Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Team Theory'

Research suggested that multicultural team performance is influenced by several variables, but research on the topic has produced conflictive results. It has been suggested that bicultural individuals, due to their dual cultural schemas, can be very competent in mediating the effectiveness of bicultural teams through the use of boundary spanning and conflict perception competencies. Many studies on the topic of multicultural team effectiveness have been performed with college students or under simulated environments, which limits the generalizability of the. To address this research gap, this study provided empirical evidence on the effectiveness of multicultural teams in a real working scenario. A set of validated questionnaires previously published in peer review journals were used to survey 337 bicultural individuals that have been part of a multicultural team for more than one year. The individuals were surveyed on their experience using boundary spanning and conflict perception bicultural competencies and on their rating of the multicultural team effectiveness. Multiple regression analysis indicates that both boundary spanning and conflict perception bicultural competencies have a significant effect on the effectiveness of multicultural teams. Perception of conflict shows the most significant predictive relationship, with immediate conflict resolution, emotional conflict and disagreements on who should do what the most strongly related items to the effectiveness of multicultural teams.

The purpose of this qualitative, multi-case study was to explain Tuckman’s attributes within software development when using a collocated software designed methodology in a non-collocated setting. Agile is a software development methodology that is intended for use in a collocated setting; however, organizations are using it in a non-collocated setting, which is increasing the software errors in the final software product. The New Agile Process for Distributed Projects (NAPDiP) was developed to fix these software errors that arise when using Agile in a non-collocated setting but have not been effective. This research utilized Tuckman's team theory to explore the disparity related to why these errors still occur. The research question asked is how software development programmers explain Tuckman's attributes (i.e., forming, storming, norming, performing) on software development projects. The study adopted a qualitative model using nomothetic major and minor themes in the exploration of shared expressions of sentiments from participants. The study’s population came from seven participants located in the United States and India who met the requirement of using the Agile development methodology and work for organizations on teams with a size of at least thirty individuals from various organizations. A total of seven participants reached saturation in this multi-case study supporting the research question explored. The findings of the research demonstrated that development teams do not meet all stages and attributes of Tuckman’s team development. Future research should explore additional ways that software development teams satisfy a more significant number of Tuckman’s team development stages.

Organizational success and outcomes rely on good teamwork. The study question asked if teams can be more successful with a greater number of socially skilled team members? Evolving research indicates composing teams based on intrinsic social skills, such as personality, values, and psychological roles may generate greater team outcomes than teams based solely on vocational roles, competencies, and cognitive ability. When teams are first formed, people connect instinctively and warm to other team members using their social skills. Only later do people appraise others for competencies and skills. This study examined whether the number of strong emotive connectors (SEC) can increase team outcomes. The study hypothesis tested whether teams with a greater number of high SECs, a socioemotional role construct, would increase their team task-completion rates (TTCR). Regression analysis showed the low and high SEC with an adjusted R² = .52 correlation were both predictive of the TTCR. Additional analysis using 2 one-way ANOVAs for high and low SECs showed between-team (groups) and within teams (groups) results were statistically significant at the p = .00 level. The study found teams having 2 of 5 high SECs made a difference in team performance. Additional high SECs had no impact on team performance. An interesting study result found 2 of 5 low SECs had an adverse impact on team performance. Additional low SECs did not harm team performance. Ensuring at least 2 of 5 high SECs on teams can lessen gaps, diminish conflicts, and elevate team outcomes.

One challenge facing organizations using virtual teams is the inability to detect, identify, select, and develop emergent leaders working in the virtual team environment, which might increase the organizational risk of a shortage in leadership resources. The purpose of the qualitative, grounded theory research study was to define a theory about the emergent leader detection and identification process in a virtual team environment, using data systematically obtained and analyzed through the constant comparative method. Twenty-four virtual team members, virtual team leaders, and virtual team managers participated in semi-structured telephone interviews. The data analysis produced 74 themes and subthemes to provide a deeper understanding of the phenomena. Five common themes emerged to group 69 subthemes: responsibility, characteristics, constraints, facilitation, and outcomes. The theory provided information about the individuals responsible for the detection and identification of emergent leaders in a virtual team environment, characteristics useful to help detect and identify emergent leaders, areas of constraint in identification, areas facilitating identification, and risks and opportunities resulting from the organizational ability or inability to detect emergent leaders in a virtual team environment. Future research could provide support for the findings of this study by replicating the study using traditional teams, larger teams, or teams with more diverse backgrounds and compositions.

Historically, leadership research has concentrated on the charismatic and sometimes mythical qualities of a single, heroic leader. In a knowledge-oriented economy, theories of individual leaders are incomplete because they fail to capture the social nature of complex organizations. A distributed perspective of leadership frames leadership in terms of dynamic patterns of social interaction between people and aspects of their situation and considers the context or structure as important as the human agency.

This qualitative single case study, which involved a self-managed team of professionals in a mid-sized global financial services company, explored leadership as a social process in response to goals of organizational effectiveness and corporate organizational change over time. Specifically, this study described how leadership actions were enacted within the context of emerging social structuring, which enhances the understanding of leadership theory and moves us closer to being able to practically utilize a distributed perspective of leadership. Data were collected through observations, interviews, and document review.

The findings of strategic alignment with organizational goals and the utilization of advanced technology emerged as external conditions for leadership practice. The nature of interactions within the team was influenced by a combination of five distinct but interdependent elements: shared interest, routines, participation norms, language, and authority structures. The study shows the fluid nature of distributed leadership and the reciprocal dynamics of interactions that coevolve and change over time to best fit with specific circumstances.

The findings support three conclusions: (1) the role of context as an essential aspect of leadership practice; (2) the relational dynamics of social structuring and the influence of three fundamental elements of social interaction—meaning, power, and norms—on leadership action; and (3) the strengthening and sustaining ability of the norm of reciprocity on the dynamic interaction among team members. This study is important because it will help organizations better understand, identify, and apply the principles of a distributed perspective of leadership to future situations and will increase the credibility and viability of collective leadership theories.

The purpose of this mixed method study was to increase understanding of the essential elements that accelerate or decelerate global hybrid team effectiveness, building upon knowledge to date in this area. By starting with the qualitative phase and then moving into the quantitative phase, the study attempted to identify essential elements of global team effectiveness in a case study situation with global hybrid teams from a single organization. This was done by interviewing members from six teams; then gauging team effectiveness through use of an already validated and reliable survey; and, finally, testing key themes that emerged with a survey developed by the researcher to further validate global team effectiveness accelerators and decelerators. The study utilizes the McKinsey 7-S Model as part of its framework for capturing and analyzing data. Pulling together findings from the qualitative and quantitative phases, the study proposes that a global hybrid team may be the best choice for an organization to utilize when the following conditions exist: (a) the team has been tasked with a major deliverable which is critical to the future success of the organization and (b) the team will exist for a longer period of time, approximately 18 months to three years. The study also proposes a model for accelerating global hybrid team effectiveness through the use of Global Working behaviors. This study proposes that a new set of behaviors, Global Working behaviors, must be understood, utilized, and developed in global hybrid teams in order to accelerate effective team functioning. Global Working, while firmly rooted in cross-cultural understanding, moves beyond a focus on developing cross-cultural understanding skills into a more mature and widespread realm of behaviors, named in this study as Global Working behaviors. These behaviors are not simply exhibited by team members, but may fall to the team leader, the senior leadership team, or the functional manager in order to fully support global team effectiveness. The findings from this research indicate that organizations utilizing global hybrid teams must take care to accelerate effective team functioning by either minimizing or eliminating decelerators of global team effectiveness or accelerating global team effectiveness.