Lefebvre, G (2009) The influence of the psychological characteristics of the team members on construction project performance. PhD thesis, University of Salford, UK.
Abstract
The dynamic of confrontation and conflict that prevails between project team members and organizations in the construction industry can provoke some devastating consequences on project performance (Loosemore, M. 1998). Furthermore, the fragmentation of projects into different phases impacts on the professional relationships between team members and organizations involved (Singh, A. and Johnson, M., 1998). This context invites an investigation into the different factors that condition the execution of a project and the impacts, (human, organizational, institutional, governmental, technological, and others) on the relational dynamics of project team. According to Trompenaars (1996), people and teams are as important as other aspects (technical and organizational) in project success. This study investigates the psychological features of the main players from the different organizations involved in the project, and seeks to understand the influence they have on the performance of multidisciplinary teams. The methodological approach was to undertake in-depth case studies of the teams associated with four recently completed construction projects in Quebec. All the projects involved public clients. The case studies gathered information about the performance of the projects and also the psychological characteristics of the team members. Standard analysis tools were used to draw conclusions on the strengths and weaknesses of the teams and the propensity for these to impact on project performance. The findings of the study show that all the teams had significant weaknesses that could lead to problems with project performance. In some of the cases, the analysis shows that there was a link between project failure and team characteristics. The study concludes by proposing that there is a value to construction clients in evaluating project team characteristics before projects commence. It is argued that weaknesses can be identified and appropriate action taken to avoid potential problems in the execution of the project
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | client; conflict; government; project performance; project success; project team |
| Index terms: | construction client, project failure, case study, project success, public client, professional relationships, construction industry, project team, dynamics, project performance, investigation, multidisciplinary team, fragmentation, project client, construction project |
| Subjects: | project delivery, project completion, business, data collection methods, practitioner, sociology, systems engineering, industry analysis, project management theory and practice, production management |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Project Management, Research Practice, Stakeholder Management, Roles and Professions, 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