Project Team Performance Research Articles

Effects of Recruitment, Selection and Training on Construction Project Team Performance in Australia

The article provides a review and synthesis of previous research findings backed by a pragmatic perspective pertaining to the effects of recruitment, selection, and training on construction project team performance in Australia. The paper has been structured in a manner that includes a brief introduction to the topic, definition of the problem statement and methodology, definition of recruitment, selection and training, importance of recruitment, selection and training for construction projects, investigation of current state of recruitment, selection and training in global construction projects and its relatability to Australian context, ascertainment of shortfalls and challenges of present approaches and how those impact the construction team’s performance at present, and finally analysis of existing strategies and novel concepts to overcome the shortfalls of existing recruitment, selection, and training practices. The study has been concluded with actionable recommendations to improve the existing recruitment, selection and training processes in a way that enhances the overall performance of construction projects, which has been verified with the assistance of industry professionals. The author anticipates that the content provided in this article shall be beneficial for effective decision making by organizational leadership as well as human resources personnel to establish and retain high performing construction project teams.

Project Team Rewards and Performance of Information Technology-Based Projects in Commercial Banks in Kenya

Purpose: The expected outcome of projects is to achieve a positive performance consistently. Yet, there is no agreed definition of project performance, which complicates the achievement of the purpose. Projects in Kenya are mostly complex and difficult to manage and project team management practices are mostly used in projects for effective functioning. However, project managers in Kenya have been focusing on technical constraints of projects and neglecting project teams’ related constraints. The objective of the study was to investigate the influence of project team rewards on project performance in commercial banks in Kenya. Methods: The study adopted a pragmatic research approach. A cross-sectional study design and explanatory research design were adopted in the study. The unit of analysis was 429 projects in the 39 commercial banks operating in Kenya as of close of business on 31st December 2020 categorized into 20 types of Information technology projects. The target population was 195 Information Technology project managers as well as 78 staff working in human resource department, 78 staff working in finance department, and 78 staff working in operations departments in the 39 commercial banks operating in Kenya. The study used stratified random sampling to choose 206 respondents from the study population. Secondary and primary data was employed in this study. Annual reports of commercial banks provided secondary data. In addition, a semi-structured questionnaire was adopted to obtain data. Qualitative data, which was obtained from open-ended questions, was analyzed by use of thematic analysis, and the results were presented in a descriptive form. Inferential and descriptive statistics will be used to analyze quantitative data with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 26). Descriptive statistics included frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation, and percentages. Inferential statistics included univariate regression analysis and Pearson correlation. Results: The study found that project team rewards had a significant effect on performance of information technology-based projects in commercial banks in Kenya. Conclusion: The study recommends that commercial banks should also diversify and strengthen their reward structures to better align with team members’ contributions and achievements. They should further strengthen their recognition and promotion programs to ensure that these elements are consistently applied and effectively contribute to team performance.

An evaluation of the adaptive performance of architects in project teams in Ghana using fuzzy approach

PurposeThe adaptive performance of architects as a key professional in project delivery teams has become important for developing strategies, skills and cognitive behaviours for sustainability of working systems. However, the understanding and knowledge of adaptive performance of architects is lacking in the current literature. Thus, this study fills this gap by primarily assessing the adaptive performance of architects in project teams in project delivery.Design/methodology/approachBy adopting the widely used eight-dimension attributes of adaptive performance, a questionnaire survey was conducted among team participants and stakeholders who directly or indirectly work on projects with architects in the public and private sectors project delivery supply chain in Ghana. A total of 42 responses were subsequently used in a fuzzy set theory analysis being facilitated by a set of linguistic terms.FindingsFrom the assessment, the overall adaptive performance of architects from the eight-dimension attributes emerged to be fairly high. Additionally, the architects’ performance in the individual eight-dimensions showed varied results. High performance was registered in architects’ ability to handling work stress and cultural adaptability. Also, architects demonstrated a fairly high performance in dealing with uncertain or unpredictable work situations. However, in the cases of learning work tasks, technologies and procedures, interpersonal adaptability and handling crisis and emergency situations, architects were deemed to have low and fairly low adaptive performance among project teams.Originality/valueGiven the vagueness and complexities in understanding adaptability among teams and its assessment, through the use of fuzzy set theory based on a suitable set of linguistics terms, the study presents a novel understanding of the level of architects’ adaptive performance in project teams in project delivery. The findings are extremely useful in helping architects adapt and cope with changing competitive work environment by developing the right cognitive behaviours for task functions and organizational roles, disruptions and aiding their ability to self-regulate.

