Time pressure and coordinating project design in inter-functional teams: a configurational approach

Abstract

Project design has to be coordinated in an inter-functional team. This is critically challenging due to the knowledge-intensive nature of project design, the occupational boundaries between functions and time pressure facing project teams. This study aims to tackle this challenge by identifying the configurations of coordination mechanisms, i.e. mechanistic and organic coordination, adopted by inter-functional teams in the face of a high level of time pressure. A questionnaire-survey of 311 respondents from 46 building design projects was undertaken in China. Data were analyzed through a configurational analysis approach. The results show that two configurations could equally lead to high performance. Under a high level of time pressure, the configuration of formal coordination, digitally-mediated structured coordination, and cross-functional meetings is helpful to achieve high project design performance. If mechanistic coordination is absent, team members could equally accomplish superb design performance through organic coordination. This research contributes to the body of knowledge by presenting how inter-functional teams configure coordination mechanisms to deal with knowledge-intensive project design in the face of time pressure.