Identity ambiguity and the promises and practices of hybrid e-HRM project teams

The role of IS project team identity work in the enactment of day-to-day relationships with their internal clients is under-researched. We address this gap by examining the identity work undertaken by an electronic human resource management (e-HRM) 'hybrid' project team engaged in an enterprise-wide IS implementation for their multi-national organisation. Utilising social identity theory, we identify three distinctive, interrelated dimensions of project team identity work (project team management, team 'value propositions' (promises) and the team's 'knowledge practice'). We reveal how dissonance between two perspectives of e-HRM project identity work (clients' expected norms of project team's service and project team's expected norms of themselves) results in identity ambiguity. Our research contributions are to identity studies in the IS project management, HR and hybrid literatures and to managerial practice by challenging the assumption that hybrid experts are the panacea for problems associated with IS projects

New Knowledge in Global Innovation Teams

In multinational enterprises (MNEs), global innovation teams are used increasingly to pool knowledge from different international subsidiaries. While it is fairly well described how subsidiaries fulfill product and know-how mandates, how parents and subsidiaries may/should interact and why team diversity is desirable from the corporate standpoint (i.e. to strengthen corporate culture), little is known about the possible innovation and technology knowledge-related benefits global innovation teams offer. In this paper, it is proposed that resources, customer knowledge, knowledge diffusion, and knowledge protection play a crucial role in a MNEs decision to deploy a global innovation team. Results from four case studies and two expert interviews show that there are indeed significant reasons for a global team deployment within innovation projects.Global Teams; Innovation; Knowledge Creation

Knowledge Integration and Team Effectiveness: A Team Goal Orientation Approach

Knowledge integration is critical to achieving both objective and subjective team effectiveness goals. Integrating knowledge resources, however, is a challenging activity for teams. Converging the theories of team goal orientation and knowledge integration, in this study we examine how team goal orientation impacts a team's internal knowledge integration, and how knowledge integration, in turn, affects multiple dimensions of team effectiveness. Data were collected from 90 self-directed teams engaged in an extended business simulation, where each team acted as a top management team of a business firm. Results indicated that both learning and performance-prove goal orientations positively influenced team knowledge integration, and knowledge integration impacted both objective and subjective dimensions of team effectiveness. We also found partial support for a mediating role of internal knowledge integration. The study recommends a goal orientation approach to integrating knowledge in teams and proposes that this approach has significant implications for both research and practice

A Typology of Virtual Teams: Implications for Effective Leadership

As the nature of work in today\u27s organizations becomes more complex, dynamic, and global, there has been an increasing emphasis on far-flung, distributed, virtual teams as organizing units of work. Despite their growing prevalence, relatively little is known about this new form of work unit. The purpose of this paper is to present a theoretical framework to focus research toward understanding virtual teams and, in particular, to identify implications for effective leadership. Specifically, we focus on delineating the dimensions of a typology to characterize different types of virtual teams. First, we distinguish virtual teams from conventional teams to identify where current knowledge applies and new research needs to be developed. Second, we distinguish among different types of virtual teams, considering the critical role of task complexity in determining the underlying characteristics of virtual teams and leadership challenges the different types entail. Propositions addressing leadership implications for the effective management of virtual teams are proposed and discussed

Team drivers and knowledge sharing in the performance management of agile projects

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementOrganizations are adopting agile methodologies to create value, be competitive, and quickly respond to market changes to satisfy customers. As a result of these challenges, projects are increasingly complex, strategic, and must be addressed by efficient teams during a limited amount of time to deliver high value. We study the agile project performance with a mixed methods approach. We surveyed 160 agile practitioners and conducted six interviews with agile experts. Our results indicate that team autonomy, team diversity, and team resilience affect knowledge sharing. We also find that team resilience and risk monitoring influence the agile project performance

Team Leadership and Diversity Management in Information Systems Development Project Teams

