Assessing Critical Success Factors for Effective Virtual Teams Applied study on IT Service Operation Offshore Centers /
Mohamed Abdelfattah Sabry Abdelmoulla
- 2020
- 124 p. ill. 21 cm.
Supervisor: Mohamed Awny
Project (M.A.)—Nile University, Egypt, 2020 .
"Includes bibliographical references"
Contents: CHAPTER 1 .............................................................................................................................. 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background of the Study ................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Basic Definitions ............................................................................................................. 4 1.2.1 Virtual Teams ........................................................................................................... 4 1.2.2 Outsourcing .............................................................................................................. 4 1.2.3 Offshoring ................................................................................................................ 4 1.2.4 Team Effectiveness .................................................................................................. 4 1.2.5 Critical Success Factors ........................................................................................... 5 1.2.6 IT Service Operations............................................................................................... 5 1.3 Structure of the Study ...................................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER 2 .............................................................................................................................. 7 CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR EFFECTIVE VIRTUAL TEAMS ........................... 7 2.1 Overview ......................................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Virtual Teams (origin, definition, characteristics, types and complexity) ...................... 7 2.2.1 Definition of Virtual Teams ..................................................................................... 8 2.2.2 Types of Virtual Teams ............................................................................................ 9 2.2.3 Virtual Teams Complexity ..................................................................................... 12 2.3 The Benefits of Virtual teams ....................................................................................... 14 2.4 Challenges of Virtual teams .......................................................................................... 15 2.5 Critical Success Factors for Virtual Teams ................................................................... 16 2.5.1 Team Formation, Structure and Competences Factors .......................................... 16 2.5.2 Organizational Processes and Polices Factors ....................................................... 18 2.5.3 Workplace Factors.................................................................................................. 19 2.5.4 Management and Leadership Factors ..................................................................... 24 2.5.5 Training and Talent Development Factors ............................................................. 25 2.5.6 Electronic Communication and Collaboration Technologies and Tools ............... 26 2.6 Measuring Virtual Teams Effectiveness ....................................................................... 28 CHAPTER 3 ............................................................................................................................ 29 PROBLEM STATEMENT, RESEARCH OBJECTIVES & RESEARCH METHOD .......... 29 3.1 Overview ....................................................................................................................... 29 viii 3.2 Problem Statement ........................................................................................................ 29 3.3 Objectives of the Study ................................................................................................. 29 3.4 Significance of the Study .............................................................................................. 30 3.5 Research Method ........................................................................................................... 31 CHAPTER 4 ............................................................................................................................ 32 A MODEL FOR EFFICTIVE VIRTUAL TEAMS ................................................................ 32 4.1 Overview ....................................................................................................................... 32 4.2 Proposed Model for Effective Virtual Teams ............................................................... 32 4.3 Definition of Model’s Variables ................................................................................... 34 4.3.1 Dependent Variable ................................................................................................ 34 4.3.2 Independent Variables ............................................................................................ 35 4.3.3 Moderating Variable .............................................................................................. 36 4.4 Research Hypotheses..................................................................................................... 37 4.5 Questionnaire Design .................................................................................................... 37 4.6 Statistical Data Analysis Techniques ............................................................................ 44 CHAPTER 5 ............................................................................................................................ 45 STATISTICAL DATA ANALYSIS ....................................................................................... 45 5.1 Overview ....................................................................................................................... 45 5.2 Descriptive Data Analysis ............................................................................................. 45 5.2.1 Analysis according to Virtual Teams’ Characteristics ........................................... 46 5.2.2 Analysis according to Virtual Teams’ Complexity Index ...................................... 48 5.2.3 Analysis according to Mean, Standard Deviations and Coefficient of Variance (CV) ................................................................................................................................ 52 5.3 Reliability Test of the Assessment Instrument (Cronbach's Alpha) ............................. 54 5.4 Test of Normality .......................................................................................................... 56 5.5 Inferential Data Analysis ............................................................................................... 57 5.5.1 Correlation Analysis ............................................................................................... 57 5.5.2 Regression Analysis ............................................................................................... 60 5.5.3 Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA) ........................................................................... 63 5.6 Hypothesis Testing ........................................................................................................ 66 CHAPTER 6 ............................................................................................................................ 69 DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS................................................................................................ 69 6.1 Overview ....................................................................................................................... 69 6.2 Discussion of Findings .................................................................................................. 69 6.2.1 The Significance of Success Factors and Related Identified Pitfalls ..................... 69 6.2.2 The Impact of Virtual Teams Complexity ............................................................. 75 CHAPTER 7 ............................................................................................................................ 77 ix RECOMMENDATIONS, CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH WORK ............... 77 7.1 Overview ....................................................................................................................... 77 7.2 Recommendations of the Study .................................................................................... 77 7.3 Roadmap for Building Effective Virtual Teams ........................................................... 79 7.4 Limitations of the Study ................................................................................................ 81 7.5 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 82 7.6 Future Research Work ................................................................................................... 83 REFERENCES .........
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to identify then assess the significance of critical success factors that are contributing in building and operating global multi-cultural virtual teams. Based on the performed assessment, several key findings and set of recommendations will be provided to aid organizations adopting virtual teams to effectively build, run and maintain these teams, and develop the needed processes and procedures to support achieving their goals. Additionally, the study explores the level of virtuality and examines the impact of its complexity on team performance and members’ satisfaction as measures of team effectiveness. The complexity level of the virtual team is calculated as sum of various characteristics like cultural diversity, native languages differences, geographical dispersion, time overlap between members and managers, frequency of face – to – face interactions, equality of accessing communication and collaboration tools, and the existence of external team members from other functions or organizations. The study was conducted on virtual teams working for multinational Cloud IT services organization that has offshore center in Egypt and some other locations in Europe and India. In an effort to determine the most significant factors that are positively correlated to team effectiveness, a questionnaire instrument was distributed and responses were collected from participating virtual teams’ members , leaders and managers. The inferential statistical analysis performed on the collected data revealed that all identified success factors that were proposed in the study’s model have positive statistical association to the effectiveness of participating teams , but the impact and strength of this association varies form factor to factor. The results indicated that the following factors have the highest correlation and impact on team performance and satisfaction as measures of team effectiveness: trust, collaboration, communication, team building, leadership style and behavior as well as leaders and individuals’ competences required for working virtually. Additionally, participants’ responses highlighted the importance of knowledge management and knowledge sharing as crucial factors toward developing talents and building virtual teams capabilities. Factors identified, proposed and assessed in this study clearly constitute a comprehensive set of best practices to be used when designing and supporting effective virtual teams.