This applied dissertation was a phenomenological qualitative study designed to investigate the effectiveness of global virtual project team interactions through their members’ experiences with technology, communication, collaboration, leadership support, and trust. It was also designed and to determine whether social presence contributed to members’ ability to establish trust, communicate, collaborate, and perform as a team. The results indicate that social presence can be achieved in virtual teams using effective communication technology and by demonstrating specific behaviors. Virtual team members can develop “a sense of community” that will enable them to collaborate more effectively on project tasks and improve their overall performance. It confirms that trust leads to knowledge sharing and collaboration in virtual teams, which impacts the teams’ effectiveness, and highlights the considerations that should be given to virtual team organizational and team member cultures. This research benefits both scholars and practitioners in the fields of human resource management, virtual team project management, and virtual team management. It adds to the body of knowledge on social presence development in virtual teams and global virtual project teams, virtual team technology, virtual team communication, virtual team collaboration, virtual team leadership, and virtual team trust. It provides insights into the issues that impact virtual team management, specifically, virtual team communication and collaboration and the implications on virtual team performance.
| Date of Award | Jan 1 2025 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Roslyn Doctorow (Supervisor), David Weintraub (Advisor) & Kimberly Durham (Advisor) |
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