Taryn Bond-Barnard | University of Pretoria (original) (raw)

Papers by Taryn Bond-Barnard

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering

A project manager’s competency depends on the project’s complexity and includes a unique set of p... more A project manager’s competency depends on the project’s complexity and includes a unique set of personal attributes and the ability to apply appropriate leadership styles. This paper reports on a Delphi study that includes the views of 30 experts – employed by a utility that executes projects with different levels of complexity. The results confirm that project manager competence is influenced by leadership styles that are appropriate for specific project lifecycle stages and levels of project complexity, as well as specific personal attributes. The study thus provides guidance regarding the project manager competence that is required for specific situations.

The Influence of Organisational Culture on Tacit Knowledge Sharing Behaviour: The Case of Anglo American Coal

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2022

Skills and knowledge gaps between senior and junior staff is prevalent in engineering projects. T... more Skills and knowledge gaps between senior and junior staff is prevalent in engineering projects. This study aimed to identify the factors that affect knowledge transfer and methods to retain transferred knowledge between senior and junior staff in the South African engineering environment. Although several studies have examined the factors that influence knowledge transfer, very few have studied the factors affecting knowledge transfer between senior and junior staff in engineering projects. This study found that knowledge transfer is not made a priority in projects, and that there is a lack of knowledge transfer platforms and structures in projects. Incentivising knowledge transfer by making it a work outcome would improve knowledge transfer in projects. 1.

Project Success and Project Manager Competency

2022 Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET)

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2017

It is widely accepted that project leaders should adapt their behaviour to meet the unique leader... more It is widely accepted that project leaders should adapt their behaviour to meet the unique leadership demands of a variety of situations. Recently, vertical, shared, and horizontal styles of leadership have gained prominence, especially in the project management literature. Several factors are believed to play a role in determining an appropriate balance between these leadership styles. This theoretical study explores the influence of project types, the stage in the project life cycle, organisational project management maturity, and the level of trust and collaboration between project team members on the appropriate balance of leadership styles in projects. This paper presents a conceptual framework of these factors, while empirical results will be reported on in the sequel to this paper. OPSOMMING Dit word wyd aanvaar dat leiers hulle gedrag by spesifieke situasies moet aanpas sodat die unieke leierskapvereistes wat aan hulle gestel word nagekom kan word. Vertikale, gedeelde en horisontale leierskap style is deesdae op die voorgrond, veral in projekbestuur literatuur. Verskeie faktore speel 'n rol in die bepaling van 'n geskikte balans tussen hierdie leierskapstyle. Die faktore sluit in die tipe projek, die stadium in die projeklewensiklus, die projekbestuurvolwassenheid van die organisasie, en die vlak van vertroue en samewerking tussen mense binne die projek. Hierdie artikel stel 'n konseptuele raamwerk van hierdie faktore voor, terwyl empiriese uitslae in 'n opvolgartikel gerapporteer sal word.

International Journal of Information Systems and Project Management

Technological advancements, globalization, and the COVID-19 pandemic have transformed digital com... more Technological advancements, globalization, and the COVID-19 pandemic have transformed digital communication into a central tenet of many project management virtual teams (VTs). However, successful VTs are dependent on communication, collaboration and knowledge sharing among team members. Through a systematic literature review, this study investigates the challenges and critical success factors of digital communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing in project management VTs. As a result, eight key common themes were identified - trust, cultural diversity, collaboration tools and technology, communication and knowledge hoarding, leadership, psychological safety, communication guidelines and training, and resource planning. Furthermore, given the geographically dispersed nature of VTs, they face additional challenges than teams that interact face-to-face (in-person). Therefore, mitigating the challenges by focusing on the identified themes could lead to project success.

