Browsing by Author "Laine, Petteri"

This master’s thesis focuses on how a virtual team uses Second Life for working. A virtual team is a globally distributed group of people, which can include members from several geographical locations, time zones and various cultural and organizational backgrounds, working towards a common goal. Virtual teams are increasingly deployed by organizations to harness talent regardless of their location and as a response to increasing global competition. A virtual environment is a computer-generated display that enables a user to have a sense of presence in an environment other than the one in which they are currently situated in, and to interact with that environment and other users. Second Life is one of the most popular three-dimensional online virtual worlds, and is the technology utilized by this virtual team for their weekly team-wide meetings. The data consists of semi-structured interviews of 11 virtual team members and video recordings of team meetings in the virtual environment. The method of analysis is qualitative content analysis, informed by relevant concepts such as affordance, domestication and social presence. The research questions of this study are 'in what ways is the Second Life technology used in virtual teamwork?', 'how do the patterns of technology use take form and evolve? 'what are the experiences of the team members regarding the use of technology?' The results of the study are divided in three. Firstly, a narrative of a typical virtual team meeting is presented, thus introducing the reader to the virtual environment. Second, descriptions of two forms of technology use – simulation and information transfer – are provided. Third, the contributing factors that shaped the teams’ technology use are explicated. These include the perceived poor quality of the simulation; the ability to multitask afforded by the technology, thus influencing negatively on the team members’ social presence; severe technical difficulties and poor technical skills; time limitations resulting in the need to work efficiently; as well as the availability of other technologies. Regarding the result on affordance, domestication and social presence, this study confirms and adds to previous research.