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Research Project "Virtual Teams and Organisational Learning"
by A.Wiederhold

About this Questionnaire:

This questionnaire is used for research at the Bristol Business School, part of the University of the West of England. Data is collected, processed and stored in suitable ways to guarantee anonymity and confidentiality. Statistics derived from collected data may be used to help improve the quality and success of virtual teams.

You have been selected as part of a group of people working in virtual teams. Please take a few minutes to answer the questions below as truthfully as possible. If you feel that none of the choices fits just leave it and go on to the next question.

Typical time required for this questionnaire: 10 minutes.

Before you start, please enter the research code:

A) Environment

Before answering specific questions on your virtual team experience please give a general idea of the environment in which you work.

01. How long have you worked in a virtual environment?
Answer:

02. Please estimate how many percent of your daily work could be described as 'virtual'.
Answer:

03. Please indicate the location you currently work in.
Answer:

04. How many members does your virtual team have?
Answer:

05. Please check the location of those team members.
Answer:
    Africa
    Asia, China
    Asia, India
    Asia, Japan
    Asia, Korea
    Asia, elsewhere
    Canada, East
    Canada, West
    Europe, France
    Europe, Germany
    Europe, Spain
    Europe, UK
    Europe, elsewhere
    Middle East
    United States, East Coast
    United States, Northern States
    United States, Southern States
    United States, West Coast
    United States, elsewhere
    elsewhere in the world

06. Please estimate the cultural diversity of your team. How many different nationalities does your team represent?
Answer:

07. How high is the level of competition among your virtual team members?
Answer:

08. Is there a clear structure (i.e. hierarchy) in your virtual team?
Answer:     no     yes

B) Virtual Team Work

Now on to what it is like to work in a virtual team. Choose the answers that best describe your personal perception and your relations with others.

01. To what degree do you feel you work in a team?
Answer:

02. How often do you meet your team members face-to-face?
Answer:

03. Do you think it is possible to develop virtual work relationships with others?
Answer:     no     yes

04. How important is trust in virtual teamwork?
Answer:

05. How comfortable are you with the fact that your colleagues are virtual?
Answer:

06. Do you feel virtual teams are detached from the rest of the company?
Answer:     no     yes

07. Do you think the company should do more to integrate virtual team members?
Answer:     no     yes

08. How strong are the ties between members in your team?
Answer:

09. How well do you think your virtual team performs?
Answer:

C) Technology

Technology plays an important part in the working lives of many people. Please give some insights into how it affects you.

01. What is your overall view on technology in general?
Answer:

02. Are you satisfied with the technology you use for your work?
Answer:     no     yes

03. Do you feel that technology helps you at work?
Answer:     no     yes

04. Does work in a virtual team require more technology than you would normally use as part of your job?
Answer:     no     yes

05. Please rate the following equipment according to its importance to your work:
Answer:

	not important	to some degree	very important
Desktop Computer:
Laptop Computer:
Video Conferencing:
Mobile Devices (PDA etc.):
Telephone (mobile):
Telephone (landline):

06. Apart from what you already use, which other devices or technology would you recommend for virtual teamwork in the future?
Answer:

D) Communication

Communication is a vital part of daily work. The following questions look at how you communicate.

01. What means of communication do you use for your work?
Answer:
    Telephone (landline)
    Telephone (mobile)
    other mobile device
    SMS / text messages
    Skype / Voice over IP
    Video Conferencing
    Email
    Forum / Online Discussions
    Internet
    Company Intranet
    Groupware Application

02. Is there a 'code of conduct' describing communication and behavior for your work?
Answer:     no     yes

03. Please estimate how many emails you get per day?
Answer:

Give a feeling of how much that means to you
Answer:

04. Please estimate how many phone calls you get per day?
Answer:

Give a feeling of how much that means to you
Answer:

05. How do you see the amount of communication in a virtual team?
Answer:

06. How would you rank face-to-face contacts with your team members?
Answer:

07. From your experience, is communication in virtual teams easier or harder than with colleagues in an office environment?
Answer:

08. Do you think communication in virtual teams is complicated?
Answer:     no     yes

09. Are there misunderstandings amongst team members?
Answer:

10. Could you indicate how frequent conflicts are?
Answer:

E) Documentation

Documentation is the companies memory. People can only learn from past mistakes, or reproduce success when they retain knowledge of how things were done.