International Journal of Project Management, 2013

Call centres are increasingly being utilised in public sector programmes to facilitate and manage... more Call centres are increasingly being utilised in public sector programmes to facilitate and manage communication between numerous stakeholders. Yet, the impact of call centres on projects has not been investigated. This paper reports on a survey with 92 respondents that assessed the impact of a call centre for a repair and maintenance programme. An empirically verified model is presented to illustrate the relationship between call centre communication and project performance. A balance of frequent informal and formal communication is shown to reduce mistrust and conflict of interest resulting from each party trying to maximise his respective economic position in the principal-agency relationship. The data provides evidence that a call centre improves the communication, collaboration and trust in project principal-agency relationships which, in turn, is perceived to contribute to project performance.

Balancing Leadership Styles Based on Project Type and Life Cycle Phases: A Model

With the current trend towards empowered teams, hierarchical company structures are increasingly ... more With the current trend towards empowered teams, hierarchical company structures are increasingly being replaced by team-based ones. As a result, a shift in the classic understanding of leadership is needed and research on leadership in project management is increasing. Two major concepts have developed in recent years: shared and vertical leadership styles. This paper reports on the development of a new model of leadership styles that considers the effect of project types and the project life cycle phases on leadership style (vertical versus shared leadership), and how an appropriate balance between the two styles influences the likelihood of project management success. A web-based questionnaire yielded 313 complete responses and the data was analysed using hypothesis testing. Based on this empirical work, an initial conceptual model, derived from literature, was revised and a novel model proposed. The model explains how project types and life cycle phases influence the appropriaten...

The role of trust in project negotiation: A case study

Most projects include procurement processes which may consist of tendering, negotiation or a comb... more Most projects include procurement processes which may consist of tendering, negotiation or a combination of the two. It has been found that if the procurement relationships in a project are healthy, then it has a significant influence on the success of the project. This may be because team performance in a project environment is influenced, amongst others, by the extent to which the contracting parties trust each other. However, most of these studies have been conducted in Europe, America, and Asia and in large international construction projects where tendering is the usual method of contract award. Few studies have investigated the role and types of trust during project initiation, specifically during project negotiation.

An Empirical Investigation of the Determinants of Quality Communication in Projects Within the South African Petrochemical Industry

2019 Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET)

Quality communication is crucial to be able to synergistically manage costs, schedule and quality... more Quality communication is crucial to be able to synergistically manage costs, schedule and quality deliverables in projects. Yet project team members are often not sure what is the best way to interact and share information, to promote trust, collaboration and project management success. This is especially true for virtual project teams that are involved in projects with high complexity such as in the petrochemical industry. This research investigates the determinants of quality communication in projects within the South African petrochemical industry. Empirical data was gathered from nine project managers and engineers, with an average of 14 years petrochemical industry experience, and analysed using thematic analysis. Findings revealed that in addition to good upfront communications planning, the project team needs to be able to effectively: encode and decode messages, use communication technology, vary communication frequency depending on the situation and communicate the right content to the right audience. Furthermore, it was found that these quality communication determinants improve levels of trust, collaboration and perceptions of project management success in South African petrochemical projects.

Factors influencing the success of cross-border projects in Africa: a case study of ten projects

International Journal of Project Organisation and Management

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2017

It is widely accepted that project leaders should adapt their behaviour to meet the unique leader... more It is widely accepted that project leaders should adapt their behaviour to meet the unique leadership demands of a variety of situations. Recently, vertical, shared, and horizontal styles of leadership have gained prominence, especially in the project management literature. Several factors are believed to play a role in determining an appropriate balance between these leadership styles. This theoretical study explores the influence of project types, the stage in the project life cycle, organisational project management maturity, and the level of trust and collaboration between project team members on the appropriate balance of leadership styles in projects. This paper presents a conceptual framework of these factors, while empirical results will be reported on in the sequel to this paper.

