Perceived time pressure and social processes in project teams

This study addresses the issue of perceived time pressure in project teams. The first purpose was to investigate how time pressure relates to job satisfaction and estimated goal achievement. A second purpose was to investigate how team processes [team support for the goal, cooperation and collective ability] affect the potential effect of time pressure. The study includes members [n=110] of 12 projects [six construction projects, five product development projects and one organizational development project] from four Swedish companies. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire and the response rate was 76%. Time pressure was negatively related, although slightly, to both estimated goal fulfillment and job satisfaction. The negative effect of time pressure was moderated by team support for the goal and collective ability in such a way that the negative effect disappeared. The findings remained after controlling for task complexity.

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