Anvuur, A M and Kumaraswamy, M M (2016) Effects of teamwork climate on cooperation in crossfunctional temporary multi-organization workgroups. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 142(1): 04015054, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
In this study, the formative roles of common goals, equal status, integrative interactions, and authority support as the optimal factors for engendering individuals' cooperation with their proximal crossfunctional project workgroups are examined. The four factors are properties of the workgroup environment and each have been highlighted as being important in previous conceptual and critical success factors (CSFs) studies of project effectiveness. However, until now, there has been no systematic empirical test of the interactive effects of all four factors in a construction temporary multiorganization (TMO) workgroup setting. The four factors are conceptualized in this study as the reflective dimensions of a superordinate multidimensional latent construct, teamwork climate. An integrative test was undertaken of the construct validity of this multidimensional construct, its substantive utility relative to its dimensions, and of specific hypotheses connecting the multidimensional construct and its dimensions to individual's in-role, extrarole, compliance, and deference behavior; the test was performed using two cross-cultural samples of built environment professional managers (U.K., N=381; and Hong Kong, N=140) and structural equation modeling. The results showed convergence in support of the multidimensional conceptualization of teamwork climate, and also showed that teamwork climate significantly and positively influences workgroup members' in-role, extrarole, compliance, and deference behavior. These findings provide compelling indication that teamwork climate is an important and efficient determinant of cooperative behavior within TMO contexts and, in so doing, make an important contribution to the extant and construction engineering and management lines of literature on work climates. This study also makes an important contribution to the debate in the extant literature about how to model the four climate dimensions, in so far as it shows that a superordinate multidimensional conceptualization maximizes predictive utility, theoretical parsimony, and bandwidth. Finally, this study makes an important contribution to practice, as it focuses project managers' attention on creating the generative project environments for the four optimal conditions for teamwork.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | alignment; contracting; cooperation; crossfunctional workgroup; teamwork climate; temporary multiorganization |
| Index terms: | cooperation, critical success factor, structural equation modelling, compliance, cooperative behaviour, manager, determinant, interaction, dimension, effectiveness, built environment, construction engineering, validity, teamwork, project manager, temporary multi-organization, Hong Kong |
| Subjects: | psychology, health monitoring assessment and metrics, profession, risk assessment, evaluation and assessment methods, business, practitioner, control systems, infrastructure and transport systems, statistical analysis, behavioral psychology, management, performance management, engineering methods, Geography, health safety and environment |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Risk Management, Engineering Principles, Project Management, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Health and Safety, Business Strategy, Organizational Design, Quality Management, Urban Studies |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
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