Leadership Styles and Their Influence on Project Team Performance

Leadership styles play a pivotal role in shaping the dynamics and performance of project teams, directly influencing the success of projects across various industries. This study explores the impact of different leadership styles—transformational, transactional, laissez-faire, servant, situational, and distributed—on project team performance. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, including quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews, the research provides a comprehensive analysis of how these leadership styles affect team outcomes. The findings reveal that transformational leadership significantly enhances team motivation, cohesion, and performance, particularly in environments requiring innovation and adaptability. Transactional leadership, while effective in structured settings, may limit creativity and flexibility. The study also highlights the challenges of laissez-faire leadership and underscores the value of servant and situational leadership in fostering team collaboration and addressing diverse needs. The implications for project managers and organizations include the importance of selecting and cultivating the appropriate leadership style to align with the specific demands of the project and team. Future research directions include examining the integration of multiple leadership styles and their long-term effects on team performance.

Impact of Shared Leadership on Project Team Performance: Mediating Role of Knowledge Sharing and Moderating Role of Project Manager’s Ambidexterity

The present research investigates shared leadership and its antecedents in the project-based organizations operating in Pakistan’s twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The present study combines the quadratic model of shared leadership with the literature of leadership styles such as Task Orientation shared leadership, Relation Orientation shared leadership, Change Orientation shared leadership, and Micro-Political Orientation shared leadership, which lead to enhanced project team performance via knowledge sharing. The project manager's ambidexterity is also considered in the hypothesized link as a moderator. The data was collected from 291 respondents from different project-based organizations. The results delineate that Task Orientation shared leadership, Change Orientation shared leadership, Relation Orientation shared leadership, and Micro-Political Orientation shared leadership, along with knowledge sharing, have a significant and positive influence on project team performance. Moreover, knowledge sharing mediates the relationship between shared leadership (Task Orientation shared leadership, Change Orientation shared leadership, Relation Orientation shared leadership, and Micro-Political Orientation shared leadership) and project team performance. In addition, the exploitative and explorative behavior of the project manager, playing the role of moderator, was also tested. The results have shown a significant impact of moderation on Task Orientation shared leadership and Change Orientation shared leadership but an insignificant impact on Relation Orientation shared leadership and Micro-Political Orientation shared leadership for exploitative behavior, and moderated the relationship with Task Orientation shared leadership only for explorative behavior respectively.

CCTFv2: Modeling Cyber Competitions.

Cyber competitions are usually team activities, where team performance not only depends on the members' abilities but also on team collaboration. This seems intuitive, especially given that team formation is a well-studied discipline in competitive sports and project management, but unfortunately, team performance and team formation strategies are rarely studied in the context of cybersecurity and cyber competitions. Since cyber competitions are becoming more prevalent and organized, this gap becomes an opportunity to formalize the study of team performance in the context of cyber competitions. This work follows a cross-validating two-approach methodology. The first is the computational modeling of cyber competitions using Agent-Based Modeling. Team members are modeled, in NetLogo, as collaborating agents competing over a network in a red team/blue team match. Members' abilities, team interaction and network properties are parametrized (inputs), and the match score is reported as output. The second approach is grounded in the literature of team performance (not in the context of cyber competitions), where a theoretical framework is built in accordance with the literature. The results of the first approach are used to build a causal inference model using Structural Equation Modeling. Upon comparing the causal inference model to the theoretical model, they showed high resemblance, and this cross-validated both approaches. Two main findings are deduced: first, the body of literature studying teams remains valid and applicable in the context of cyber competitions. Second, coaches and researchers can test new team strategies computationally and achieve precise performance predictions. The targeted gap used methodology and findings which are novel to the study of cyber competitions.

