Teamwork in Integrated Design Projects: Understanding the Effects of Trust, Conflict, and Collaboration on Performance

Unveiling the Impact of Communication Network on Engineering Project Team Performance: The Interplay of Centralization and Tie Strength

Purpose

Recent research has focused on the impact of communication networks on the performance of construction project teams, attempting empirical exploration from various social network analysis perspectives. However, there is still a significant gap in understanding the variations in performance and the mechanisms for teams using different communication networks. Drawing from organizational learning theory and social network theory, this study, based on the Input-Mediator-Output (IMO) model, explores the effects of the interaction between centralization and tie strength in communication networks on team performance, as well as the mediating mechanisms of knowledge sharing behavior and team resilience performance in engineering project teams.

Methods

Drawing on classic group communication experiment, we design an online communication and collaboration platform to simulate the execution of a construction engineering project. Finally, data was collected through the communication experiment with 720 participants, and hypotheses were tested using ANOVA and PROCESS.

Results

The results indicate that under conditions of weak tie strength, centralized communication networks yield higher performance. Conversely, under conditions of strong tie strength, decentralized communication networks demonstrate superior performance. Furthermore, this study also verifies the mediating role of knowledge sharing behavior and team resilience performance when tie strength is strong.

Conclusion

This study focuses on engineering project team, exploring the evolutionary development of knowledge sharing behavior and team resilience performance from the perspective of the interaction of communication network structural characteristics, as well as the paths to enhancing team performance. Our research results highlight the interactive effects of structural indicators and relational indicators of communication networks, revealing the mechanism by which the structure of communication networks impacts team performance. Additionally, from the perspectives of forming and timely adjusting team communication models, and motivating and supporting employee communication behavior, our study provides practical insights for project managers and relevant administrators.

How Does Hierarchy Steepness Affect Coordination in Project-Based Organizations? A Social Network Analysis

This study aims to reveal the impacts of hierarchy steepness on intraorganizational coordination in project-based organizations (PBOs) at both organizational and individual levels. We discovered that hierarchy steepness has a positive correlation with organizational coordination intensity but a negative correlation with an individual’s coordination power. A steeper hierarchy is beneficial for intraorganizational coordination so, averagely, an individual’s coordination power weakens in well-coordinated organizations. The findings refuted previous arguments that took hierarchy as an obstacle to coordination and proved the functionality of a steeper hierarchy. They suggest PBOs steepen the hierarchical structure to improve intraorganizational coordination.

Do the Project Manager’s Soft Skills Matter? Impacts of the Project Manager’s Emotional Intelligence, Trustworthiness, and Job Satisfaction on Project Success

Recent warnings have been raised about the project success rate in organizations. Among many reasons of disappointing results, research on project management reveals a gap in examining project success. Traditionally, project success has been widely studied from the rational view but rarely from the behavioral view. Today’s businesses are facing multiple challenges and opportunities in a volatile market environment that require constant changes within organizations and leaders’ behavior. The role of project managers is no longer the same. This study attempts to update the discussion of project managers soft skills by examining two major behavioral factors: project manager’s emotional intelligence and trustworthiness and their impact on job satisfaction and project success. This research compiles a quantitative survey. Data were collected from 101 project team professionals. The results reveal that project managers’ emotional intelligence and their team members’ trust in them impact project success significantly. The findings provide organizations with a necessary complementary behavioral view of project management. Organizations can take project manager trustworthiness and emotional intelligence into account when recruiting and training project managers and throughout the project planning and execution life span.

TEAM-BASED INNOVATION CONTESTS FOR CROWDSOURCING: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON IDEACONNECTION PLATFORM

Crowdsourcing for innovation contests represents a promising mechanism to access and integrate external ideas. Among various crowdsourcing types, online, team-based contest is one of the most prominent one. The objective of this study is to deepen the understanding of team-based crowdsourcing by exploring specifically the issues that characterise the innovation process of crowdsourcing in a virtual team setting. To empirically pursue this aim, we conducted an interview-based case study leveraging interviews of 106 solvers and 24 facilitators moderating the team of solvers, which have participated in contests through the IdeaConnection crowdsourcing platform. We found that five main issues characterise team-based crowdsourcing competitions: Platform support, Solvers skills, Solver motivation, Solutions, and Performance. Specifically, some of these issues are in line with previous literature investigating individual crowdsourcing competition, while others are novel highlighting the peculiarity of the virtual team setting.

