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8 Figure 5.2.2 Generic construction model of the phases of a project team's life cycle (based on . Cornick and Mather, 1999)..8 Figure 6.6 Diagram illustrating the variables that can affect a team's capabilities or.
PREFACE
EXECUTIVESUMMARY
BACKGROUND
When we think of the skills involved in the communication process, listening (or "receiving") is not often mentioned. Trust is often simply associated with the amount of effort each team member exerts (Lipnack and Stamps, 2000). Design constraints are discovered through information sharing (Lahti et al., 2004) in the early design phase, making this one of the most important phases.
The study by Lahti et al also highlighted the ability of team members to discuss design in a virtual context.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES FOR THE PROJECT AND LITERATURE REVIEW 6
Research Objectives
Literature Review: Research Context
TEAMWORK
Definition of Operational and Project Teams
Project Team Lifecycle and Processes
It is interesting and relevant to juxtapose the project team life cycle, shown in Figure 5.2.1, with Cornick and Mather's (1999) model, which describes a generic model of the phases in a. This model demonstrates an alignment, in terms of the time continuum, with the 'Generic construction model of the project team life cycle' in Figure 5.2.2, as illustrated by Cornick and Mather (1999), except that it refers to the actual conceptual processes. create and refine. Each of the construction phases, as defined by Cornick and Mather, 1999, can be compared to the project life cycle phases of Lipnack and Stamps (2000), as shown in Table 5.2.1.
Intermittent Collaboration Designers work on different sections of the design and check with each other.
COMPOSITION AND NATURE OF TEAMS
- Definition of Co-located Teams
- Definition of Virtual Teams
- Definition of Global Teams
- Comparison Between Colocated and Virtual Teams
- Advantages of working in a Virtual Team
- Challenges Faced by those in Virtual Teams
Most definitions of global virtual teams suggest that they are temporary in nature with a lifetime related to a specific project (Jarvenpaa and Liedner, 1998). Co-located teams are always synchronous, meaning they meet and exchange information at the same time, while virtual teams can be both synchronous and asynchronous. However, due to time zone differences (ie in global teams), the concept of synchronicity is sometimes not relevant to global virtual teams (Kayworth and Leidner, 2000).
With the spread of organizations around the world and the increase in industrial alliances, virtual teams have become necessary to achieve efficiency, performance, knowledge, stable relationships and customer satisfaction (Gameson and Sher, 2002b). Initially, benefits can be seen if the members of a virtual team do not have a shared understanding of the project concepts (i.e. a mental model) in question. Virtual teams are also often able to reduce production life cycle time because work can be performed in parallel rather than in a stereotypical production line or serial mode (Lipnack and Stamps, 2000).
With rapid developments and changes in technology in most areas, it is not inconceivable that virtual teams may soon exhibit the same generic characteristics as co-located teams, such as body language. Looking at the skills involved in both co-located and virtual teams, it's easy to say that 'technology has all the answers'; that the same skills seen in a co-located team can be leveraged using technology in a virtual team. Organizations cannot use the same management strategies in virtual teams that are already in place for operational teams.
While new technologies and prices are making it easier for team members to travel nationally and internationally, cost reductions and the economic downturn have seen an increase in the number of virtual teams operating between and within organizations. In the long run, virtual teams are less expensive and more time efficient, and increase the amount of knowledge and skills within these teams.
ISSUES OF GENERIC SKILLS ARISING FROM A VIRTUAL CONTEXT
Core Generic Skills in a Virtual Context
- Adaptability
- Shared situational awareness
- Performance monitoring and feedback
- Team management
- Interpersonal relations
- Co-ordination
- Communication
- Decision making
Shared situational awareness refers to the skills that enable team members to arrive at a common understanding of a situation and, based on this, communicate and solve problems (Salas et al., 2000). Furst et al (1999) explain that goal setting is the ability to “…establish specific, challenging and accepted team goals.” While it may be easy to understand when unhealthy conflict is occurring in a co-located team, with social cues such as threatening looks at entire arguments, this diagnosis may be more difficult in virtual environments (Furst et al., 1999).
