Success Factors and Inhibitors of Virtual Teams: Exploring the Influence of Personality on Team Preference, Motivation and Team Climate

This thesis investigates the influence of personality, preference for working in virtual teams, alone or in face-to-face teams on work motivation and team climate of individuals working in virtual teams. This study used mixed methods, by collecting experiences of virtual team members in regard to inhibitors and success factors of their team and data from personality and motivational scales. The results neither support the hypothesis that virtuality serves as a moderator, nor that team preference mediates the relationship between personality and work motivation. However, support was found for the hypothesis that personality and individual work motivation predict the overall team climate in virtual teams. Additionally, personality traits were found to influence work motivation. Qualitative results were analysed through a thematic analysis and identified a variety of success factors and inhibitors. The qualitative results could be linked to the influence of personality on virtual teams and other variables. Overall, this thesis was able to support and expand current research on virtual teams while giving a variety of practical and theoretical implications