PMI Australia Conference 2017

Synopsis: The increasing use of centralized procurement in South African mining organizations has... more Synopsis: The increasing use of centralized procurement in South African mining organizations has led to the need to understand the effect that this procurement governance model has on project procurement performance in matrix organizations. The purpose of this study is: a) to understand the challenges experienced in projects in South African matrix mining organizations using centralized procurement; b) to explore how the aforementioned challenges impact project performance in terms of time, cost, quality and client satisfaction. Relevance for practice education: The study has identified knowledge gaps in centralized procurement literature especially in the context of the South African mining industry, which encourages further research in this field. Research design: This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study, where 13 semistructured interviews were conducted with project managers, procurement officials and suppliers of 5 different mining organizations in South Africa. DECLARATION OF CONFLICTING INTEREST The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. FUNDING The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 1 Main findings: The study found that centralized procurement in a matrix mining organization is not perceived by the research participants to significantly influence procurement or project performance. The perception of the interviewees is that there are mainly positive effects in adopting centralized procurement in matrix mining organizations. Research implications: The study highlights the relevance of centralized procurement in the mining industry in South Africa and denotes areas of improvement within the industry which could improve project procurement as well capital expenditure.

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to emphasise the importance of high levels of trust and coll... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to emphasise the importance of high levels of trust and collaboration for increasing the likelihood of project management (PM) success. However, the link between these three constructs remains unclear. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the authors use structural equation modelling (SEM) based on the findings from an international survey of 151 project practitioners to demonstrate the significance of project team trust and collaboration for increasing the likelihood of PM success. Findings The results indicate that PM success becomes more likely as the degree of collaboration improves which, in turn, is influenced by an increase in the level of trust between team members. The two factors of PM success are project performance and knowledge integration and innovation. The six factors of the degree of collaboration that were studied are physical proximity, commitment, conflict, coordination, relationships and incentives. The three factors of...

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering

Currently, many organisations experience challenges as a result of uncertainty, fast-changing env... more Currently, many organisations experience challenges as a result of uncertainty, fast-changing environments, globalisation, and increasingly complex work tasks. In order to adapt to these challenges, a shift in leadership style may be needed. Traditionally, leadership has been seen as a vertical relationship (top-down influence). For a number of decades, this vertical leadership model has been the principal one in the leadership field; but lately, shared and balanced leadership have gained importance, especially in the project management literature. This theoretical study highlights some differences between 'leadership' and 'management', and explores current trends in the leadership literature. It especially focuses on vertical, shared, and balanced leadership in project management, and identifies future opportunities for research. OPSOMMING Baie organisasies ervaar vandag uitdagings as gevolg van onsekerheid, vinnig-veranderende omgewings, globalisering, en toenemend komplekse werkstake. 'n Verskuiwing in leierskapstyl mag nodig wees om aan te pas by hierdie uitdagings. Tradisioneel was leierskap gesien as 'n vertikale verhouding (bo-na-onder invloed), en hierdie vertikale leierskapsmodel was die vernaamste een in die leierskapsveld vir baie jare. Gedeelde en gebalanseerde leierskap het onlangs begin om belangrik te word, veral in die projekbestuursliteratuur. Hierdie teoretiese studie bespreek sommige verskille tussen leierskap en bestuur, en ondersoek die onlangse rigtings in die leierskapsliteratuur. Dit fokus veral op vertikale, gedeelde, en gebalanseerde leierskap in projekbestuur, en identifiseer toekomstige geleenthede vir navorsing.

Acta Structilia

Growth in computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies such as instant messaging (IM) and v... more Growth in computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies such as instant messaging (IM) and video conferencing (VC) has led to a need to explore the utilisation and influence of these tools on the quality of project communication, which must still be established. This article reports the results of a survey conducted among 210 project practitioners using CMC in various industries to determine how, why and what each medium is used for, and how these media influence factors that promote quality communication. Some results showed that the use of both instant messaging and video conferencing in projects is moderate and both improve the quality of communication in virtual teams, however in different ways.

