The Influence of Construction Project Team Effectiveness in Higher Institutions’ Building Projects: A Case from Nigeria

Abstract

Projects are required to meet the stakeholders’ requirements on the stipulated time, quality and budget. The achievement of such requirements is related to team effectiveness. However, there is poor project time and cost performance in Nigeria such that the constructions initiated mostly escalate beyond the cost and time budgeted. The construction project teams in Nigeria are shrouded with dysfunctions leading to undesirable project outcomes. This study aims to examine the influence of project team effectiveness on project performance of higher educational institutions’ construction in Nigeria. A quantitative survey design was employed where 150 questionnaires were administered to construction projects team members in four higher educational institutions in Bauchi state, Nigeria. The result indicated that the team effectiveness factors of communication, role and responsibility as well as team relationships have a substantial influence on project performance. However, goal and objectives, leadership, as well as trust and values factors, do not have significant influence. Overall, the result shows that the variation in the project performance can be explained substantially by changes in the construction project team effectiveness (Adj. R² =.585). The implication of this finding is that project performance in Nigerian higher educational institutions can be significantly improved by strengthening communications, roles and responsibilities as well as relationships among team members. Thus, this research contributed to the existing body of knowledge on the linkage between team effectiveness and project performance in the Nigeria higher educational institutions' construction projects. The study, therefore, recommended the improvement of team effectiveness factors of the industry by all projects’ stakeholders and participants.