Organization and Management of Virtual Teams

Diploma Thesis from the year 2001 in the subject Computer Science - Commercial Information Technology, grade: 1, Vienna University of Technology, language: English, abstract: The idea to write my master's thesis on 'Organization and Management of Virtual Teams' arose during the 6th term of my studies, which was an exceptional term in many ways. I was part of several teams then, which is nothing extraordinary, I guess. What made those teams special were the people I was working with - or better - I got the possibility to work with. I had worked in teams before in the course of my studies and had had some really bad experience with lazy and unproductive people, who simply couldn't or did not want to identify with tasks and goals of various projects. What was so special with those teams in the summer term of 1999 was, that most of the team members could identify with the goals set, they worked, they tried really hard to stick to deadlines and targets, they took justified criticism as positive feedback, they were punctual, they communicated and so on - in short: I was part of some very, very productive, purposeful teams (one of the results was that I did my most successful term that term - the work of nearly two terms during this one). Well, two seminars during this spring were dealing with the topic 'Virtual teams' and I got really interested in. So I decided to do my master's thesis on this subject. I found a nice and easy going supervisor who was interested in the topic, as well, and I started to write on the thesis at the end of my stay in Stockholm, Sweden, as an ERASMUS exchange student. But why this topic, why a thesis on virtual teams? Several reasons should be mentioned: My interest in the topic: Since I am studying 'Wirtschaftsinformatik' (Economical Computer Science, a mixture between economics and computer science), I am interested in both economics and technology. What topic suits that combination better than 'Virtual Teams', which have to work for economic reasons across distances and organizational borders - all this with the help of the latest technology. The challenge: Not a lot was written about the subject 'Virtual Teams' when I started to look for literature suitable for my thesis. I hardly could find books in Sweden and the ones I finally chose I had to order from the US (which is also a reason why this thesis is written in English, because all the literature I used was written in English). So it was quite a challenge (but exciting) to write about something new...