The relationship between traditional project management, agile project management and teamwork quality on project success

Purpose

The aim of the study is to explore how the different combinations of traditional and agile project management (APM) enhance project success under different levels of teamwork quality.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used system approach, using cluster analysis, to examine the relationships between project success and traditional project management (TPM) and APM under different levels of teamwork quality. A cluster analysis approach provides a method to examine how the entire range of variables combine to improve project success.

Findings

The results of the study revealed three profiles of project managers’ differences in teamwork quality and type of project management used: pure agile, TPM leaning hybrid and APM (APM) leaning hybrid. The results found evidence that TPM leaning hybrid received the highest score in project success.

Practical implications

Organizations should develop teamwork skills to learn to use both TPM and APM so that specific risks presented by one approach use are compensated by the use of other. Finally, organizations should have good TPM practices before planning to implement agile practices.

Originality/value

The findings of this study suggest that TPM with high teamwork quality supported by APM can enhance project success. APM supported by TPM contributes to improved project success.

Documenting the Interactive Effects of Project Manager and Team-Level Communication Behaviors in Integrated Project Delivery Teams

This study examines the influence of project managers’ communication behaviors in integrated project delivery (IPD) projects. This study also considers the impact of team-level information sharing on team-level outcomes (i.e., goal alignment, decision quality, process commitment, and project quality). Results indicate that team information sharing was perceived as beneficial, but the effects of project manager communication behaviors were inconsistent. Interaction analyses indicated that project managers’ communication behaviors hindered team functioning if teams were already engaging in adequate levels of information sharing. This manuscript contributes to the project management corpus by explicating an integrative model whereby project manager and team-level information-sharing behaviors are modeled simultaneously.

Documenting development of interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers by visualizing connections

In 2015, a multidisciplinary group of academic researchers and extension personnel was awarded a US Department of Agriculture Coordinated Agricultural Project grant. The team’s goal was to understand human decision-making in the context of potential livestock disease outbreaks, investigating the impediments to increased adoption of biosecurity practices by producers from multiple perspectives. Counting publications and presentations was not deemed adequate evidence of growth of interdisciplinary collaboration. Instead, we took a developmental evaluation approach, collecting data to illuminate patterns of interconnectedness across disciplinary boundaries. These data, mapped annually on a baseline framework, reveal the team moving from disciplinary groups with disparate epistemologies and interests to a cohesive interdisciplinary team involved in many unexpected and emergent projects.

The Effect of Political Skill on Relationship Quality in Construction Projects: The Mediating Effect of Cooperative Conflict Management Styles

Negative consequences can arise if interpersonal conflicts in construction projects are not handled properly. This study aims to investigate the relationship among political skill, cooperative conflict management styles, and relationship quality. Multiple regressions were used to test the hypothesis based on 206 items of data collected from construction project practitioners in China. Results demonstrate the mechanism of action among political skill, conflict management styles, and relationship quality and verify the mediating effect of cooperative conflict management styles, providing enlightenment for future research on conflict management.

Development of a Competency-Based Curriculum for undergraduate education in Pediatric Dentistry: A systematic approach

The changing paradigm of dental education in India has led its way to the development of Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC). This article describes the process of developing CBC in the specialty of Pediatric Dentistry under the initiative of Dental Council of India. Rationale behind CBC development is to bring uniform system of education for improving oral health outcomes of the society in long term. The process of CBC development was a collaborative teamwork, planned meticulously with predefined outline, tasks and timelines. Workflow involved identification of curricular content, defining program goals, outlining competencies, assigning them domains / levels of clinical competence, priority, educational strategies, assessment practices, integration and numbers needed for certification in selected competencies. Early clinical exposure was introduced in CBC. The final content was validated and submitted to the Council. CBC output can be summarized as competencies with fair share of all domains, levels, prioritization and integration. It is characterized by flexibility for choosing educational strategies and assessment practices. It opens up ways for global competition. However, it still has some inherent weaknesses like diverging learning paths, time constraints and number chasing. CBC can further have more academic flexibility and develop toward an outcome-based approach. Faculty preparedness and acceptability shall be the biggest challenges in CBC implementation besides resources' availability, support from leadership and acceptability from our primary stakeholders, our learners. CBC is the beginning of evidence-based delivery of education in dentistry. An effective implementation of CBC in current form would result in increased numbers of competent oral healthcare professionals for the society.

