Andreas Pfneisl

Organization and Management of Virtual Teams Andreas Pfneisl

Diplomarbeit, die am 23.08.2000 erfolgreich an einer Technische Universität in Österreich im Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaften eingereicht wurde. 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 econom...