Egbu, C O; Gaskell, C and Howes, J (2001) The role of organizational culture and motivation in the effective utilization of information technology for teamworking in construction. In: Akintoye, A (ed.) Proceedings of 17th Annual ARCOM Conference, 5-7 September 2001, Salford, UK.
Abstract
This two-year EPSRC project focuses on the utilization and exploitation of IT for team working in the construction, manufacturing and the financial sectors. One aim is to discover what the construction industry can learn from other industries. The study employs a combination of research approaches, including case studies, ethnographic interviews, semi-structured interviews, postal questionnaires, the analysis of archive documents, and practitioner and researchers' workshops. There is a substantial amount of literature in the area of IT in construction teams, many of which are based on anecdotal evidence of the perceived benefits of IT to construction activities. There are also articles based on empirical investigations, which have been conducted on construction IT. However, these mainly tend to look at IT from a wider perspective, with many of these studies failing to capture the importance of the social dimensions in their quest to produce best practice or guidance documentation. This paper attempts to contribute to our knowledge of the social aspects of IT usage, utilization and exploitation, especially as it pertains to effective and efficient employment of IT for teamworking in construction and design teams. The paper documents and discusses important social issues from a thorough review of the relevant literature in construction and other industries, as well as the tentative findings from an on-going 2-year study. It is argued that culture and motivation are important factors when studying IT usage for teamworking. The effect of IT on teamworking varies enormously and can range from being extremely positive to alarmingly negative. This is, in turn, reinforced by the cultural and motivational factors at play within the organization. The conclusions are drawn from the findings of a series of ethnographic interviews. Tentative findings indicate that certain cultural types and specific motivational factors influence the effect IT has on teamworking. The recommendation is that there is ample scope for further studies to be conducted in the social dimensions of IT, exploring the role which subcultures and different motivational constructs play in both the utilization and exploitation of IT for teamworking in small, medium and large construction enterprises, and brining these issues to the attention of practitioners
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | culture; information technology; motivation; teamworking |
| Index terms: | interview, case study, Construction IT, workshop, construction activity, employment, design team, construction team, motivation, documentation, exploitation, best practice, practitioner, documents, investigation, questionnaire, evidence, construction industry, dimension, information technology, social aspect, organizational culture |
| Subjects: | industry analysis, information systems, sociology, professional development, management, professional practice, construction operations, project delivery, health monitoring assessment and metrics, psychology, computing systems, practitioner, data collection methods, evaluation and assessment methods, construction type, business |
| Topics: | Business Strategy, Health and Safety, Project Management, Research Practice, Information Management, Roles and Professions, Construction Technology, Design Practice, Digital Applications, Human Resources, Site Management, Organizational Design |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here