Multiple project team membership and performance : empirical evidence from engineering project teams

Individuals are increasingly involved in more than one project team. This implies that an employee simultaneously has multiple memberships in these project teams, a phenomenon known as multiple team membership (MTM). Previous, predominantly theoretical studies have acknowledged the impacts that MTM has on performance but very scarce empirical evidence exists. The aim of this study is to provide empirical support for some of these theoretical claims using data collected from 435 team members in 85 engineering project teams in South Africa. Results show that MTM has an inverted-U shaped relationship with individual performance and a positive linear relationship with team performance. When a person is working in multiple project teams simultaneously, he/she may encounter more diverse sources of ideas across all teams and thus enhances his/her innovative performance. However, as the number of MTM increases, the negative effect of task switching and fragmented attention will negatively impact on individual performance. At the project team level, a large number of MTM in a focal team allows the team members to integrate diverse sources of knowledge and resources into the focal team. This study also found that individuals’ emotional skills and cognitive skills impact on individual performance. It is recommended to programme and project portfolio managers, who often are involved in scheduling human resources to multiple projects, to acknowledge both the positive and negative impacts of MTM on performance. Moreover, in high MTM situations, project team members with high emotional and cognitive skills should be selected.http://www.sajems.org/am2014ai201

Interorganisational knowledge flows between and innovative performance of science park firms : an exploratory study of South African new technology-based firms

The fast growth of science parks around the world has inspired many researchers to investigate the function and performance of science parks (SPs). Interestingly, mixed findings are reported on science park performance in the literature: some researchers found that SPs have benefits for the firms located on site; whereas other researchers doubt the benefits that SPs are claimed to have. This thesis aims to explain these mixed findings and proposes a relational approach to study the general view of interorganisational knowledge flows. The main research question to be answered is: How can the mixed findings of previous research studies regarding innovative performances of science park firms be explained? A sample of 52 new technology-based firms (NTBFs) situated in Gauteng was interviewed by means of structured questionnaires. Despite the fact that this research did not empirically confirm the theoretical explanation of the mixed findings found in science park literature, some issues raised in the recommendation section of this thesis could account for the mixed findings, namely differences in the scanning processes of new entrant firms, the nature of networking activities, services provided by SP management teams, academic-industry links and configurations of knowledge flows. The findings and recommendations of this study may help policy makers to further improve the design and functioning of science parks in emerging economies.Thesis (PhD(Technology Management))--University of Pretoria, 2010.Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM)unrestricte

Multiple project team membership and performance : empirical evidence from engineering project teams

Individuals are increasingly involved in more than one project team. This implies that an employee simultaneously has multiple memberships in these project teams, a phenomenon known as multiple team membership (MTM). Previous, predominantly theoretical studies have acknowledged the impacts that MTM has on performance but very scarce empirical evidence exists. The aim of this study is to provide empirical support for some of these theoretical claims using data collected from 435 team members in 85 engineering project teams in South Africa. Results show that MTM has an inverted-U shaped relationship with individual performance and a positive linear relationship with team performance. When a person is working in multiple project teams simultaneously, he/she may encounter more diverse sources of ideas across all teams and thus enhances his/her innovative performance. However, as the number of MTM increases, the negative effect of task switching and fragmented attention will negatively impact on individual performance. At the project team level, a large number of MTM in a focal team allows the team members to integrate diverse sources of knowledge and resources into the focal team. This study also found that individuals’ emotional skills and cognitive skills impact on individual performance. It is recommended to programme and project portfolio managers, who often are involved in scheduling human resources to multiple projects, to acknowledge both the positive and negative impacts of MTM on performance. Moreover, in high MTM situations, project team members with high emotional and cognitive skills should be selected.http://www.sajems.org/am2014ai201

Spindle oscillations are generated in the dorsal thalamus and modulated by the thalamic reticular nucleus

Spindle waves occur during the early stage of slow wave sleep and are thought to arise in the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), causing inhibitory postsynaptic potential spindle-like oscillations in the dorsal thalamus that are propagated to the cortex. We have found that thalamocortical neurons exhibit membrane oscillations that have spindle frequencies, consist of excitatory postsynaptic potentials, and co-occur with electroencephalographic spindles. TRN lesioning prolonged oscillations in the medial geniculate body (MGB) and auditory cortex (AC). Injection of GABA~A~ antagonist into the MGB decreased oscillation frequency, while injection of GABA~B~ antagonist increased spindle oscillations in the MGB and cortex. Thus, spindles originate in the dorsal thalamus and TRN inhibitory inputs modulate this process, with fast inhibition facilitating the internal frequency and slow inhibition limiting spindle occurrence