SA Journal of Information Management

Background: Project success used to be measured solely in terms of efficiency metrics such as sco... more Background: Project success used to be measured solely in terms of efficiency metrics such as scope, cost and time; however, there are proposals that more attention should be paid to process-related performance factors such as communication. The advent of email has significantly impacted the way the world communicates.Objectives: This study investigates the preference of email communication relative to other communication mediums in project environments and the effect of email communication on feelings of stress and overload in the workplace.Method: A survey with 430 responses was conducted to determine the communication preferences of project practitioners in a typical project. The average rank and frequency response methods were used to analyse the data.Results: The findings indicate that the communication preferences of project practitioners still support the media richness theory and that face-to-face communication is the preferred communication medium in most situations. Despit...

Engineering projects are becoming increasingly complex as projects get larger and as technology i... more Engineering projects are becoming increasingly complex as projects get larger and as technology improves. Greater competition worldwide has meant that projects are delivered quicker and cheaper. This necessitates sophisticated Project Management Information System (PMIS) technologies to be adopted to improve efficiency and quality on projects. PMIS data and reports can be used to better understand the risk exposure, resource utilisation, profitability, and scheduling of a project. It also informs strategic project decisions and performance monitoring and reporting. Unfortunately, project data is often fragmented and embedded in different systems. This paper investigates several commercially available PMIS, to understand and compare the functionality of these systems. A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews was conducted with purposively selected project systems experts at twelve project-based organisations. Thematic analysis revealed what functions PMIS fulfils, how the...

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2016

Globally-expanding organisations that are trying to capitalise on distributed skills are increasi... more Globally-expanding organisations that are trying to capitalise on distributed skills are increasingly using virtual project teams to shorten product development time and increase quality. These virtual teams, which are distributed across countries, cultures, and time zones, are required to use faster and better ways of interacting. Past research has shown that virtual teams that use computer-mediated communication (CMC) instead of face-to-face communication are less cohesive because they struggle with mistrust, controlling behaviour, and communication breakdowns. This study aims to determine whether project practitioners in South Africa perceive virtual teams that use videoconferencing as suffering from the same CMC disadvantages described in past research in other environments; and if they do, what the possible causes could be. This paper reports on a survey of 106 project practitioners in South Africa. The results show that these project practitioners prefer faceto-face communication over CMC, and perceive virtual teams using videoconferencing to be less cohesive and to suffer from mistrust and communication breakdowns, but not from increased conflict and power struggles. The perceived shortcomings of videoconferencing might result from virtual teams that use this medium having less time to build interpersonal relationships. OPSOMMING Organisasies maak toenemend gebruik van virtuele projekspanne wat verspreid is oor lande, kulture en tydsones en verbeterde maniere van interaksie benodig. Vorige navorsing het egter getoon dat virtuele spanne wat gebruik maak van rekenaar-bemiddelde kommunikasie (CMC) i.p.v. aangesig-tot-aangesig kommunikasie minder samehorig is omdat hulle sukkel met wantroue, beherende gedrag en gebrek aan kommunikasie. Hierdie studie ondersoek of 106 Suid-Afrikaanse projekpraktisyns van spanne wat videokonferensies gebruik ook meen dat die spanne ly aan die nadele van CMC wat in ander omgewings ondersoek is. Die resultate toon dat die respondente aangesig-tot-aangesig kommunikasie bo CMC verkies. Dit toon ook dat virtuele spanne wat gebruikmaak van videokonferensies minder samehorig is en ly aan wantroue en gebrek aan kommunikasie, maar nie aan verhoogde konflik en magstryd nie.

The South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2013

A South African national programme to repair government infrastructure uses a contact centre (or ... more A South African national programme to repair government infrastructure uses a contact centre (or call centre) to facilitate and manage communication. An important question is: How does the contact centre benefit the programme and its projects? This study discusses the findings of a survey that quantified the benefits of the programme when the communication between team members in the programme was improved by using a contact centre. The results show that, by using a contact centre to improve the communication between project team members, their perception of communication effectiveness, quality of project deliverables, service delivery, and customer satisfaction of the programme dramatically increases.

