İnşaat Sektöründe Ekip Çalışması

Abstract

Günümüzde ilerleyen teknoloji ve rekabet nedeniyle organizasyonlar, mevcut insan kaynaklarından en verimli şekilde yararlanabilmek için ekip çalışmasını tercih etmektedirler. Belirli bir projenin gerçekleştirilmesi için gerekli olan ekipler; uygun teknik bilgi, yaş, tecrübe ve yönetim becerilerine sahip bireylerden oluşturulmaktadır. Ancak projenin amaçlarına göre oluşturulan ekiplerde de, bireylerin kişilik özelliklerine ve davranış biçimlerine bağlı olarak birtakım çatışmalar ve anlaşmazlıklar yaşanabilmektedir. Bu araştırma kapsamında projenin ilk aşamalarında ekiplerin oluşturulması sırasında bireylerin karakter özelliklerinin ve sosyal ihtiyaçlarının gözardı edilmemesinin gerekliliği vurgulanmıştır. İnşaat projelerinde önemli olan projeyi belirlenen zaman ve bütçe sınırlamaları içinde, müşterinin istediği kalitede bitirebilmektir. Proje organizasyonunun yapısı nedeniyle, projenin farklı aşamalarında konunun uzmanı olan kişiler projeye katılmaktadır. Her üyenin amacı diğerlerinden farklı olacağı için çapraşık organizasyon ilişkileri olan inşaat projelerinde, etkin proje ekibinin kurulması ve geliştirilmesi oldukça güç olmakta ve çatışmalar ortaya çıkmaktadır. Araştırmada yer alan değişkenlerden ekip üyelerinin kişilik özellikleri ve sosyal ihtiyaçlarının FIRO-B anketi ile, üstlendikleri rollerin ise Belbin'in kendini algılama (SPI) anketi ile belirlenmesi düşünülmektedir. Amaç, ekip üyelerinin kişilik özellikleri ve ihtiyaçları ile üstlendikleri roller arasında bir ilişki olup olmadığını araştırmak, uyumlu bir ekibin ne şekilde oluşturulduğunu incelemektir. FIRO-B (Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behaviour) temel kişiler arası ilişkiler, yönlendirme ve davranış biçimleri anlamına gelen, yönetimsel seçimler ve gelişmelerde kullanılan kişisel bir ankettir. FIRO-B ilk olarak 1958 yılında Will Schutz tarafından geliştirilmiştir. Schutz'un temel yaklaşımı insanların kişisel ihtiyaçlarının olduğu ve uyumlu sosyal ilişkiler kurmak istediğidir. Belbin'in kendini algılama anketi (Self-perception Inventory) bireylerin, karakter özelliklerine ve diğer insanların kendilerinden beklediği davranış biçimlerine bağlı olarak ekip içinde üstlendikleri rolleri ortaya çıkarmaktadır. Bireyler hakkında elde edilebilecek bu tür bilgiler yöneticiler için projenin ilk aşamalarında oldukça faydalı olmaktadır. Proje yöneticileri projenin ihtiyaçlarını karşılayabilecek uyumlu kişilerden oluşan ekipleri biraraya getirerek, çatışmaları en aza indirgeyebilmektedir. Konularında uzman, her türlü teknik bilgi ve beceriye sahip insanların birbirleriyle anlaşabilmeleri onların kişisel özelliklerine ve sosyal ihtiyaçlarına bağlıdır. Bireylerin uyumlu olmaları ve birbirlerinin ihtiyaçlarını karşılayabilmeleri durumunda başarılı ve etkin bir ekip elde edilebilmektedir. Bu şekilde insan kaynaklarını geliştirmek ve yönlendirmek mümkün olabilmektedir.

