Impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on construction projects

The changing face of construction projects has resulted in a movement towards the use of technology as a primary means of communication. The consequences of this rise in the use of information and communication technology (ICT) is a loss of interpersonal communication skills. A number of resulting issues within the human – electronic and human – human interfaces are identified in an attempt to define the efficiency of communication in projects. The research shows how ICT effects the social environment of construction project teams and the project outcome. The study seeks to confirm the need for further work in order to develop new forms of communication protocols and behaviour. An initial literature review was undertaken to develop a theoretical review of the impacts of ICT on construction project teams. This review identified a number of issues that were then tested in the field through an observation and two verification interviews. The research confirms the existence of tensions and conflicts in the human – electronic and human - human communication interfaces within the studies environment. It is proposed that the increasing use of ICT occur at the expense of soft system communication. The principal impact of this is a form of ‘human distraction’ which adversely affects the performance of project teams. There is limited theory exploring these issues that suggests the problems identified are not well understood and consequently indicates a gap in knowledge

The Examination of Organizational Respect in Relation to Organizational Culture

This paper is an in-depth examination of the connection between organizational respect and the strong roots of organizational culture. Throughout this thesis, we will examine the importance of management recognizing and implementing respect, how respect affects behaviors and characteristics of employees, and ways in which employees tend to feel the most respected. Additionally, we will closely examine the importance of establishing feelings of support, caring, and collaboration within an organization in efforts to create an environment filled with respect. Another concept that will be examined is the idea of person-culture fit, and how the alignment of values between employees and the overall organization can ultimately make or break its success. These concepts are important, because they collaboratively determine whether or not the organization will be able to sustain itself going forward. By the end of this paper, you will have a better understanding of the importance of organizational respect and how it contributes to organizational culture, as well as how organizational respect influences organizational culture and influences employee fit in organizations

Mobile social media in inter-organizational projects: Aligning tool, task and team for virtual collaboration effectiveness

Inter-organizational projects face unique challenges and opportunities due to team diversities and task complexity. Mobile social media like WhatsApp and WeChat emerge as new-generation collaboration tools in such endeavors. Based on a literature review, this study posits that how well team-tool, task-tool and team-task relationships are handled shape virtual collaboration effectiveness. The conceptual framework, validated with the interviews from inter-organizational project team members in China and the USA, leads to a research model. The results of a larger-scale survey confirm that tool usability, task fit and team connectivity contribute to virtual collaboration effectiveness, which affects project management success and team appreciation. In addition, there are noticeable cross-country differences, especially the opposite moderating effects that degree of use imposes on the relationship between virtual collaboration effectiveness and project management success. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed

Leveraging Intellectual Capital Management in Virtual Teams: What the Covid-19 Pandemic Taught Us

This study undertakes a review of the scientific literature on the role and impact of Intellectual Capital (IC) with all its components (human, structural and relational capital) on Virtual Team (VT) work. As already proven in the discipline research, IC as a summum of organizational knowledge resources plays a fundamental role in the knowledge economy in sustaining competitive advantage, innovation and performance. Despite an abundance of papers investigating VTs from both a theoretical and empirical perspective, a surprising discovery has been made during this research. The extent of work dedicated to analysing the relationships between IC and VTs is minimal, notwithstanding the unprecedented expansion of the use of VTs since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Following a first review of the extant literature regarding IC and VTs, a second literature review has been conducted for the benefit of revealing crucial aspects and the newest best practices in what concerns work in VTs. In doing so, the authors attempt to draw attention to the need for in-depth researches in the IC field, to catch up with the business, economic and societal most recent developments. Furthermore, this study aims to provide the practitioners with up-to-date, concise knowledge on the practical aspects relevant for the work in VTs

DEVELOPMENT OF A RESEARCH MODEL TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE OUTCOMES USING COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGIES

The purpose of this paper is to explore the current research focused upon collaboration technologies and propose a research model. A brief summary of the underlying theories is presented, followed by a discussion of themes and factors which are thought to influence the successful outcomes associated with technology use. A proposed model extends the current research stream on collaboration technologies by examining the constructs of trust, technology quality, and collaboration as a behavior

The Effect of Virtual Team Characteristics in Co-creation on the Quality of UGC Videos