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering

A project manager’s competency depends on the project’s complexity and includes a unique set of p... more A project manager’s competency depends on the project’s complexity and includes a unique set of personal attributes and the ability to apply appropriate leadership styles. This paper reports on a Delphi study that includes the views of 30 experts – employed by a utility that executes projects with different levels of complexity. The results confirm that project manager competence is influenced by leadership styles that are appropriate for specific project lifecycle stages and levels of project complexity, as well as specific personal attributes. The study thus provides guidance regarding the project manager competence that is required for specific situations.

The Influence of Organisational Culture on Tacit Knowledge Sharing Behaviour: The Case of Anglo American Coal

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2022

Skills and knowledge gaps between senior and junior staff is prevalent in engineering projects. T... more Skills and knowledge gaps between senior and junior staff is prevalent in engineering projects. This study aimed to identify the factors that affect knowledge transfer and methods to retain transferred knowledge between senior and junior staff in the South African engineering environment. Although several studies have examined the factors that influence knowledge transfer, very few have studied the factors affecting knowledge transfer between senior and junior staff in engineering projects. This study found that knowledge transfer is not made a priority in projects, and that there is a lack of knowledge transfer platforms and structures in projects. Incentivising knowledge transfer by making it a work outcome would improve knowledge transfer in projects. 1.

Project Success and Project Manager Competency

2022 Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET)

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2017

It is widely accepted that project leaders should adapt their behaviour to meet the unique leader... more It is widely accepted that project leaders should adapt their behaviour to meet the unique leadership demands of a variety of situations. Recently, vertical, shared, and horizontal styles of leadership have gained prominence, especially in the project management literature. Several factors are believed to play a role in determining an appropriate balance between these leadership styles. This theoretical study explores the influence of project types, the stage in the project life cycle, organisational project management maturity, and the level of trust and collaboration between project team members on the appropriate balance of leadership styles in projects. This paper presents a conceptual framework of these factors, while empirical results will be reported on in the sequel to this paper. OPSOMMING Dit word wyd aanvaar dat leiers hulle gedrag by spesifieke situasies moet aanpas sodat die unieke leierskapvereistes wat aan hulle gestel word nagekom kan word. Vertikale, gedeelde en horisontale leierskap style is deesdae op die voorgrond, veral in projekbestuur literatuur. Verskeie faktore speel 'n rol in die bepaling van 'n geskikte balans tussen hierdie leierskapstyle. Die faktore sluit in die tipe projek, die stadium in die projeklewensiklus, die projekbestuurvolwassenheid van die organisasie, en die vlak van vertroue en samewerking tussen mense binne die projek. Hierdie artikel stel 'n konseptuele raamwerk van hierdie faktore voor, terwyl empiriese uitslae in 'n opvolgartikel gerapporteer sal word.

International Journal of Information Systems and Project Management

Technological advancements, globalization, and the COVID-19 pandemic have transformed digital com... more Technological advancements, globalization, and the COVID-19 pandemic have transformed digital communication into a central tenet of many project management virtual teams (VTs). However, successful VTs are dependent on communication, collaboration and knowledge sharing among team members. Through a systematic literature review, this study investigates the challenges and critical success factors of digital communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing in project management VTs. As a result, eight key common themes were identified - trust, cultural diversity, collaboration tools and technology, communication and knowledge hoarding, leadership, psychological safety, communication guidelines and training, and resource planning. Furthermore, given the geographically dispersed nature of VTs, they face additional challenges than teams that interact face-to-face (in-person). Therefore, mitigating the challenges by focusing on the identified themes could lead to project success.