Relationships Among Structures, Team Processes, and Outcomes for Service Users in Quebec Mental Health Service Networks

Background:

Few studies have identified and compared profiles of mental health service networks (MHSN) in terms of structures, processes, and outcomes, based on cluster analyses and perceptions of team managers, MH professionals and service users. This study assessed these associations in Quebec metropolitan, urban and semi-urban MHSN.

Methods:

A framework adapted from the Donabedian model guided data management, and cluster analyses were used to identify categories. Study participants included team managers (n = 45), MH professionals (n = 311) and service users (n = 327).

Results:

For all three MHSN, a common outcome category emerged: service users with complex MH problems and negative outcomes. The Metropolitan network reported two categories for structures (specialized MH teams, primary care MH teams) and processes (senior medical professional, psychosocial professionals), and outcomes (middle-age men with positive outcomes, older women with few MH problems). The Urban and Semi-urban networks revealed one category for structures (all teams) and service user (young service users with drug disorders), but two for processes (psychosocial professionals: urban, all professionals: semi-urban).

Conclusion:

The Metropolitan MHSN showed greater heterogeneity regarding structures and team processes than the other two MHSN. Service user outcomes were largely associated with clinical characteristics, regardless of network configurations for structures and team processes.

How Do Relational Contracting Norms Affect IPD Teamwork Effectiveness? A Social Capital Perspective

As a typical relational contracting (RC) method, integrated project delivery (IPD) attaches importance to key contracting parties’ teamwork effectiveness. This study aims to elucidate the relationship between RC norms and IPD teamwork effectiveness from a social capital (SC) perspective and to examine the moderating role of building information modeling (BIM) application level. Survey data from 144 respondents were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results show that both cognitive SC (shared vision) and relational SC (trust) partially mediate the relationship between RC norms and IPD teamwork effectiveness and that high-level BIM application strengthens the positive relationships. The findings’ implications are discussed.

How Cooperation Reinforces Conflict Over Time

Managing projects raises multiple tensions such as the need to balance cooperativeness and assertiveness. By adopting a process perspective, we analyze why a project group consisting of three heterogeneous subgroups is failing to uphold such balance over time. Instead, overemphasizing cooperativeness in the early phases of the project led to over-assertiveness and escalation of group conflict. We identify three mechanisms for reinforcing dynamics. First, we find that subgroups overestimate other subgroups’ behavioral autonomy, which promotes holding simplified, negative images of each other. Second, subgroups adopt vertical disidentification when they define their own particular role. Third, cooperativeness conceals pejorative perceptions.

Conflict Management, Team Coordination, and Performance Within Multicultural Temporary Projects: Evidence From the Construction Industry

The purpose of our study is to enhance the understanding of relationships between conflict management style, team coordination, and performance in multicultural project team contexts. We investigate how conflict management can contribute to team effectiveness through the mediation of the level of team coordination by collecting data from 126 team leaders and supervisors and 378 members nested in different multicultural projects in the construction industry. Our results show that, contrary to the findings from prior research in other team contexts, an avoiding style of conflict management can have a positive impact on the performance of multicultural project teams.

Variables Associated With Perceived Work Role Performance Among Professionals in Multidisciplinary Mental Health Teams Overall and in Primary Care and Specialized Service Teams, Respectively

This study had a dual purpose (1) to identify variables associated with perceived work role performance (WRP) among 315 mental health professionals (MHPs) in Quebec and (2) to compare variables related to WRP in MH primary care teams (PCTs) and specialized service teams (SSTs), respectively. WRP was measured using an adapted version of the work role questionnaire. Variables were organized within five areas: individual characteristics, perceived team attributes, perceived team processes, perceived team emergent states, and geographical and organizational context. Half of the WRP variables were linked to team processes. Knowledge sharing correlated with WRP in both MH PCTs and SSTs. Team attributes had more impact on MH PCTs, while team processes and team emergent states played a larger role among SSTs. The association between WRP and knowledge sharing confirms the need for a systematic training program to promote interdisciplinary collaboration. Integration strategies (e.g., service agreements) could improve collaboration between MH PCTs and SSTs and help MHPs perform more effectively within PCTs.

