The project manager acts on behalf of the client and manages the project delivery on a daily basis (Turner & Müller, 2004). Furthermore, the contractor is often required to act on behalf of the project manager and carry out the project work. These communication type preferences and the fact that the project or program manager is at the center of the project delivery process is a real communication management challenge.
The program call center investigated for the purposes of this paper acts as an objective third-party communication center responsible for facilitating and managing the communication of project issues with all stakeholders on behalf of the project manager. Does a call center program improve project communication management and perceived project performance? Additionally, this paper investigates whether an increase in project communication. facilitated by a call center) improves communication, cooperation and trust between principals and agents and consequently their perception of project performance (quality of project results and customer satisfaction) in a group of 196 projects.
The project communication facilitated and managed by the call center improves the perceived performance of the projects and service delivery of the national programme. These systems are namely the scope of work, the project organization, the quality, the cost and the duration of the project. This need serves as a motivation to investigate whether a call center can be used to improve project communication in projects and programs.
The frequency of project communication
The content of project communication
Types of project communication
On the contrary, frequent face-to-face communication closes this knowledge gap and assures clients that they have a clear picture of the progress of the project; however, this is not always possible when the project team is geographically dispersed (Harvey & Griffith cited in Vaananen et al., 2010).
Communication formality
Call centres
It has been reported that knowledge management efforts in call centers are sparse or close to zero. Literature suggests that call center activities are particularly suitable for information provision, customer service and sales activities (Houlihan in Koh et al., 2005). This study investigated the extent to which a call center has improved communication, information management and customer satisfaction in a project.
Research shows that the best project performance is achieved when there is a high level of cooperation between principal and agent and medium levels of structure (Turner & . Müller, 2004). However, due to the principal-agency phenomenon, a high level of cooperation is not always the case. Turner and Müller (2004) have shown that communication between principal and agent reduces distrust and conflict of interest between them and thus improves project performance.
Turner and Müller (2004) argue that frequent communication increases cooperation and leads to avoiding project surprises or problems. Determine if call centers can be used to facilitate effective communication to increase project communication, collaboration and trust for improved project performance. Test the validity of Turner and Müller's (2004) statements about communication as a way of reducing the adverse effects of principal-agency relationships in projects using a call center.
The validity of the model developed from the findings of Turner and Müller (2004) was assessed by studying the perceived impact of the corresponding call center on projects where it is used as a communication center for reporting and tracking reactive repairs and breakdown maintenance. The model proposes that various interactions occur as a result of project communication that is facilitated and managed by a call center. Quantitative surveys were developed to address the interactions shown in Figure 1, as the aim of the study was to test the validity of propositions formulated in previous qualitative studies rather than to explore new phenomena.
The surveys were used to determine the impact of call center communication type and frequency on communication, collaboration and trust in client-project manager/consultant and consultant-contractor principal-agent relationships for 196 projects. Three surveys were developed to address the unique interaction that each project member has with the call center and with the rest of the project team.
Research Methodology
The research population consisted of individual populations of project members (ie, project managers, consultants, and contractors) associated with 196 active projects registered in the program's call center database. Based on the observation, it was established that the consultants often performed the tasks of the project manager in addition to their own; therefore, it was decided to merge these two groups into one group called "Project Manager" for the purposes of the survey. Convenience sampling was used for the client group because the size of the subpopulation was unknown, it was cost-effective, and because the study had severe time constraints.
The survey questions tested the perceived validity of Turner and Müller's (2004) statements about communication and collaboration in projects between the principal and agent and superiors. Descriptive statistics in the form of percentages are provided in sections 4 and 5 to support the findings of the study. The proof was provided by measuring participants' perceptions of the relationship between the functions performed by the call center and the performance of the project they are involved in.
The surveys showed that frequent communication reduced the likelihood of project surprises in both principal-agent relationships, but that avoiding surprises only contributed to collaboration in the principal-agency relationship between the project manager and contractor (89.5% of project managers experienced a increasing cooperation). The customer survey findings indicated that the occurrence of surprises/problems improved with frequent call center communications. The credibility of the content of formal communication is high and that of informal communication is low.
Johnson's statement was confirmed in this study as 80.7% of project managers and 63.6% of contractors strongly agreed with the perception that they could trust the content of the call center's formal reports, while only 68, 6% of project managers strongly agreed. with the perception that the content of the call center's informal communication could be trusted. 64% of the 22 customer respondents (clients) who felt that frequent communication with the call center improved project team communication also saw an improvement in project performance. 79.7% of project managers (clients) who observed an increase in project communication also believed that increased communication improved performance.
The claim that an increase in client communication leads to a reduced perception of project performance is therefore refuted by the results of this study. The contribution of the call center to the national repair and maintenance program was determined by this survey, and it was found that 67.3% of project managers, 61.3% of contractors and 90.5% of customers strongly agreed that the call center effectively manages the communication of breakdowns between project team members. Of project managers, contractors and builders respectively and 81.3% strongly agreed with the view that the functions performed by the call center improved the performance of the projects.
The majority of each group believes that the higher communication frequency facilitated by the call center is responsible for an improvement in quality (project managers 86.4%, contractors 91.7% and customers 90.9%), service delivery (project managers 91.5%, contractors 91.7%). % and clients 95.5%) and customer satisfaction (project leaders 100%, contractors 83.3% and clients 95.5%) of the project.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The reason for the contractor's lower perception of improved project performance is due to the financial penalties imposed on the contractor for underperformance with regard to the timely resolution of breakdowns reported to the call center. Furthermore, the contractors' only interaction with the call center is the emails/faxes they receive for the breakdowns recorded against their contract. It is suggested that call centers can provide the right combination of informal and formal communication to increase the communication, cooperation and trust between principals and agents in a project.
The quality of project deliverables and overall project performance can also benefit from the functions performed by a project call center. The questions raised in this paper are answered in that the functions performed by the call center increase the frequency of project team communication and contribute to the team's perception of project performance within the RAMP program. Moreover, in the study frequent communication of the call center leads to the avoidance of project surprises, this in turn contributes to cooperation and trust.
This study provides evidence that the RAMP call center effectively facilitates and manages project communication about the repair and maintenance program and the perception of 81.3% of project managers, contractors and customers respectively is that the functions performed by the call center improve performance of their RAMP projects. The study highlights the practical value of call centers for programs such as those described in this study. While this study specifically examined the role of call centers in communications within a small project program, the results appear to provide some support for the validity of the principal-agency theory in projects in general.
It would be interesting to investigate whether the findings can be generalized to larger projects and also whether the principal agency theory is equally applicable to projects where call centers are not used. Furthermore, the application of call centers to projects and project communication must be investigated, as well as the utilization of call centers for project knowledge management. Major challenges to the successful implementation and practice of program management in the construction environment: a critical analysis.
Agency relationships in marketing: a review of the implications and applications of agency and related theories. The effect of performance in project management knowledge areas on earned value results in information technology projects.