International Journal of Project Management, 2013

Call centres are increasingly being utilised in public sector programmes to facilitate and manage... more Call centres are increasingly being utilised in public sector programmes to facilitate and manage communication between numerous stakeholders. Yet, the impact of call centres on projects has not been investigated. This paper reports on a survey with 92 respondents that assessed the impact of a call centre for a repair and maintenance programme. An empirically verified model is presented to illustrate the relationship between call centre communication and project performance. A balance of frequent informal and formal communication is shown to reduce mistrust and conflict of interest resulting from each party trying to maximise his respective economic position in the principal-agency relationship. The data provides evidence that a call centre improves the communication, collaboration and trust in project principal-agency relationships which, in turn, is perceived to contribute to project performance.

Balancing Leadership Styles Based on Project Type and Life Cycle Phases: A Model

With the current trend towards empowered teams, hierarchical company structures are increasingly ... more With the current trend towards empowered teams, hierarchical company structures are increasingly being replaced by team-based ones. As a result, a shift in the classic understanding of leadership is needed and research on leadership in project management is increasing. Two major concepts have developed in recent years: shared and vertical leadership styles. This paper reports on the development of a new model of leadership styles that considers the effect of project types and the project life cycle phases on leadership style (vertical versus shared leadership), and how an appropriate balance between the two styles influences the likelihood of project management success. A web-based questionnaire yielded 313 complete responses and the data was analysed using hypothesis testing. Based on this empirical work, an initial conceptual model, derived from literature, was revised and a novel model proposed. The model explains how project types and life cycle phases influence the appropriaten...

The role of trust in project negotiation: A case study

Most projects include procurement processes which may consist of tendering, negotiation or a comb... more Most projects include procurement processes which may consist of tendering, negotiation or a combination of the two. It has been found that if the procurement relationships in a project are healthy, then it has a significant influence on the success of the project. This may be because team performance in a project environment is influenced, amongst others, by the extent to which the contracting parties trust each other. However, most of these studies have been conducted in Europe, America, and Asia and in large international construction projects where tendering is the usual method of contract award. Few studies have investigated the role and types of trust during project initiation, specifically during project negotiation.

An Empirical Investigation of the Determinants of Quality Communication in Projects Within the South African Petrochemical Industry

2019 Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET)

Quality communication is crucial to be able to synergistically manage costs, schedule and quality... more Quality communication is crucial to be able to synergistically manage costs, schedule and quality deliverables in projects. Yet project team members are often not sure what is the best way to interact and share information, to promote trust, collaboration and project management success. This is especially true for virtual project teams that are involved in projects with high complexity such as in the petrochemical industry. This research investigates the determinants of quality communication in projects within the South African petrochemical industry. Empirical data was gathered from nine project managers and engineers, with an average of 14 years petrochemical industry experience, and analysed using thematic analysis. Findings revealed that in addition to good upfront communications planning, the project team needs to be able to effectively: encode and decode messages, use communication technology, vary communication frequency depending on the situation and communicate the right content to the right audience. Furthermore, it was found that these quality communication determinants improve levels of trust, collaboration and perceptions of project management success in South African petrochemical projects.

Factors influencing the success of cross-border projects in Africa: a case study of ten projects

International Journal of Project Organisation and Management

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2017

It is widely accepted that project leaders should adapt their behaviour to meet the unique leader... more It is widely accepted that project leaders should adapt their behaviour to meet the unique leadership demands of a variety of situations. Recently, vertical, shared, and horizontal styles of leadership have gained prominence, especially in the project management literature. Several factors are believed to play a role in determining an appropriate balance between these leadership styles. This theoretical study explores the influence of project types, the stage in the project life cycle, organisational project management maturity, and the level of trust and collaboration between project team members on the appropriate balance of leadership styles in projects. This paper presents a conceptual framework of these factors, while empirical results will be reported on in the sequel to this paper.