The virtual environment creates an atmosphere of 'ambiguous' communication, where it can be difficult to interpret whether a person's communication promotes unhealthy conflict (Furst et al., 1999). It is the ability to synchronize information and the tasks of each team member and thereby control redundant work (Furst et al., 1999). In a virtual environment, drawings can be communicated by exchanging electronic files, either by e-mail or in a shared network space (Maher et al., 2000a).
Most communication would still be text-based, with the communication text appearing next to the relevant avatar (Maher et al., 2000b). Industry case studies, such as that of Saber Inc, have shown that decision making in a virtual team requires ongoing virtual training (Kirkman et al., 2002). Some research has suggested that the use of virtual teams can lead to an increase in the time taken to make decisions as well as a decrease in team cohesion (Driskell et al., 2003).
Problem solving is a precursor to decision making and is therefore appropriate as a sub-skill of decision making (Kirkman et al., 2002). It is the ability to highlight the problems or limitations within a task or team, and then to put appropriate action in place to correct them (Furst et al., 1999).
Team Skills in a Virtual Context
- Trust
- Dealing with cultural issues
- Archiving
When interacting with those lower in the hierarchy (such as subcontractors), an informal approach to problem solving is used. In most of these cases, communication between the professions takes place via virtual methods such as fax or telephone (Emmitt and Gorse, 2003). Trust is an important component between members of a virtual team, so even a small level of dissatisfaction within the team can be multiplied in virtual environments (McDonough III et al., 2001).
Pena-Mora et al (2000) highlighted the ongoing work of Krishnamurthy and Fruchter (2000) in illustrating the many issues associated with communication among members of a culturally diverse virtual team. These include 'representation', which encompasses the issues surrounding the different jargon, labels (Poltrock and Engelbeck, 1999) and terminology used by different professionals (Pena-Mora et al., 2000). This may result in having to retread 'old ground' at the next meeting (Emmitt and Gorse, 2003).
This is highlighted in Pena-Mora et al's (2000) description of CAIRO, an online collaboration agent (a program capable of organizing and archiving meetings). Within the virtual KAIRO environment, team meetings are recorded under different team agenda headings, allowing members to scroll back and view any discussion on a selected agenda item (Pena-Mora et al., 2000). A review of the software by Gallagher and Angus (1998) began by stating that with any team application there should be the ability to archive decisions (Gallagher and Angus, 1998, Fox et al., 1999) so that information can be sorted and understood in the future (Gallagher and Angus, 1998).
Archiving data for any team will give the organization insight into successes or problems and relate them to future team activities (Furst et al., 1999). Archiving in a virtual team would in some ways be easier than in co-located environments if the right software was used; all communications can be easily recorded as files and stored on each member's computer (Furst et al., 1999).
THE TEAM DESIGN ACTIVITY
Issues Impeding Design Team Collaboration
Distance for the design team is a barrier, as the design process in most cases (Emmitt and Gorse, 2003) is spread across multiple professions. An important factor in collaborative design team environments is that 'expertise' is paramount to team performance and is constantly changing. An advantage is also gained by involving experienced team members in similar tasks for each new design team (Baird et al., 2000).
To obtain optimal results when designing collaboratively through a virtual medium, coordination and structuring skills must be active in the early design period (Lahti et al., 2004). However, in the distributed team this process is again slower (Baird et al., 2000). Within the engineering field, communication about design or design processes can be slow to filter down to those not on the exclusive design team (Baird et al., 2000).
This may be due to the method of dialogue used; usually late formal rather than early informal, implying the need for communication early in the design process. Williams and Cowdroy (2002) highlight the findings that the use of analogies is easier in the early stages of design if team members have previously worked together. An ability to use these non-verbal cues would be severely impaired in the virtual environment.
Problems exist in the transfer of information and the opportunities to use these skills in a virtual team context, and these are generally centered on the ability of team members to communicate using these skills. The main focus for virtual teams is the ability to communicate, especially non-verbal communication, which is more difficult in most virtual communications. These phases are commonly used by the construction industry in the form of the “generic construction model of project team life cycle phases” as described by Cornick and Mather (1999).
An overview of the stages involved in the planning process shows that "planning" can also be controlled by a protocol that provides a map of the planning process.