Understand, reduce, respond: project complexity management theory and practice

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of complexity and its management from an OM perspective, building on and extending the systematic literature review published in this journal in 2011, and provide a foundation for exploring the interactions between complexities and responses.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper takes a subjective view of complexity, focusing on the “lived experience” of managers. It takes an updated systematic literature review, and demonstrates the comprehensiveness of a framework to classify complexities of projects. It reports the findings from 43 workshops with over 1,100 managers.

Findings

First, the complexity framework is effective in aiding understanding. Second, and somewhat unexpectedly, managers were able to identify strategies to reduce the majority of complexities that they faced. Third, the workshops identified a typology of responses to residual complexities.

Research limitations/implications

The framework has demonstrated its utility, and a gap in understanding emergent complexities is identified. The framework further presents the opportunity to explore the recursive nature of complexity and response.

Practical implications

This paper provides a framework that is both comprehensive and comprehensible. The authors demonstrate that complexities can be reduced and provide a means to assess responses to residual complexities, including potentially matching managers to projects.

Originality/value

This work extends the previous systematic review combined with extensive empirical data to generate findings that are having impact in practice, and have the potential to strengthen a relatively neglected area within OM. A research agenda is suggested to support this.

In a League of Their Own: Exploring the Impacts of Shared Work History for Distributed Online Project Teams

Project management is fraught with challenges, particularly for teams that are distributed and interact online. Conflict between subgroups is one challenge that may occur during the course of a project. Using social identity theory, this research explores how subgroups arising from individuals’ shared work histories impact a project team. A massive multiplayer online role-playing game provided the context for our exploration. Results suggest that there are positive and negative consequences to project team members with shared work histories. Our findings have implications for practice and suggest potential opportunities for future research.

Influence of Project Partnering on Stakeholder Role Ambiguity and Project Manager Risk Perception in Information System Projects

Project partnering is an efficient management intervention for enhancing software project performance. Empirical studies have shown that project partnering can effectively reduce role ambiguity during project development; however, these studies focused only on user-related problems. We conducted a matched triplet questionnaire survey of 102 software project managers, users, and developers to examine how project partnering enhances project performance via the risk perception and role ambiguity of certain key stakeholders. Results demonstrate that project partnering affects managers’ risk perception and certain key stakeholders’ role ambiguity, which in turn influences project performance. The findings provide new insight into the impact of risk perception and role ambiguity on project management.

Antecedents of Relationship Conflict in Cross-Functional Project Teams

Relationship conflict is a pervasive phenomenon in cross-functional project teams. Although previous studies have demonstrated the dysfunctional effect of relationship conflict, the direct drivers of relationship conflict in cross-functional project teams remain unclear. To address this gap, a literature review and an advisory group discussion were performed to identify the antecedents of the relationship conflict framework. Afterward, a structural equation model (SEM) was used to confirm the influence of such antecedents on relationship conflict. Intrapersonal diversity, uncertain project task, organizational culture diversity, and inappropriate behavior positively influence relationship conflict. These findings help researchers better understand the drivers of relationship conflict as well as open a gateway for practitioners to control and manage relationship conflict for a successful cross-functional project.

Antecedents and Consequences of User Coproduction in Information System Development Projects

Based on a coproduction concept highlighted by service-dominant logic, this study attempts to understand the antecedents and consequences of user coproduction in information system development projects. As a key contribution, we posit that user coproduction is influenced by social capital between users and developers; we then postulate that user coproduction determines the project outcomes. Paired data collected from both user representatives and developers by using a survey approach was used to test proposed hypotheses. The results showed that user coproduction has a positively significant influence on project outcomes, and social capital between user representatives and developers is also associated with user coproduction.