Determination of factors contributing to team success within the construction project environment

Abstract

The construction industry is plagued with adversarial relations between owners, designers, and contractors. These adversarial relations are often fostered by human resource associated factors such as poor communication, personality conflicts, lack of clear project objectives, and inadequate empowerment of project personnel. In an effort to avoid adversarial relations and function effectively on a project, time and money must be invested in developing successful teams within the construction project environment. This thesis addresses the development of effective teams through identifying factors that contribute to team success and barriers. Initially, a framework is established for this study through the presentation of a brief teamwork history, team performance models, and effective team characteristics. Then, upon a thorough literature survey, two categories, structural and humanistic, are established to represent nine selected characteristics which, in turn, are used to measure team success and team barriers. Data are collected via survey and interviews from a three party petrochemical project. Results show that of the nine characteristics, seven contributed to team success and minimized team barriers for the project investigated. The two characteristics that did not support the expected outcome are empowerment and management guidance and feedback. Further conclusions are discussed; future research recommendations are presented; and implications for construction project managers are suggested.