The role of team effectiveness in construction project teams and project performance

Azmy, N (2012) The role of team effectiveness in construction project teams and project performance. PhD thesis, Iowa State University, USA.

Abstract

Increasingly, organizations in the construction sector use teams to meet today's global competition and customer expectations, but they need better ways of evaluating the effectiveness of the teams. To ensure that construction teams are successful and effective, construction companies must promote, measure, and evaluate their teams' effectiveness. It is believed that creating a highly effective project team will produce high-end project outcomes that exceed standards, and, therefore, enhance overall productivity. Moreover, it is imperative for construction teams to know the contributing factors of team effectiveness in construction projects. The purpose of the study is to determine the role of team effectiveness in construction project teams on the overall construction project performance. It examines different factors that associated with team effectiveness and the relationship between the team effectiveness factors and project performance aspects. Quantitative and qualitative research methods are used for this study, which are survey and semi-structured interview. A Team Effectiveness Survey and Project Performance Survey are developed to use for data collection. The data collected was analyzed using several statistical tests, including Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and linear regression. The results obtained from the data analysis are validated using semi-structured interview. It was found that Team Leadership is the most important factor in Project Change Management. Additionally, definitions of team effectiveness in construction project teams are developed based on the perspectives of project team members and project owners. The surveys developed are intended for assessment and evaluation of the construction project team to maintain their effectiveness level throughout the project phases. The outcomes from this study are anticipated to provide construction project teams with the ideas on the factors that need to be focused in order to improve team effectiveness on project performance aspects. Furthermore, the definition on team effectiveness from the team members and owner's point of view are developed to provide better understanding on what team effectiveness really means to different parties on a construction project.

Item Type: Thesis (Doctoral)
Thesis advisor: Jennifer, S S
Uncontrolled Keywords: change management; competition; construction project; construction team; leadership; performance; productivity; project team; interview; qualitative research; project performance
Index terms: project team, team leadership, project performance, effectiveness, project outcome, construction team, owner, productivity, construction project team, variance, statistical test, construction sector, team effectiveness, competition, construction project, qualitative research, survey, construction company, qualitative research method, change management, data analysis, interview
Subjects: market analysis, production management, practitioner, project completion, organization, statistical analysis, industry analysis, sociology, measurement and scaling, project management theory and practice, performance management, management, project delivery, data analysis and analytics, research design and methodology, data collection methods
Topics: Stakeholder Management, Roles and Professions, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Organizational Design, Project Management, Quality Management
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