Unveiling the Impact of Communication Network on Engineering Project Team Performance: The Interplay of Centralization and Tie Strength.

Recent research has focused on the impact of communication networks on the performance of construction project teams, attempting empirical exploration from various social network analysis perspectives. However, there is still a significant gap in understanding the variations in performance and the mechanisms for teams using different communication networks. Drawing from organizational learning theory and social network theory, this study, based on the Input-Mediator-Output (IMO) model, explores the effects of the interaction between centralization and tie strength in communication networks on team performance, as well as the mediating mechanisms of knowledge sharing behavior and team resilience performance in engineering project teams. Drawing on classic group communication experiment, we design an online communication and collaboration platform to simulate the execution of a construction engineering project. Finally, data was collected through the communication experiment with 720 participants, and hypotheses were tested using ANOVA and PROCESS. The results indicate that under conditions of weak tie strength, centralized communication networks yield higher performance. Conversely, under conditions of strong tie strength, decentralized communication networks demonstrate superior performance. Furthermore, this study also verifies the mediating role of knowledge sharing behavior and team resilience performance when tie strength is strong. This study focuses on engineering project team, exploring the evolutionary development of knowledge sharing behavior and team resilience performance from the perspective of the interaction of communication network structural characteristics, as well as the paths to enhancing team performance. Our research results highlight the interactive effects of structural indicators and relational indicators of communication networks, revealing the mechanism by which the structure of communication networks impacts team performance. Additionally, from the perspectives of forming and timely adjusting team communication models, and motivating and supporting employee communication behavior, our study provides practical insights for project managers and relevant administrators.

Gender composition and team performance: evidence from a randomized experiment

ABSTRACT This research aims to explore the impact of gender composition on team project performance in a college intermediate microeconomics course, using a randomized experiment approach and applying a rich database spanning over 14 years at an elite public university in Taiwan. The estimation results demonstrate a significantly negative relationship between the team male ratio and team project performance. In addition, we find a U-shape relationship between gender ratio and team performance after controlling for students’ prior GPA, midterm performance, individual project performance, and semester fixed effects. It implies that gender-unbalanced teams perform relatively better than gender-balanced teams. These results suggest potential communication and coordination failures across gender and less knowledge spillover and skill specializations for gender-balanced teams. The relatively large team size and the short time for teamwork in this experiment are plausible explanations for our findings.

TEAM PERFORMANCE IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Numerous studies have been conducted in the construction sector to assess how project delivery techniques affect project success. However, the project team's setup and structure have received minimal attention, hence requiring more thorough studies that systematically review the body of knowledge on project team performance in the construction industry. This study aims to improve project team performance in the construction sector by systematically reviewing a considerable number of prior research that focused on project team approaches. A narrative literature review approach was used to accomplish this goal using two major journal databases, Scopus and Web of Science. The search efforts resulted in the identification of 28 publications for systematic review. The results found 23 essential approaches for raising project team productivity. Based on the workplace, these approaches were divided into two categories: psychosocial factors and physical factors. Importantly, the results of this review demonstrated a significant relationship between the majority of variables and the elements of the psychosocial work environment. Finally, this study offers several suggestions for future research based on the knowledge gathered from the review.