PMI Australia Conference 2017

Synopsis: The increasing use of centralized procurement in South African mining organizations has... more Synopsis: The increasing use of centralized procurement in South African mining organizations has led to the need to understand the effect that this procurement governance model has on project procurement performance in matrix organizations. The purpose of this study is: a) to understand the challenges experienced in projects in South African matrix mining organizations using centralized procurement; b) to explore how the aforementioned challenges impact project performance in terms of time, cost, quality and client satisfaction. Relevance for practice education: The study has identified knowledge gaps in centralized procurement literature especially in the context of the South African mining industry, which encourages further research in this field. Research design: This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study, where 13 semistructured interviews were conducted with project managers, procurement officials and suppliers of 5 different mining organizations in South Africa. DECLARATION OF CONFLICTING INTEREST The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. FUNDING The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 1 Main findings: The study found that centralized procurement in a matrix mining organization is not perceived by the research participants to significantly influence procurement or project performance. The perception of the interviewees is that there are mainly positive effects in adopting centralized procurement in matrix mining organizations. Research implications: The study highlights the relevance of centralized procurement in the mining industry in South Africa and denotes areas of improvement within the industry which could improve project procurement as well capital expenditure.

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to emphasise the importance of high levels of trust and coll... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to emphasise the importance of high levels of trust and collaboration for increasing the likelihood of project management (PM) success. However, the link between these three constructs remains unclear. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the authors use structural equation modelling (SEM) based on the findings from an international survey of 151 project practitioners to demonstrate the significance of project team trust and collaboration for increasing the likelihood of PM success. Findings The results indicate that PM success becomes more likely as the degree of collaboration improves which, in turn, is influenced by an increase in the level of trust between team members. The two factors of PM success are project performance and knowledge integration and innovation. The six factors of the degree of collaboration that were studied are physical proximity, commitment, conflict, coordination, relationships and incentives. The three factors of...

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering

Currently, many organisations experience challenges as a result of uncertainty, fast-changing env... more Currently, many organisations experience challenges as a result of uncertainty, fast-changing environments, globalisation, and increasingly complex work tasks. In order to adapt to these challenges, a shift in leadership style may be needed. Traditionally, leadership has been seen as a vertical relationship (top-down influence). For a number of decades, this vertical leadership model has been the principal one in the leadership field; but lately, shared and balanced leadership have gained importance, especially in the project management literature. This theoretical study highlights some differences between 'leadership' and 'management', and explores current trends in the leadership literature. It especially focuses on vertical, shared, and balanced leadership in project management, and identifies future opportunities for research. OPSOMMING Baie organisasies ervaar vandag uitdagings as gevolg van onsekerheid, vinnig-veranderende omgewings, globalisering, en toenemend komplekse werkstake. 'n Verskuiwing in leierskapstyl mag nodig wees om aan te pas by hierdie uitdagings. Tradisioneel was leierskap gesien as 'n vertikale verhouding (bo-na-onder invloed), en hierdie vertikale leierskapsmodel was die vernaamste een in die leierskapsveld vir baie jare. Gedeelde en gebalanseerde leierskap het onlangs begin om belangrik te word, veral in die projekbestuursliteratuur. Hierdie teoretiese studie bespreek sommige verskille tussen leierskap en bestuur, en ondersoek die onlangse rigtings in die leierskapsliteratuur. Dit fokus veral op vertikale, gedeelde, en gebalanseerde leierskap in projekbestuur, en identifiseer toekomstige geleenthede vir navorsing.

Acta Structilia

Growth in computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies such as instant messaging (IM) and v... more Growth in computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies such as instant messaging (IM) and video conferencing (VC) has led to a need to explore the utilisation and influence of these tools on the quality of project communication, which must still be established. This article reports the results of a survey conducted among 210 project practitioners using CMC in various industries to determine how, why and what each medium is used for, and how these media influence factors that promote quality communication. Some results showed that the use of both instant messaging and video conferencing in projects is moderate and both improve the quality of communication in virtual teams, however in different ways.

