generating exercise - seeks to address the question, 'how do dispersed teams collaborate to create useful knowledge?' Specifically, the research question examines the integral elements of the knowledge creation process, the negotiation of knowledge gaps for co-creating a common context, and the association between the negotiation of these gaps with the efficiency of the knowledge creation process, effectiveness of new knowledge created, and cohesion in the team. This research has been conducted in two phases - an exploratory ethnographic study followed by a replication study. / Analysis of the data instead directed my attention to the critical role of moderating variables such as degree of familiarity among dispersed team members, degree of redundancy of knowledge structures among them and the nature of task on the perceived presence or absence of gaps. These findings clarify the literature by differentiating between the structure and the properties of the knowledge management context and therefore develop a more comprehensive model of these moderating variables that have the potential to affect the dispersed knowledge creation process. Specifically, the findings demonstrate that degree of redundancy is positively associated with the efficiency of the knowledge creation process. These studies also suggest that dispersed collaboration may be less different from collocated collaboration than previously thought. Finally, these studies contribute to the dispersed work literature by suggesting that all kinds of dispersed work are not alike and face-to-face meetings may not be necessary for all types of dispersed work. / These findings are used to develop a theory of dispersed knowledge work and have implications for determining whether and in what contexts geographic distance matters for conducting knowledge work. One implication is that perceptions of distance may be at least as important as the objective aspects of distance. Another implication is that whether geographic distance matters will actually depend upon the competitive strategy of the firm.

This dissertation examines the emergent understanding of the dynamics of Remote Employment in an organisation. It reflects on the workings of value adding employment where individual employees operate from home and away from the "office environment". In so doing, it hopes to raise within organisations new levels of awareness that will make this employment form meaningful and fruitful. Within the body of the dissertation, relevant theoretical constructs are outlined. These form the basis on which emergent understanding using Systems Thinking is discussed. These theoretical constructs are placed upon an underlying foundation that focuses upon Systems of Meaning and the influencing factors that both encourage relationships and best accommodate participant stakeholders. Meaningful relationships are explored from a cognitive perspective. Such an approach also serves as a proposition for sustaining all forms of employment relationships irrespective of the participants particular work locality. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.