Why project managers’ knowledge hiding is harmful to NPD projects: resilient team resource caravans as an explanatory mechanism

PurposeNew product development (NPD) projects are strategically important for firms’ operations but suffer from high failure rates. Leadership is a key factor for project success. However, in contrast to positive project leadership, project managers’ knowledge hiding has received little attention. Drawing on the input-mediator-output (IMO) framework and model of work team resilience, we explored the effect of project managers’ destructive knowledge hiding (i.e. evasive hiding and playing dumb) on project team performance (i.e. efficiency and effectiveness) and the serial indirect effect through team psychological safety and transactive memory systems.Design/methodology/approachWe conducted a time-lagged multiple-sourcing investigation of Chinese high-tech firms and tested the hypotheses using data collected from 105 NPD project teams.FindingsOur findings demonstrated that project managers’ knowledge hiding negatively affects NPD project team performance and indirectly negatively affects transactive memory systems through team psychological safety. Moreover, project managers’ knowledge hiding exerts a negative indirect effect on team performance through team psychological safety and transactive memory systems in serial.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature on operations management (OM) by broadening our understanding of the connection between project managers' destructive knowledge hiding and the failure of NPD projects. In providing such insight, it also offers practical guidance for overcoming team-level obstacles arising from project managers' knowledge hiding.

Project Team Planning and Performance of Housing Projects in Kenya

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of project team planning on the performance of housing projects in Kenya.
 Methodology: The study applied mixed methods research design. The study target population was 675 strategic registered contractors in the housing projects in Nairobi metropolitan, Kenya. Based on Yamane Formula adopted the sample size for this study was 251 respondents. Purposive sampling was used to select the 251 from the list of 675 contractors. The respondents consisted of the project managers; engineers; architects; contractors; and the site supervisors. The study used both primary and secondary data using semi structured questionnaires and interview guides. The study used SPSS version 25 software to analyze the data where both descriptive and inferential analyses were obtained.
 Results: The inferential analysis results revealed that project team planning had a significant and positive influence on the performance of housing projects in Kenya at p<0.05. This indicates that project team skills, project team experience, communication plan and project team efficacy are vital in the performance of housing projects. The study used analysis of variance to determine whether the model is significant and shows the good fit for the data. The Coefficient of determination R2 of 0.513 showed that 51.3% of housing project performance is explained by project team planning.
 Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: While the existing competency theory used in this study was validated, the study recommends that contractors in Kenya should consider project team planning as an important aspect in housing projects as has been observed by majority of the contractors. The study recommends the government to make appropriate policies in housing implementation in the ministry of housing which promote the establishment of comprehensive project teams that include experts in various domains such as architecture, engineering, finance, and project management.

Strategic Alignment of Emotional Intelligence with Project Management: A Framework for Enhancing Project Success and Team Performance

Strategic Alignment of Emotional Intelligence with Project Management: A Framework for Enhancing Project Success and Team Performance

Project Management and Team Performance: An Applied Transformational Leadership Perspective

Purpose: This study tends to examine the influence of transformational leadership on project project and team performance specifically employee empowerment, employee stimulation, and project efficiency and effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach: The study is underpinned by a quantitative methodology and deductive reasoning. A questionnaire was employed. Purposive sampling was used and a sample of 288 individuals was obtained. Findings: Transformational leadership has a positive impact on project management and team performance. Implications: Fostering a nurturing environment led by managers is crucial, enabling employees to freely express themselves, exhibit proactivity, and experience respect. Encouraging transparent communication concerning individual objectives and responsibilities is highly recommended. Practical implications: From a pragmatic standpoint, the study was structured around the validation of three hypotheses. The results have substantiated a favorable association between leadership and the empowerment of employees, the stimulation of employees, as well as the efficiency and effectiveness of projects. Originality/value: The synthesis of existing literature implies that effective team management significantly shapes project performance and, by extension, the holistic performance of organizations. This shift is underscored by a transition from traditional hierarchical frameworks to team-centric structures that foster performance-friendly settings. Within this context, the pivotal roles of leadership and employee empowerment have emerged as indispensable drivers. To put it succinctly, while evaluating project success, managers should prioritize quantifiable metrics like costs, schedules, and scope. Concurrently, they should cultivate a profound comprehension of the multifaceted influences that intricately intersect with project endeavors.