SA Journal of Information Management

Background: Project success used to be measured solely in terms of efficiency metrics such as sco... more Background: Project success used to be measured solely in terms of efficiency metrics such as scope, cost and time; however, there are proposals that more attention should be paid to process-related performance factors such as communication. The advent of email has significantly impacted the way the world communicates.Objectives: This study investigates the preference of email communication relative to other communication mediums in project environments and the effect of email communication on feelings of stress and overload in the workplace.Method: A survey with 430 responses was conducted to determine the communication preferences of project practitioners in a typical project. The average rank and frequency response methods were used to analyse the data.Results: The findings indicate that the communication preferences of project practitioners still support the media richness theory and that face-to-face communication is the preferred communication medium in most situations. Despit...

Engineering projects are becoming increasingly complex as projects get larger and as technology i... more Engineering projects are becoming increasingly complex as projects get larger and as technology improves. Greater competition worldwide has meant that projects are delivered quicker and cheaper. This necessitates sophisticated Project Management Information System (PMIS) technologies to be adopted to improve efficiency and quality on projects. PMIS data and reports can be used to better understand the risk exposure, resource utilisation, profitability, and scheduling of a project. It also informs strategic project decisions and performance monitoring and reporting. Unfortunately, project data is often fragmented and embedded in different systems. This paper investigates several commercially available PMIS, to understand and compare the functionality of these systems. A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews was conducted with purposively selected project systems experts at twelve project-based organisations. Thematic analysis revealed what functions PMIS fulfils, how the...

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2016

Globally-expanding organisations that are trying to capitalise on distributed skills are increasi... more Globally-expanding organisations that are trying to capitalise on distributed skills are increasingly using virtual project teams to shorten product development time and increase quality. These virtual teams, which are distributed across countries, cultures, and time zones, are required to use faster and better ways of interacting. Past research has shown that virtual teams that use computer-mediated communication (CMC) instead of face-to-face communication are less cohesive because they struggle with mistrust, controlling behaviour, and communication breakdowns. This study aims to determine whether project practitioners in South Africa perceive virtual teams that use videoconferencing as suffering from the same CMC disadvantages described in past research in other environments; and if they do, what the possible causes could be. This paper reports on a survey of 106 project practitioners in South Africa. The results show that these project practitioners prefer faceto-face communication over CMC, and perceive virtual teams using videoconferencing to be less cohesive and to suffer from mistrust and communication breakdowns, but not from increased conflict and power struggles. The perceived shortcomings of videoconferencing might result from virtual teams that use this medium having less time to build interpersonal relationships. OPSOMMING Organisasies maak toenemend gebruik van virtuele projekspanne wat verspreid is oor lande, kulture en tydsones en verbeterde maniere van interaksie benodig. Vorige navorsing het egter getoon dat virtuele spanne wat gebruik maak van rekenaar-bemiddelde kommunikasie (CMC) i.p.v. aangesig-tot-aangesig kommunikasie minder samehorig is omdat hulle sukkel met wantroue, beherende gedrag en gebrek aan kommunikasie. Hierdie studie ondersoek of 106 Suid-Afrikaanse projekpraktisyns van spanne wat videokonferensies gebruik ook meen dat die spanne ly aan die nadele van CMC wat in ander omgewings ondersoek is. Die resultate toon dat die respondente aangesig-tot-aangesig kommunikasie bo CMC verkies. Dit toon ook dat virtuele spanne wat gebruikmaak van videokonferensies minder samehorig is en ly aan wantroue en gebrek aan kommunikasie, maar nie aan verhoogde konflik en magstryd nie.

The South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2013

A South African national programme to repair government infrastructure uses a contact centre (or ... more A South African national programme to repair government infrastructure uses a contact centre (or call centre) to facilitate and manage communication. An important question is: How does the contact centre benefit the programme and its projects? This study discusses the findings of a survey that quantified the benefits of the programme when the communication between team members in the programme was improved by using a contact centre. The results show that, by using a contact centre to improve the communication between project team members, their perception of communication effectiveness, quality of project deliverables, service delivery, and customer satisfaction of the programme dramatically increases.