Background: The interplay of diversity and leadership produces mixed findings in the literature. Based on the categorization-elaboration model (CEM) and diversity management (DM) literature, this study investigates the role of team leadership in a diverse ISD team. Further, this study examines the moderating roles of DM practices in the relationships between group diversity, team leadership, and project performance. Method: This study selected a paired survey method to test the hypotheses. Eighty-two valid paired questionnaires were received from project managers and team members in ISD projects. In addition, this study used partial least squares (PLS) with a bootstrapping technique to examine the proposed model. Results: The results show that group diversity has mixed impacts on team leadership. Furthermore, DM practices positively moderate the effect of value diversity on team leadership, as value diversity is positively related to team leadership when DM practices are more robust. At last, DM practices negatively moderate the relationship between team leadership and project performance as the effect of team leadership has weaker effects on project performance when DM practices are strong than when the practices are weak. Conclusion: This study adds to the literature by examining team leadership in a heterogenous ISD team and providing empirical evidence for the moderating roles of DM practices in team leadership processes

Information Technology and Knowledge in Software Development Teams: The Role of Project Uncertainty

Knowledge is a strategic resource; information technology (IT) is presumed to facilitate its movement among organizational members. The relevant literature, however, is inconclusive. This study reports the results of the effect of IT on knowledge-sharing processes, i.e., knowledge exchange and knowledge combination, under conditions of project uncertainty. Our results indicate that both exchange and combination are necessary to fully explain the relationships and that the consideration of a project's outcome is also important. While project uncertainty confounds the knowledge-sharing processes regardless of technology, the frequency of technology use routinely increases knowledge exchange and combination in a software team

Leader delegation and trust in global software teams

Virtual teams are an important work structure in global software development. The distributed team structure enables access to a diverse set of expertise which is often not available in one location, to a cheaper labor force, and to a potentially accelerated development process that uses a twenty-four hour work structure. Many software teams are partially distributed, that is, part of the team is colocated. Such partially distributed global software teams are an important work structure in software development projects. However, little is known about what affects or improves team members’ motivation and job satisfaction in the partially distributed environment. This study investigates the effects of leader delegation to sub-teams and trust between sub-teams on global software team members’ motivation and job satisfaction. It proposes a research framework based on specific hypotheses regarding these effects. A survey instrument was created and a pilot study conducted on student project teams in two U.S. universities. In addition, a study combining interviews and a survey distribution using industry software development teams was also conducted. The studies found that team competence predicts leader delegation to a sub-team in global software projects. Leader delegation related to teamwork process improves team members’ motivation and satisfaction with the leader. However, leader delegation may also generate negative consequences for the sub-teams, such as anxiety and pressure. Cultural distance and geographical distance impair trust development between members across sub-teams. Temporal distance causes conflicts related to excessive overtime and meeting scheduling. Trust in sub-teams is critical to improving motivation in a global software project. In addition, this study explores the impacts of language differences and software engineering profession culture on global software team members’ interactions. Suggestions are proposed for how to shape delegation strategies in partially distributed global software projects and how to improve team members’ trust in each other and their motivation. This work provides important findings for organizations interested in developing leadership skills for global software teams and retaining IT professionals at distributed sites

Applying global software development approaches to building high-performing software teams

The rapid progress of communication technologies combined with the growing competition for talents and knowledge has made it necessary to reassess the potential of distributed development which has significantly changed the landscape of the IT industry introducing a variety of cooperation models and making notable changes to the software team work environment. Along with this, enterprises pay more attention to teams’ performance improvement, employing emerging management tools for building up efficient software teams, and trying to get the most out of understanding factors which significantly impact a team’s overall performance. The objective of the research is to systematize factors characterizing high-performing software teams; indicate the benefits of global software development (GSD) models positively influencing software teams’ development performance; and study how companies’ strategies can benefit from distributed development approaches in building high-performing software teams. The thesis is designed as a combination of a systematic literature review followed by qualitative research in the form of semi-structured interviews to validate the findings regarding classification of GSD models’ benefits and their influence on the development of high-performing software teams. At a literature review stage, the research (1) introduces a team performance factors’ model reflecting the aspects which impact the effectiveness of development teams; (2) suggests the classification of GSD models based on organizational, legal, and temporal characteristics, and (3) describes the benefits of GSD models which influence the performance of software development teams. Within the empirical part of the study, we refine the classification of GSD models’ benefits based on the qualitative analysis results of semi-structured interviews with practitioners from IT industry, form a comparison table of GSD benefits depending on the model in question, and introduce recommendations for company and team management regarding the application of GSD in building high-performing software teams. IT corporations, to achieve their strategic goals, can enrich their range of available tools for managing high-performing teams by considering the peculiarities of different GSD models. Company and team management should evaluate the advantages of the distributed operational models, and use the potential and benefits of available configurations to increase teams’ performance and build high-performing software teams