The Effect of Comprehensive Leadership Style on Team Performance: The Role of Promoting A Team's Innovation Culture

Objective: Inclusive leadership style is considered an effective leadership method in any organization. The aim of this study is to its impact on project team performance, a common form of outsourcing in Hanoi, Vietnam. While also considering the mediating role of innovation culture in this relationship. Method: The study provides empirical evidence from a sample of 876 project team members at outsourcing companies in Hanoi by evaluating the measurement model and testing the structural equation model (PLS-SEM). Results: The results of empirical research show that innovation culture has an important role in mediating the relationship between inclusive leadership style and team performance. In addition, innovation culture also positively affects individual creativity, thereby helping to improve work results in teams. From there, it shows the need to build an innovation culture framework that includes people, process, data, and technology aspects to evaluate the innovation approach of enterprises. Finally, some implications of working group governance and team leadership are discussed, such as increasing the application of collaboration technologies, the stronger establishment of the virtual team model, and digital leadership orientation. There are ways to promote and strengthen a culture of innovation in IT businesses to reach maturity in digital transformation and how to respond to challenges for faster recovery in today's context. Conclusions: The regression model showed a significant relationship between leadership style and team performance, leadership style and innovation culture, and innovation culture and team performance. The study provided policy recommendations to support leadership style and team performance.

High-Performance Project Teams: Analysis from the Stoic Approach

Nowadays, any consideration regarding project management implies an all-encompassing approach constituted by three perspectives: organizational, human, and engineering. In this sense, it is necessary for the project manager to reflect on various issues, such as ethics, the understanding of the environment, leadership, teamwork, achieving results, change in management, the adoption of new technologies, and knowledge management, among many others, all this with the intention of ensuring success through value creation, consistent and aligned with the expectations of the different stakeholders. Because of the adoption of a comprehensive vision of project management, disciplines such as philosophy have become logical within the reasoning of organizational management. Classic postulates such as those of the Stoic school have become references for modern leader-managers because of their approach associated with personal development, self-discipline, self-control, logic, balance with the environment, and the creation of social value. The research analyzed how the postulates of the Stoic philosophy can determine the high performance of project teams. To achieve this, 70 project managers from different small and medium enterprises (SMEs) located in Bogotá, Colombia, were surveyed about the seven main thoughts of Stoicism and the possible relationship with the performance of their project teams. Based on their answers, a correlational model of structural equations was applied to obtain the conclusions of this study. The results obtained in this investigation are intended to contribute significantly to the maturity and modernization of the project management discipline.

Project Team Empowerment and Performance of Learning through Play Project in Rwanda

Project Team Empowerment and Performance of Learning through Play Project in Rwanda

Research on the Influences of Task Interdependence on Team Performance in the Context of the Leader–Member Exchange Differentiation in the Public–Private Partnership Projects

Task interdependence is essential in sustainable cooperation, conflict prevention, and performance improvement of public–private partnership (PPP) project teams and promotes the sustainable development of PPP projects. Based on the theoretical logic of Input–Process–Output (IPO), integrating Team Process Theory and Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) Theory, we constructed a mediated model of task interdependence, team reflection, team performance, and leader–member exchange differentiation in PPP projects. Based on this, we conducted questionnaire research and research analysis on 168 PPP project teams. The results of the study indicate that task interdependence in PPP projects has a significant positive effect on team performance, and there is a significant mediating role of team reflection in the relationship between task interdependence and team performance. The leader–member exchange differentiation in teams not only moderates the relationship between task interdependence and team reflection and team reflection and team performance but also further moderates the indirect effect of task interdependence in PPP projects on team performance through team reflection. The findings extend the impact effects of task interdependence in engineering projects, as well as the moderating mechanisms of leader–member exchange differentiation in Chinese organizational scenarios, providing lessons for PPP project team performance management and sustainable development of PPP projects.

