Over the years, we've received scores of requests from graduate students around the world seeking help with their research on virtual teams, networks, and collaboration. In the past two years, there has been a sharp upturn in those requests. Yesterday, we received this note from Ernest Cutuk:
I am a master's student at the Graduate School of Economics & Business University of Zagreb, Croatia conducting research on virtual teams. The thesis' title is “Managing virtual teams in the project environment".
Should you have five minutes time, I would like to ask you to answer on questions listed in the questionnaire that you will find in the attachment and send it back to me via e-mail address: [email protected]
If you would like to receive the final result of the questionnaire, please be so kind to send me your e-mail...
If you'd like to participate in Ernest's research (we are), please read on to the jump page here to fill out his questionnaire. And...I encourage other students to send their surveys as well. If they're legit, we'll post them and we hope that you all will publish your findings back here too. Good luck, Ernest!
I recommend copying this out to a Word doc, filling it in, then sending the results directly to [email protected]
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VIRTUAL TEAM QUESTIONNAIRE FROM ERNEST CUTUK, MASTER'S CANDIDATE
Graduate School of Economics & Business University of Zagreb, Croatia
On the following questions, you may reply by bolding (bold) and underlining your answer or by writing your answer.
The name and the seat of your company/organization*:
_____________________________________________________________
(*If you don't want to, it's not necessary to indicate company's/organization's name and seat)
A) General Information
1. No. of employees in your company/organization?
∑ < 100
∑ 101 – 500
∑ 501 – 1000
∑ 1000 – 5000
∑ > 5000
2. Type of company/organization:
∑ joint stock company
∑ limited liability company
∑ public enterprise
∑ other
3. Primary business/activity of your company/organization?
∑ Banking and Insurance
∑ Consultancy
∑ Construction/Building
∑ Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
∑ Production Industry
∑ State Administration
∑ Research and Development
∑ Supply of Gas, Electricity and Water
∑ Financial Intermediation
∑ Business Services
∑ Other
4. On which market, does your company/organisation mostly operate?
∑ national market
∑ regional market (for example, Central Asian market, Middle East market, Central American market etc.)
∑ international market
∑ all above mentioned markets
5. What is the basic structure of your company/organization?
∑ Project Structure
∑ Functional Structure
∑ Matrix Structure (combination of Project and Functional Structures)
∑ Virtual Structure (a set of (legally) independent organizations that share resources and skills to achieve its mission / goal)
B) Project Environment
6. Are some of business processes in your company/organization carried out in the form of projects?
∑ Yes
∑ No
7. Is there a position of "Project Manager"?
∑ Yes
∑ No
8. Projects in your company/organisation are:
∑ geographically distributed
∑ internal (within the company/organisation)
∑ external (they include team members outside of your company/organisation)
9. Project teams are:
∑ local (team members are coming from your country)
∑ international (team members are coming from different countries)
10. Most often, the duration of projects is:
∑ up to 6 months
∑ 1 – 2 years
∑ more than 2 years
11. What is your role during your participation in a work of the projects:
∑ Sponsor
∑ Project Manager
∑ Project Team Member
∑ something else
12. Have the projects, in which you participate, got their web sites?
∑ Yes
∑ No
C) Virtual Team
13. Which team structure is more appropriate for accomplishing projects' tasks?
∑ Virtual Team
∑ Traditional Team
14. What are the main reasons for establishing virtual teams in your organisation?
∑ cost and resource constraints
∑ the shortened time for project implementation
∑ optimal utilization of team members' knowledge
∑ increasable probability of discovering the new innovations
∑ virtual teams can be quickly established according to the markets' demands
∑ other
15. Your cooperation with a remote team member is carried out via:
(1 – never, 2–very rarely, 3 – rarely, 4- often, 5 –very often)
∑ e-mails 1 2 3 4 5
∑ mobile devices 1 2 3 4 5
∑ Audio Conferences 1 2 3 4 5
∑ Video Conferences 1 2 3 4 5
∑ Instant Messaging 1 2 3 4 5
∑ Extranet 1 2 3 4 5
∑ Project's web site 1 2 3 4 5
16. How many team members are in your team?
∑ < 3
∑ 3-8
∑ 8-12
∑ > 12
17. Virtual Teams are more efficient than Traditional Teams:
∑ I totally disagree.
∑ I disagree.
∑ They are both equal efficient.
∑ I agree.
∑ I totally agree.
18. IT (Information Technology) in a work of Virtual Teams is more important than a methodology of work in Virtual Teams.
∑ I totally disagree.
∑ I disagree.
∑ They are both equal efficient.
∑ I agree.
∑ I totally agree.
19. Rate competencies of virtual team member according to their influence on efficiency of virtual team performance
(1 – no influence, 2– minor influence, 3 – they influence, 4- they significantly influence, 5 – they exceptionally influence)
∑ Project management knowledge 1 2 3 4 5
∑ Networking across functional, hierarchical, and organizational boundaries 1 2 3 4 5
∑ expert knowledge 1 2 3 4 5
∑ using IT 1 2 3 4 5
∑ acceptance of cultural diversities 1 2 3 4 5
∑ A high level of interpersonal awareness 1 2 3 4 5
D) Managing Virtual Teams
20. Does your company/organization have different techniques for managing virtual team compared with traditional team?
∑ Yes
∑ No
21. If the answer is “Yes”, what are the main differences?
Write the answer down:____________________________________________________
22. It is more difficult to establish collaboration in virtual team compared with traditional team.
∑ I totally disagree.
∑ I disagree.
∑ There is no difference.
∑ I agree.
∑ I totally agree.
23. Rate factors which have influence on collaboration between virtual team members.
(1 – no influence, 2– minor influence, 3 – they influence, 4- they significantly influence, 5 – they exceptionally influence)
∑ building trust 1 2 3 4 5
∑ adequate communication 1 2 3 4 5
∑ technological capability of IT 1 2 3 4 5
∑ team leader action 1 2 3 4 5
∑ vague team member roles and responsibilities 1 2 3 4 5
∑ timely availability necessary information 1 2 3 4 5
24. What is the main obstacle for establishing a virtual team?
∑ different time zones
∑ different languages between virtual team members
∑ different organizational norms
∑ cultural diversity of virtual team members
∑ dispersion of team members
∑ other
25. Rate influence of kick-off meeting (initial introducing between virtual team members) in order to establish a collaboration
∑ irrelevant
∑ important
∑ very important
26. What is your opinion about periodic face-to-face meetings between virtual team members on the same place?
∑ wasting time and money
∑ addition to virtual communication without some effect
∑ providing faster trust building between virtual team members
∑ providing a clarification of team members' roles and responsibilities
∑ very important for accomplishing team aims
27. Communication has influence on trust building between virtual team members.
∑ There is no influence
∑ Yes, but there is no crucial influence
∑ It is impossible to build trust without efficient communication
28. Mark factors which have influence on trust building between virtual team members
(1 – no influence, 2– minor influence, 3 – they influence, 4- they significantly influence, 5 – they exceptionally influence)
∑ social communication 1 2 3 4 5
∑ task communication 1 2 3 4 5
∑ personal reputation of team members 1 2 3 4 5
∑ singular proactively working of team member 1 2 3 4 5
∑ defined communication patterns 1 2 3 4 5
∑ transparent team leading 1 2 3 4 5
29. Is it possible to build trust between team members only via information mediated by electronic means, without previous face to face introduction between team members?
∑ Yes
∑ No
∑ Yes, but I am not completely sure.
Your E-mail:
(*please write down your e-mail address in order to receive the final results from the questionnaire)
Name and Surname: ____________________
E-mail: ______________