01. What do you document electronically?
Answer:
    Project details
    Progress reports
    Ideas
    Expert knowledge
    Project outcomes
    Financial details
    Other things

02. How often do you produce documentation?
Answer:

03. Can you think of anything else that should be documented in the future?
Answer:

04. Does your team have documentation standards?
Answer:     no     yes

05. Do you feel you benefit from the documentation and references that are available to you?
Answer:     no     yes

06. How often do you check for new documentation?
Answer:

07. In your opinion, how much is documented in your virtual team?
Answer:

F) Learning

Sharing knowledge during work, helping others, or looking for help in documentation are ways in which team members can learn. The following questions explore that process.

01. Compared to a traditional office, how easy do you find it to share information with virtual team members?
Answer:

02. Do you share thoughts and stories with your virtual colleagues that are not work related?
Answer:

03. Is there a comprehensive way to retrieve information from documentation for you?
Answer:     no     yes

04. Can you see outcomes of projects you are part of?
Answer:     no     yes

05. Do you feel you learn from the documentation of other team members?
Answer:     no     yes

06. Does the company support team members in their efforts to learn from others?
Answer:     no     yes

07. Have you ever contributed to a knowledge base in your organization?
Answer:     no     yes

08. Is there an intranet structure for learning, e.g. a knowledge base?
Answer:     no     yes

(Please only answer the following questions if you answered 'yes' in F.08)

09. Is the knowledge base of strategic importance?
Answer:     no     yes

10. Does the knowledge base have top management support?
Answer:     no     yes

11. Does the knowledge base have a budget?
Answer:     no     yes

12. Is someone responsible for the knowledge base?
Answer:     no     yes

G) Personal

While we will ensure your anonymity we would like to learn a few general things about you as a person.

01. Please indicate your role in your virtual team:
Answer:

02. How many virtual teams are you a member of per year?
Answer:

03. If you had a choice would you work in a virtual team again?
Answer:     no     yes

04. Do you feel motivated to work in your virtual team?
Answer:     no     yes

05. Please indicate your age by choosing a range.
Answer:

06. Please choose your gender
Answer:     female     male

07. What industry are you working in?
Answer:

08. What is your job title?
(Alternatively you may put the name of your department)
Answer:

H) Quick Answer Section

This last part covers a variety of issues around work in virtual teams, and asks for a quick opinion. Please choose: do you agree with the statement...

01. My colleagues help me when I am stuck.
Answer:     I disagree     I agree

02. Virtual teams perform better than normal teams.
Answer:     I disagree     I agree

03. Members of virtual teams are more likely to feel isolated.
Answer:     I disagree     I agree

04. Members in my team keep knowledge to themselves that they should share with the team.
Answer:     I disagree     I agree

05. I am happy to help others.
Answer:     I disagree     I agree

06. Our team has a performance culture.
Answer:     I disagree     I agree

07. In our team we help each other to overcome difficulties.
Answer:     I disagree     I agree

08. I share my knowledge freely with others.
Answer:     I disagree     I agree

09. I tend to know more than others in my team.
Answer:     I disagree     I agree

10. Members of virtual teams are less likely to be made redundant.
Answer:     I disagree     I agree

11. Virtual teams are a threat to job security.
Answer:     I disagree     I agree

12. My colleagues share their knowledge with me.
Answer:     I disagree     I agree

13. I find it hard to cope with the amount of the information I get every day.
Answer:     I disagree     I agree

14. I like to learn new things.
Answer:     I disagree     I agree

15. We all need to learn continually.
Answer:     I disagree     I agree

16. I like change.
Answer:     I disagree     I agree

17. I have ideas how problems could be solved at work.
Answer:     I disagree     I agree

Thank you for your help.

In-depth Interview Option

The answers from this online survey will not be linked to individuals. However, if you are open to work with us we would appreciate to take your email address for in-depth interviews to get more insights. Please note that giving your email address will compromise your anonymity, and is therefore optional.

Please enter your email address only if you are comfortable with assisting in further research, or seek a response from the research team.
Your Email Address:

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