Co-creation is a newly emerging video production method on the UGC video platform. Based on the transactive memory systems and social capital theory, this paper describes the characteristics of the virtual team formed in the co-creation, and further explores the influence of virtual team characteristics and member characteristics on video quality. This paper collects 49,785 Bilibili co-creation video data, and uses natural language processing methods and quantitative analysis methods to carry out empirical research. The study found that the specialization of virtual teams has an inverted U-shaped impact on video quality, while coordination has a positive impact and credibility has a negative impact. Additionally, the trendiness and fame of team members can enhance the inverted U-shaped impact of specialization, and fame also enhance the impact of coordination. The research results provide theoretical support for creators and managers to optimize the co-creation mode on UGC platforms

Examining Factors Taht Affect Knowledge Sharing And Students\u27 Attitude Toward Their Learning Experience Within Virtual Teams

This study examined factors that might impact student knowledge sharing within virtual teams through online discussion boards. These factors included: trust, mutual influence, conflict, leadership, and cohesion. A path model was developed to determine whether relationships exist among knowledge sharing from asynchronous group discussion and the above five factors. In addition, this study examined if there are any relationships between quality and quantity of knowledge sharing and students\u27 grades. A correlation design was conducted to discover if there are any relationships among these five factors and knowledge sharing within virtual teams. Participants in this study were 148 undergraduate students from two classes in the Health Services Administration program in the College of Health and Public Affairs. The two classes were asynchronous online courses and both instructors used virtual teaming in their online courses. Online interaction occurred via online discussion boards, email, and online chat rooms. The results indicate that mutual influence and team cohesion are two major factors that directly affect knowledge sharing within virtual teams. Conflict mediates the relationship between trust and knowledge sharing. Leadership was also found to have a strong relationship with team cohesion, which then had a relationship with knowledge sharing. As far as the relationship between quality and quantity of knowledge sharing and the student\u27s grade, it was found that there is relationship between the quantity of knowledge sharing and students\u27 grades, however, no significant relationship exists between quality of knowledge sharing and students\u27 grades. The implications of this research for use of virtual teams in online distance education are also discussed

Specification of vertical semantic consistency rules of UML class diagram refinement using logical approach

Unified Modelling Language (UML) is the most popular modelling language use for software design in software development industries with a class diagram being the most frequently use diagram. Despite the popularity of UML, it is being affected by inconsistency problems of its diagrams at the same or different abstraction levels. Inconsistency in UML is mostly caused by existence of various views on the same system and sometimes leads to potentially conflicting system specifications. In general, syntactic consistency can be automatically checked and therefore is supported by current UML Computer-aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools. Semantic consistency problems, unlike syntactic consistency problems, there exists no specific method for specifying semantic consistency rules and constraints. Therefore, this research has specified twenty-four abstraction rules of class‟s relation semantic among any three related classes of a refined class diagram to semantically equivalent relations of two of the classes using a logical approach. This research has also formalized three vertical semantic consistency rules of a class diagram refinement identified by previous researchers using a logical approach and a set of formalized abstraction rules. The results were successfully evaluated using hotel management system and passenger list system case studies and were found to be reliable and efficient

Formation Mechanism of Knowledge Stickiness in the Collaborative Innovation of Industry-University-Research

In the context of deepening the cooperation of Industry-University-Research (IUR), enterprises must gain competitive advantage by transferring external knowledge to the enterprise for knowledge appreciation. Based on the knowledge stickiness encountered in the process of knowledge transfer in the collaborative innovation of IUR, the formation process and causes of knowledge stickiness are analyzed. In this study, the knowledge flow model based on heat conduction theory was proposed. The dynamic simulation was carried out using MATLAB software. Results show that the process of knowledge transfer between IUR is the process of continuously realizing knowledge increment and knowledge creation, and knowledge stickiness has a direct impact on the efficiency of knowledge transfer. Strengthening the cognition between IUR, increasing the number of activities between IUR, and creating a collaborative innovation atmosphere between IUR will reduce knowledge stickiness and improve the efficiency of knowledge transfer

Alone Together: Organizational Measures to Address Pitfalls of Virtual Collaboration

The COVID-19 crisis has made virtual collaboration (VC) an issue across the globe. Employees who once worked in person with their co-workers have had to work from home, relying solely on information and communication technologies to collaborate. This has led to a variety of challenges related to occupational wellbeing (OWB). This study identifies measures organizations have implemented in response. Based on 16 interviews with HR professionals, the findings reveal a number of organizational measures that may help promote OWB in VC