THE ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND MOTIVATION IN THE EFFECTIVE UTILIZATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR TEAMWORKING IN CONSTRUCTION

This paper is based on an on-going 2-year EPSRC sponsored research project, which, inter-alia focuses on the utilization and exploitation of IT for team working in the construction, manufacturing and the financial sectors. An important aim of the study is to ascertain and document what the construction industry can learn from other industrial settings. The study employs a combination of research approaches, including case studies, ethnographic interviews, semi-structured interviews, postal questionnaires, the analysis of archive documents, and practitioner and researchers’ workshops. There is a substantial amount of literature in the area of IT in construction teams, many of which are based on anecdotal evidence of the perceived benefits of IT to construction activities. There are also articles based on empirical investigations, which have been conducted on construction IT. However, these mainly tend to look at IT from a wider perspective, with many of these studies failing to capture the importance of the social dimensions in their quest to produce best practice or guidance documentation. This paper attempts to contribute to our knowledge of the social aspects of IT usage, utilization and exploitation, especially as it pertains to effective and efficient employment of IT for teamworking in construction and design teams. The paper documents and discusses important social issues from a thorough review of the relevant literature in construction and other industries, as well as the tentative findings from an on-going 2-year study. The paper argues that culture and motivation are important factors to consider when studying IT usage for teamworking. The effect IT has on teamworking varies enormously and can range from being extremely positive to alarmingly negative. This is, in turn, reinforced by the cultural and motivational factors at play within the organization. The paper will draw its conclusions from the findings of a series of ethnographic interviews, which are currently being undertaken in six organizations. Tentative findings indicate that certain cultural types and specific motivational factors influence the effect IT has on teamworking. The paper recommends that there is ample scope for further studies to be conducted in the social dimensions of IT, exploring the role which subcultures and different motivational constructs play in both the utilization and exploitation of IT for teamworking in small, medium and large construction enterprises, and brining these issues to the attention of practitioners