Basic Underlying Assumptions
3. Research Questions
This chapter will detail the research questions for the proposed research study. The problem statement is first presented, followed by the research questions.
3.1 Problem Statement
Unfortunately projects are still failing. The magical triangle meant to deliver a required product on time, within budget, and with a certain quality is still putting a lot of stress on project teams. In addition, often the customer’s expectations are not met and the perceived project outcome is unsatisfactory.
Globalization, with the necessity of travelling, interacting within different cultures, multiple languages, and different time zones puts additional pressure on teams. In addition, the development cycles for products are becoming shorter. Not only in South Africa, but everywhere companies are battling with the problem of not having enough experts available to complete their projects. Given these challenges, virtual teams are becoming more and more important. Those companies that successfully implement virtual teams might gain a competitive advantage (Bergiel, Bergiel, &
Balsmeier, 2008).
On the other hand, virtual teams tend to develop mistrust, show communication deficiencies, and may support free-riding; they are consequently less efficient than face-to-face teams (de Pillis & Furumo, 2007).
Bjørn and Ngwenyama (2010) say that technology mediation is a central theme when investigating virtual teams and it is one that so far has not been sufficiently considered in research.
The lack of attention towards technology in the research of virtual teams is a symptom of a general weakness in IS research, as has already been pointed out by Orlikowski and Iacono (2001). In addition, new web-based project management tools coming onto the market may have a strong impact on project management processes, especially in virtual teams. By understanding the roles played by established technologies (e.g., email, chat, and phone) and by new web-based technologies (e.g., web-calendar, web-based task tracking, and web-based videoconferencing) in the processes of project management, and their influence on team cohesion, trust-building, and leadership it may be possible to improve processes and increase team effectiveness, project outcome, and team member satisfaction.
University
of Cape
Town
PhD Thesis Peter Weimann 70
3.2 Research Question
Driven by the gaps in the relevant literature and based on the problem statement, this research study focuses on exposing the structure of the problem: effective selection and use of tools.
I wish to break down the meaning of the underlying concepts and ideas of virtual project teams. The core research question is:
How should Internet/web-based tools be employed in the project management processes of virtual project teams so as to increase the effectiveness of the processes, and improve the project outcome as well as the team affective outcomes (e.g., member satisfaction)?
In order to expose how web-based technology influences project management processes and in turn project outcome, a number of secondary research questions shall be used, as given below.
SECONDARY RESEARCH QUESTION 1: How and when are web-based tools used in the different project management tasks?
RQ 1.1. What is the reason for a specific tool supporting a specific task better than another tool?
RQ 1.2. What is the reason for a team member not applying/using a certain tool?
RQ 1.3. Why is a certain tool not used (for a specific task or in general)?
RQ 1.4. What are the reasons that some project management tasks cannot be supported by any tool?
RQ 1.5. Why are team members not contributing to the project outcome? Can they be better integrated by means of a certain tool?
RQ 1.6. How should web-based tools be used so as to align them with the project management tasks?
RQ 1.7. How does access and available bandwidth influence the selection of a specific tool?
RQ 1.8. How does gender and cultural background influence the use of web-based tools?
RQ 1.9. How does the team size influence the use of web-based tools?
University
of Cape
Town
PhD Thesis Peter Weimann 71
SECONDARY RESEARCH QUESTION 2: How does the task-technology fit influence team performance and team affective outcome?
RQ 2.1. How should the workload of the team members be planned with regard to the virtuality of the team? What is the role of the different tools in this process?
RQ 2.2. What are the problems arising during the use of tools and how can these problems been handled? What is the effect of these problems on the performance and team affective outcome?
RQ 2.3. How should team members be motivated to finish in time with the required quality?
What is the role of the different tools in this process?
RQ 2.4. How should conflict that arises in virtual teams be solved? Has the conflict been caused by the use of a web-based tool? Has the conflict been escalated due to the use of a tool?
RQ 2.5. How does training in the use of tools influence their use?
RQ 2.6. What is the effect of the task complexity on the use of specific tools?
RQ 2.7. How does the use a specific tool contribute to the team’s affective outcomes, such as satisfaction and motivation?
RQ 2.8. Which tools have been used for which project management tasks? How does the use of the tool contribute to the performance of the team?
RQ 2.9. Has the media richness influenced the choice of the tool for a specific task?
SECONDARY RESEARCH QUESTION 3: How does the use of a certain tool influence team dynamics and socio-emotional factors?
RQ 3.1. How does media richness influence the team dynamics and the socio-emotional factors?
RQ 3.2. What is the effect of the new web-based tools on communication and cooperation in teams?
RQ 3.3. How did the use of a tool support managerial control mechanisms? Do the use of tools and their virtuality support the team becoming self-managing?
RQ 3.4. Does a certain tool also support the cohesion of the team? Which features of the tool were especially helpful with regard to team cohesion and team cooperation?
University
of Cape
Town
PhD Thesis Peter Weimann 72
SECONDARY RESEARCH QUESTION 4: How do team dynamics and socio-emotional factors influence the team performance and the team affective outcome?
RQ 4.1. What is the influence of trust in the team on its performance and affective outcome?
RQ 4.2. What is the effect of web-based cooperation and communication on the team performance and affective outcome?
RQ 4.3. What is the influence of conflict in virtual teams on the performance of the teams?
RQ 4.4. How does the leadership concept influence the performance and affective outcome of the team?
RQ 4.5. Why is the performance of one team better than the performance of others?
The next chapter specifies the methodology employed in order to investigate and answer the research questions described above. The methodology that has been devised is based on the nature of the topic being investigated and the format of the questions being posed.
University
research paradigm, method, and strategy are explained and critically discussed. The proposed data collection and data analysis techniques are described and justified. In the last section the expected contributions to the field of Information Systems are specified. Furthermore the issues of access, privacy, confidentiality, and ethics are addressed.For the purpose of this series of prospective studies, an interpretative and empirical research approach was followed. Qualitative and quantitative methods were also used and if necessary triangulation was applied.
Figure 14 - Grounded Theory Approach adapted from Urquhart et al. (2010)
Concepts,