COMMUNICATION FLOWS IN VIRTUAL IT TEAMS: CHALLENGES AND WAYS TO STREAMLINE ON THE USE CASE OF “ORACLE” CORPORATION

Aliaksandr Shylko

Master's thesis

Abstract:

World gets digital, changing the essence of the job from human to human interaction in one office to the virtual teams, spread across the globe, working different time zones, various cultural profiles of the workforce, while working on the same project. IT market is one of the strongest while being the leader in virtual, very diverse teams, which are somehow cooperating on the creation of an end product with usually very tight deadlines and numerous work streams, like product design, testing, coding, prototyping and many more, which are hidden from an eye of an end-user.This research aims at investigating communication flows in virtual IT teams, the challenges they face, and possible solutions. Specifically, the research focuses on Oracle Corporation, from where in this paper were used interviews and questionnaires to collect necessary data from the research participants, randomly selected from Oracle. Moreover, it was important to show two significant theories, media richness theory and adaptive structuration theory, to further explaining communication technologies and usage in virtual team projects. The findings of the study include, video conferencing the most effective communication technology in facilitating communication among virtual teams. It satisfies the significant needs of virtual team projects and minimizes technological barriers like information overload and miscommunication. The overall results have shown the strengths and weaknesses of communication within the company virtual teams and the willingness of authorities to optimize the processes accordingly.

Abstract:

World gets digital, changing the essence of the job from human to human interaction in one office to the virtual teams, spread across the globe, working different time zones, various cultural profiles of the workforce, while working on the same project. IT market is one of the strongest while being the leader in virtual, very diverse teams, which are somehow cooperating on the creation of an end product with usually very tight deadlines and numerous work streams, like product design, testing, coding, prototyping and many more, which are hidden from an eye of an end-user.This research aims at investigating communication flows in virtual IT teams, the challenges they face, and possible solutions. Specifically, the research focuses on Oracle Corporation, from where in this paper were used interviews and questionnaires to collect necessary data from the research participants, randomly selected from Oracle. Moreover, it was important to show two significant theories, media richness theory and adaptive structuration theory, to further explaining communication technologies and usage in virtual team projects. The findings of the study include, video conferencing the most effective communication technology in facilitating communication among virtual teams. It satisfies the significant needs of virtual team projects and minimizes technological barriers like information overload and miscommunication. The overall results have shown the strengths and weaknesses of communication within the company virtual teams and the willingness of authorities to optimize the processes accordingly.

Keywords

Communication technologies, Virtual teams, Video-conferencing

Keywords

Virtual teams, Video-conferencing, Communication technologies

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 9. 10. 2018

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 8. 6. 2020
• Supervisor: Antonín Pavlíček
• Reader: Lucie Böhmová

Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze

Master programme / field:
Aplikovaná informatika / Information Systems Management