| Abstract [eng] |
SUMMARY VILNIUS UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL INTERNATIONAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME STUDENT VILMA ŠLIURPAITĖ VIRTUAL IT PROJECT TEAMS' EMPOWERMENT AND ITS ROLE FOR THE TEAMWORK AT THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCE COMPANY MA thesis supervisor – Assoc. prof,. Dr. Dalia Bagdžiūnienė MA thesis prepared – 2021 Vilnius MA thesis scope – 55 pages. Number of tables in Master thesis – 25 tables. Number of figures in Master thesis – 1 figure. Number of references – 69 references. A short description of Master thesis. In recent years, more organisations started to offer hybrid or remote work possibilities for team members. However, working in remote teams comes with challenges. Particularly reduced teamwork among co-workers. Team empowerment has been linked to improving trust in the team, knowledge sharing between colleagues, job satisfaction and general team atmosphere. Aim and objectives. To analyse teams' empowerment and its role for teamwork in virtual IT project teams at the international finance company. The study will analyse teams’ empowerment through structural empowerment, empowering leader’s behaviour and psychological empowerment from project manager’s and project team members’ perspectives. Also, it investigated in what ways team member empowerment can be improved. Research methodology. To analyse raised aim and objectives, a qualitative research method was selected for this study. The research was conducted using semi-structured interviews. Data collected during the interviews was to investigate teams’ empowerment and its relations with teamwork. Participants selected for this study were five project managers and five project team members working in virtual environments at an international finance company. Results and conclusions. The research data showed that empowerment has a direct relationship to how well a team can work together. It is not only the organisation’s responsibility to establish empowerment in the organisation (structural empowerment), but also, team leaders’ and managers’ (empowering leaders’ behaviour and psychological empowerment). Ways in which team member empowerment can be improved – providing access to information and resources, involving the team in decision-making, and allowing them to self-organise. However, having clear, consistent communication and establishing trust was named as two main ways to improve empowerment in the team. |
