A competency model for dispersed military team and role of competencies on work engagement and career competencies

Human assets are important resources available to any organization, being essential for performance. Therefore, the demand for effective workforce, who are competent, engaged, and proactive, increases in nonmilitary and military organizations. This thesis focuses on leadership competencies required to command a dispersed military team (DMT) and role of leadership competencies on work engagement and career competencies. We conducted two studies. In the first study, we developed a DMT competency model, consisting of ten core, five leadership and five membership competencies. In the second study, we investigated the role of competencies on work engagement and on career competencies by using Job Demands-Resources model and career competencies model as theoretical framework. We focused on leadership competencies defined in our prior study. Firstly, we investigated the relationship between these competencies, and work charactersitics - job demands and resources - and work engagement. Secondly, we investigated the effect of leadership competencies on career competencies. Results showed that competencies displayed a significant positive relationship with role clarity, positive relationship with possibilities for development and negative relationship with social support; a negative relationship with role conflict and work overload; and a significant positive relationship with work engagement, in addition, role clarity mediated the relationship between competencies and work engagement. Regarding the role of competencies on career competencies, we observerved a significant positive relationship between competencies and career competencies. Overall, our results indicated that mastering on competencies affects the perception of work conditions, contributes for higher levels of engagement through perception of role clarity and leads to development of career competencies.O capital humano constitui um recurso muito importante disponível para qualquer organização, sendo fundamental para o seu desempenho. Por este motivo, a necessidade de uma força de trabalho eficaz, competente, envolvida e proactiva, tem aumentado em organizações não militares e militares. Esta tese foca as competências de liderança necessárias para comandar uma equipa militar dispersa (EMD) e o papel das competências de liderança no engagement no trabalho e competências de carreira. Nesse sentido foram realizados dois estudos. No primeiro estudo, desenvolvemos um modelo de competências EMD, constituído por dez competências principais, 5 de liderança e 5 de pertença a equipas. No segundo estudo, investigámos o papel das competências no engagement no trabalho e nas competências de carreira utilizando o modelo das Exigências-Recursos e o modelo das Competências de Carreira como enquadramento teórico. Neste estudo considerámos as competências de liderança definidas no primeiro estudo e investigámos a relação entre estas competências e as características do trabalho – exigências e recursos- e o engagement no trabalho. Posteriormente investigámos a relação entre as competências de liderança e as competências de carreira. Os resultados obtidos revelam que as competências apresentam: uma relação positiva significativa com a clareza de papel, possibilidades de desenvolvimento e uma relação negativa com o apoio social; uma relação negativa com o conflito no papel e a sobrecarga de trabalho; e uma relação positiva significativa com o engagement no trabalho, além disso, a clareza do papel revelou ser mediadora da relação entre as competências e o engagement no trabalho. Em relação ao papel das competências nas competências de carreira, verificámos uma relação positiva significativa entre as mesmas. Globalmente, os nossos resultados sugerem que o domínio das competências afeta a perceção das condições de trabalho, contribui para maiores níveis de engagement pela sua influência na clareza de papel, e contribui para o desenvolvimento de competências de carreira

The impact of cultural differences in temporal perception on global software development teams

This dissertation investigated the impact of cultural differences in temporal perception on globally dispersed software development teams. Literature and anecdotal evidence suggest that these temporal differences affect individual communication quality, which in turn will affect individual satisfaction and trust within global teams. Additionally, the temporal dispersion of the team was expected to affect an individual\u27s sense of temporal disruption which, in turn, was expected to affect individual satisfaction and trust. Differences in temporal perception were expected to moderate this impact on perceived temporal disruption. A Fortune 100 Company that carried out software testing in Ireland, the United States, China and India provided the respondent population which resulted in all testing teams having global membership. The research used two methods for data collection: survey and interviews. The survey instrument\u27s constructs were developed via pilot tests conducted on student software development teams and through a card sorting task. Four temporal perception constructs were used: Future Orientation, Lateness Attitude, Temporal Rigidity and Temporal Urgency. Team members answered the temporal perception questions twice; once for how they felt their remote team members would answer the questions and once for how they felt their local team members would answer the questions. A gap analysis was performed on this data yielding temporal perception difference scores. A Gap Magnitude that looked at the size of the gaps was also calculated to provide measures of the size of the cultural differences. Semi-structured interviews were carried out on fifteen percent of the respondent population to explore the temporal perception differences in more detail. Survey results only partially supported the hypotheses that cultural differences in temporal perceptions affect Individual Communication Quality. Specifically, it was found that group differences in the temporal perceptions of Sense of Urgency and Lateness Attitude significantly impacted Individual Communication Quality. Sense of Urgency also impacted Individual Trust. Follow-up interviews suggested that differences were recognized, but other factors such as an orientation to a future benefit by working hard now, the prestige of working with people in the Company\u27s home country and possibly a sense of being a professional, may have outweighed the examined temporal differences. It also was found that Temporal Distance affected an individual\u27s Temporal Disruption, that Individual Communication Quality affected Individual Trust, and Individual Satisfaction. Gap Magnitude helped identify areas of potential problems that corresponded to areas identified by management, and mentioned by the employees in their interviews. Overall, the research suggests that certain Temporal Perceptions affect Individual Communication Quality, which in turn affects Trust and Individual Satisfaction. Communication, itself, seemed to be a large cause of problems, in part, because of the language differences, in part, because of the need to convey complex problems requiring detailed solutions, and, in part, because of the extreme temporal disruptions that time zone differences caused in a global team members working life