What Drives Our Project Teams?

Abstract

Motivation drives our behavior that leads to performance and achievement of targets. Especially in collaborative delivery systems, the motivation within a group is sensitive to the project conditions and relationships within the team. However, research on motivation is underrepresented in construction and is mainly based on the simplified classification into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. This concept is obsolete. In recent decades the selfdetermination theory (SDT) developed by Deci and Ryan has spread within the motivation and organizational theory. SDT defines motivation based on the three psychological needs, (1) autonomy, (2) competence, and (3) relatedness, and divides extrinsic motivation according to the degree of autonomy. Since the theory has not been transferred to the construction industry, this paper applies existing scales to give-based on a particular case-a first indication regarding the following question: What drives project team members in the construction industry? Therefore, one year after 21 interviews with one project team were conducted, a survey was sent to the interviewees (90% response rate), now working on different projects in different project teams. It was found that autonomous motivation drives the selected participants. Furthermore, the data shows that good relationships as well as the feeling of competence regarding their task are important and need to be considered when developing the project settings.

Motivation Systems Evolution and Their Impact on Employee Satisfaction in a Modern Workplace on the Example of IT Industry

“…The work of Kondratyev et al (2005) emphasizes the essential role of motivation in enhancing employee performance and engagement. Schöttle (2020) underscores the critical importance of understanding the drivers of project teams for effective motivation and leadership. Additionally, Ryan and Deci (2000) distinguish intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, with intrinsic motivation stemming from the inherent satisfaction derived from the task itself.…”

Investigating and Simulating Collaboration Among the LPS Phases

“…As collaboration is one of the "Five Big Ideas" presented by (Macomber 2004), along with optimizing the whole, coupling learning with action, viewing projects as networks of commitment, and increasing relatedness, collaboration must be investigated through the context of LPS to weave and embed its implementation from within. (Schöttle et al 2014) defined collaboration and compared it against cooperation sometimes used interchangeably with the former. Among the presented definitions of collaboration was the phrase "the process of shared creation" (Schrage 1995), where several individuals with "complementary skills" engage in an interaction that creates a newly achieved understanding (Schöttle et al 2014).…”

“…(Schöttle et al 2014) defined collaboration and compared it against cooperation sometimes used interchangeably with the former. Among the presented definitions of collaboration was the phrase "the process of shared creation" (Schrage 1995), where several individuals with "complementary skills" engage in an interaction that creates a newly achieved understanding (Schöttle et al 2014). Other researchers have defined collaboration as "a process of joint decision-making among key stakeholders" (Gray 1989).…”

“…Among these are labor factors such as supervision, incentive schemes, leadership skills, overtime, and worker interactions (Jarkas and Bitar 2014). Interaction in construction includes collaboration and cooperation, which (Schöttle et al 2014) attempted to distinguish between. Their study described collaboration as "an inter-organizational relationship with a common vision."…”

The Ethical and Social Dilemma of AI Uses in the Construction Industry

“…What does collaboration in a project team look like when AI takes over? If we let AI decide for us, what does this do to our motivation and the motivation and performance of a project team (see Schöttle (2020))? Is this creating a dilemma in terms of motivation and performance?…”