A Study on the Impact of Team Interdependence on Cooperative Performance in Public–Private Partnership Projects: The Moderating Effect of Government Equity Participation

Sustainable collaboration among teams drives sustainable public–private partnership (PPP) projects, and the interactions, perceptions, and behaviors of project teams with ad hoc decision-making power critically impact collaborative performance in PPP contexts. While the role relationships between subjective interdependence, collective behaviors, team processes, and performance in PPP project teams are yet to be clarified, further validation is needed to embed this logic in project management. This study aims to clarify the role relationships among the four variables of team interdependence, team interaction, team performance, and government participation. Through an empirical investigation of the data of 367 samples of PPP project teams and data analysis by SPSS 26.0 and Amos 23.0, it is found that team interdependence (task interdependence, result interdependence) has a significant positive effect on cooperative performance, and team interaction plays a mediating role in this process. Compared with enterprises with low government share, team interdependence with high government share has a significant positive effect on the team cooperation performance of PPP projects and has a positive moderating effect on the influence mechanism of team cooperation performance. Based on this, this paper proposes strategies for PPP project team management and sustainable development. It suggests corresponding suggestions for improving PPP project team performance and sustainable development.

THE EFFECTS OF INDIVIDUAL ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION AND SELF-EFFICACY DIMENSIONS ON PROJECT PERFORMANCE AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

The literature on corporate entrepreneurship has discussed the role of entrepreneurship orientation (EO) and self-efficacy in enhancing venture creation and a firm’s growth. In contrast, the effect of EO and self-efficacy on project performance outcomes has been relatively overlooked. In this study, we examine how an individual’s entrepreneurship orientation (IEO), entrepreneurship self-efficacy (ESE), and entrepreneurship management skills (EMS) affect both entrepreneurship projects and non-entrepreneurship projects. Using a sample of 308 observations, our analyses reveal that while various dimensions of IEO, ESE, and EMS can significantly influence project performance, the effect is more pronounced for non-entrepreneurship projects. Furthermore, in all three ESE dimensions, we find that the effect on individual project performance is almost double the effect on team project performance. This implies that individuals consider their efforts and contributions to be more significant than the collective team efforts when completing a group project. This study contributes to the literature by providing a new perspective to assess the effect of each dimension of IEO, ESE, and EMS at both the individual level and the project level. For students, entrepreneurs, and policymakers, this study presents important insights into two areas: the influence of entrepreneurship education on an individual’s performance on individual projects and team projects; and how entrepreneurial characteristics can be nurtured to produce good entrepreneurs and project managers. This is especially significant for emerging countries, where entrepreneurship education plays a key role in supporting economic transition, promoting the private sector, and encouraging the establishment of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Influence of Project Teams on Performance of Nairobi County Government Health Center Projects in Kenya

Purpose: The aim of the study was to examine the influence of project teams on performance of Nairobi County Government health centre projects in Kenya.
 Methodology: This study will use of a descriptive research design. The study will target 15 completed healthcare projects byNMS. The target population for the study will therefore be 399 project management employees. The sample size will be derived from the target population using Yamane’s sample size determination formula. 1.9975. The 200 respondents will be chosen with the help of stratified random sampling technique. The study’s primary data will be obtained using semi-structured questionnaires. Quantitative and qualitative data will be generated from the closed-ended and open-ended questions, respectively. Qualitative data will be analyzed on thematic basis and the findings provided in a narrative form. Inferential and descriptive statistics will be employed for analysis of quantitative data with the assistance of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 25). The study results will be presented through use of tables and figures.
 Findings: The study revealed that there was a significant relationship between project team communication and performance and Nairobi County health projects. It was further concluded that the size of the project team membership is effective and team members are constituted based on skills and abilities. The study also found that team members have order and ranks and formal organization never gets the way on how the job gets done. There is a policy framework that guides the formation of project team in the county and the project team has a clear vision. It was also showed that project team has a clear mission and the project team has a clear definition of the task to be performed. It was also concluded that project team development contributes to the productivity of the employees and training contributes to the development of project teams.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The study was anchored on the human capital theory which was developed by Schutz (1961) and the theory of constraints which was propounded by created by Eliyahu Goldratt in 1984. It is recommended to establish a well-defined project structure with clearly defined roles, ensuring that each team member understands their responsibilities and how they contribute to the overall project goals. Regular communication and updates on roles and responsibilities should be maintained throughout the project lifecycle. It also recommended that project team should be comprise people with skills, expertise and diversity.