Abstract
The globalisation of business and markets is growing rapidly and information and communication technologies (ICT) are developing at a very fast pace. This has resulted in the emergence and formation of virtual project teams, also referred to as global project teams. Virtual project teams have increased global competitiveness as well as investments in several types of projects in manufacturing, telecommunications, information technology, engineering, financial services and construction, and are used as a means of enhancing team performance. From this globalisation of business and markets, virtual project teams are now operating within the boundaries of the operational requirements of the team members. This allows for flexibility of working from anywhere without restrictions imposed by geographical boundaries, differences in time zones and heavily relying on communication technologies.
The aim of this study was to develop a conceptual framework to improve the performance of virtual project teams, which information technology (IT) project managers can use to better understand how teams can be managed.
The quantitative research methodology was employed in this study to collect data using an online questionnaire and the data was analysed using statistical methods. This research methodology allowed the researcher to explore this phenomenon in greater depth. The purposive sampling method (non-probability) was adopted for this study.
The key findings of this research are that the following factors improve the performance of virtual IT project teams in South Africa: communication, good leadership, trust, social interaction, team cooperation and commitment. The research further reveals that there is a strong correlation between these factors; hence the factors identified were all essential for the development of the conceptual framework.
Ph.D. (Informatics)