Mutakyahwa, Augustine Andrew2020-05-012020-05-012016Mutakyahwa, A. A. (2016) An assessment of the factors influencing the performance of virtual project team in managing information communication technology (ICT) projects in Tanzania: the case of Stanbic Bank Tanzania Limited projects, Master dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam.http://41.86.178.5:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/10681Available in print form, East Africana Collection, Dr. Wilbert Chagula Library, Class mark (THS EAF HD66.T34M87)The use of virtual project team in ICT projects has been increasing in all parts of the world including Tanzania both for Private and Public sector. The main objective of this study was to assess the factors which influence the performance of virtual project team in managing Information Communication Technology (ICT) projects in Tanzania. It specifically assessed the cultural diversity, means of communication, and virtual teamwork influences on the performance of virtual project team. A total of 86 respondents were selected from 12 departments at Stanbic Bank Tanzania Limited (SBTL) along with 15 virtual project teams from five countries as key informants. Data were collected through questionnaire, document review, and unstructured interview. Content analysis technique and descriptive analysis of data was employed in this study. Findings from this study have generally revealed that performance of virtual project team is negatively influenced by cultural diversity mainly in two ways. First, was the language barrier among the team members which resulted in lack of self confidence in providing feedback to the foreign teams. Second, were the customs and attitude of individual team members influenced the performance of virtual teams. While individuals hold negative attitude about certain group members, customs and norms were associated with group locations and age of group members. The study further revealed that low level of trust between virtual project teams significantly reduced the performance of virtual project team. The findings indicated that virtual project team members located on the same location (country) were more likely to trust each other compared to the level of trust between virtual project teams from different countries. The implication of the findings to the project management is that SBTL has inadequately planned and managed cultural diversity starting from early stage of implementation of virtual project team. This implies that no much effort was put in place to train virtual project team to build positive cultural diversity. In additional, managerial implications is that SBTL management through project managers have not made enough effort to build a strong virtual teamwork characterized by trust between the virtual project teams from different locations. It was concluded that SBTL should plan and implement cultural diversity training, improve the modern communication applications, and build a strong virtual project teams through positive trust and altitude. Few areas for further research have been also suggested in this study.enVirtual work teamsteams in the workplaceManagement information systemsComputer networksInformation technologyStanbic Bank Tanzania limitedTanzaniaThesis