The influence of major external and internal events on the culture of an engineering organisation

A Case study company that was set up as a project where the technical focus, activities and behaviour set the initial culture is considered in this research. Over a period of 11 years the Case study engineering organisation was exposed to many influences in the electrical utility industry that now give lead to questions such as: How did events influence the engineering culture and how did the culture change over time? Engineering organisations are subjected to external and internal events which are not always within their control. These include technological changes, economical changes or new competition, change in ownership, business focus or technical leadership. The ability to absorb such events is not only a function of the organisation’s technology infrastructure, availability of funding or skills, but also of the organisational culture prevailing at the time. The objective of the research is to determine how eight events impacted the culture of an engineering organisation over a period of six years. The results show that the culture is indeed influenced by events, with an indication that the different work areas within the organisation experienced the cultural changes differently. The employees that worked for the organisation six years or longer also experienced the changes differently from those that were only employed for the last five years of the organisation’s life. These results may assist the understanding of the impact that events may have on an organisation and allow early risk mitigation to counter undesirable culture forming.http://www.saiee.org.za/displaycustomlink.aspx?name=AfricaResearchJournalam201

The impact of multiple project team membership on individual and team learning : a micro-meso multi-level empirical study

In this paper, we investigate the effects of multiple project team membership on individual and team learning. Data from 435 members of 85 project teams shows that, at the individual level, membership variety has a positive impact on individual learning. Moreover, this positive relationship is stronger for individuals with an average need for cognition, in comparison to individuals with a high or a low need for cognition. At the project team level, the simultaneous inter-organizational memberships of a project team have a positive impact on the team's external learning. However, the simultaneous intra-organizational project team memberships negatively moderate this positive relationship. Furthermore, cross-level analyses show that individual learning has a positive impact on both internal and external team learning. Our findings are relevant for project management practice as they suggest ways in which work design can be configured to increase individual and team learning.http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijpromanhj2022Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM

Enabling multiplexed testing of pooled donor cells through whole-genome sequencing

We describe a method that enables the multiplex screening of a pool of many different donor cell lines. Our method accurately predicts each donor proportion from the pool without requiring the use of unique DNA barcodes as markers of donor identity. Instead, we take advantage of common single nucleotide polymorphisms, whole-genome sequencing, and an algorithm to calculate the proportions from the sequencing data. By testing using simulated and real data, we showed that our method robustly predicts the individual proportions from a mixed-pool of numerous donors, thus enabling the multiplexed testing of diverse donor cells en masse.National Human Genome Research Institute (U.S.) (Grant RM1HG008525)Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Grant 74178

A relational view of knowledge transfer effectiveness in small new technology-based firms : an empirical analysis of a South African case

The open innovation model often neglects the frictions that external knowledge flows could encounter when crossing organisational boundaries. This study recognises such barriers and investigates the impact of these barriers on knowledge transfer effectiveness by using data on small new technologybased firms (NTBFs) located in the emerging South African economy. The empirical results show that the characteristics of inter-organisational knowledge exchange relationships (organisational and technological similarity and contact frequency) do have an impact on the effectiveness of knowledge transfer. The findings stress the relevance of a relational approach, as factors derived from it act as barriers to effective knowledge transfer for small firms.http://www.academicjournals.org/AJBMai201

Extended critical success factor model for management of multiple projects : an empirical view from Transnet in South Africa

Transnet Freight Rail in South Africa has faced projects delays in its multi-project environment. This study takes South Africa as representative of developing countries, and develops the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) model for multiple projects success, with the goal of expanding the conventional model by adding the demographic characteristics of the business units involved in the multiple projects. The empirical results showing the greatest number of success factors are people-related, with the focus on team selection and team commitment. Two demographic characteristics are of importance when managing multiple projects: the size of the business unit, and the employees’ project experience.Transnet, ‘n spoorvragentiteit in Suid-Afrika, ondervind gereeld projekvertragings in hul multi-projekomgewing. Suid-Afrika, as ‘n voorbeeld van ontwikkelende lande, word in die studie gebruik en hierdie studie ontwikkel ‘n reeks suksesfaktore vir ‘n multi-projek-omgewing deur ‘n bestaande konvensionele model aan te pas om ook die demografiese eienskappe van die verskillende besigheidseenhede betrokke in die organisasie te inkorpo-reer. Die resultaat van die studie wys dat die grootste aantal suksesfaktore mens-geörienteerd is, met die fokus op die samestelling en toewyding van die betrokke projekspanne. Twee demografiese eienskape is belangrik by die bestuur van multi-projekte, naamlik die grootte van die besigheidseenheid asook projekondervinding van die werknemers.http://www.journals.co.za/ej/ejour_indeng.htm