Today, most organizations prefer teamwork to be able to use human resources effectively in the developing and competitive business environment. Teams are made up people, who are necessary for achieving the project goals, with compatible age, technical knowledge and management abilities. However, in all organizations conflicts can arise even if the team members are selected from the very compatible people because of their personalities, behaviours and interpersonal relationships. In this study, it is underlined that the personalities and social needs of team members should be considered important, especially in the early stages of a project. This research study reviews the efficiency of teamwork in construction industry from the point of view of a socio-technical approach with special regard to project performance. Most organizations prefer project teams to achieve organizational goals. However, getting compatible team members together and measuring their performance is very complex and depends on different factors. Building of a team in an organization is also an ongoing process. While proper attention to teambuilding is crucial during the early phases of a project, it is a never-ending process. Getting people together and expecting them to work as a team is not enough. Reviewing the literature about the research objectives, it was found that, studies in this area were all foreign. However, the findings of this study can be used in the Turkish Building Industry. Instead of hypothesis, a descriptive way has been used to investigate the project teams. The results have been presented as intra-case and cross-case analysis and conclusions were made. Building industry differentiates from other sectors in many ways. Projects are undertaken at all levels of the organizations. The product is unique and depends on each field. All projects are designed and accomplished by different teams. Every project has a definite beginning and a definite end. The end is reached when the project's objectives have been achieved or when the project is terminated. After accomplishing the project the teams are distributed and other teambuilding processes begin for new projects. The most important thing in building projects is accomplishing the task in planned time, budget and quality with limited resources. Therefore; planning, executing and controlling are the most important activities of a construction project. While there is a necessity to perform the work in limited time and budget, it is essential to locate the right people in their right positions in a team. In multiple organizations in x building industry developing effective project teams is very complex and it is obvious that some conflicts will appear. The building process is a social system that is concerned with people who affect and are affected by the system as a whole. According to this approach, the social system consists of sub-systems which are the personalities of team members, their behaviours, interpersonal needs and team roles. The great majority of human being have a natural desire to seek the companionship of other human beings in social groups. They seek this for basic personal needs like friendship, security, being part of a group. However, while the informal relations among team members are developing there is also a formal system which determines the tasks and positions of each member. Because the team members have different personalities, it is generally difficult to locate them in the right positions. Construction projects have a culture that requires extraordinary key player talent at the top of the pyramid. The nature of construction demands people who can move with the unique and dynamic conditions of a changing environment. Knowing the requirements of a project environment, culture and selecting the team members to fit those requirements are essential to good performance. Time is needed to cast off individual differences and learn to work together. Individuals usually accept a project assignment with little or no knowledge of the individuals with whom they will be working. Therefore, project managers should understand the phases of team development so they can hasten the process and get the team up to accomplish the tasks successfully. In the early stages of teambuilding team members begin to share out the roles. A team is a collection of individuals, each of whom has a role which is accepted by other members and members of a team perform most effectively in the ones that are most natural to them. Each role consists of the expected behaviours of the occupant of that position. Expected behaviours generally are agreed on by team members. The role that a person in a certain position believes he or she should enact is called as the perceived role. In some cases, the perceived role may correspond to the expected role. The behaviour that a person actually carries out is the enacted role. If the enacted role differentiates from the perceived and the expected roles, the individual experiences role conflict. Therefore, the research is founded on the premise that the formation of a project team at the beginning of the project has an important effect on the project performance relating on the team performance. In this study two surveys were used to determine the characteristics and social needs of team members and the roles which they enact when accomplishing a task. The first survey used is the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behaviour (FIRO-B) and the second is Belbin's Self-perception Inventory (SPI). The characteristics of team members and their social needs can be described using the FIRO-B Survey. Belbin's SPI Survey can be used to assess people's team role profiles. The aim of this study is searching the relationship between the characteristics of team members and their team roles. XI FIRO-B is a very well-known researched theory of interpersonal orientation and was proposed by Schutz in 1958. FIRO-B is based on the assumption that there is a universe of behaviours that are neither irrefutably good nor irrefutably bad. FIRO-B measures an individual's self report of comfort level with degrees of expression. According to FIRO-B, behaviours can be changed by will. The value for project management is an understanding in the necessary ingredients for a successful team. The basic assumption of Schutz' s model is that people need people. Striving for compatibility relationships with other individuals in interactions leads to the development of three primary interpersonal needs. The first one is the need for Inclusion, if one wants to be in or out of a particular group. The second one is the need for Control, if one wants to control others or to be controlled by others. The last one is the need for Affection, if one wants to be close or distant with others. According to Schutz, these dimensions are fundamental to all human social organisms. FIRO-B measures these three dimensions from two perspectives. Some people feel most comfortable showing their behaviour and some people want to be shown behaviours by others. These types of behaviours are called expressed and wanted behaviours respectively. By comparing each need score, the most important interpersonal need can be determined. The highest score indicates the need that is being least satisfied. The total of the expressed and wanted scores is called the social interaction index. This score represents the overall interpersonal need level. In matching one person's scores with another person's, the interpersonal incompatibility scores can be measured. Knowing the incompatibility scores of team members indicates if the individuals are having good relationships or not. This information can help managers in their managerial success. It helps project managers generate alternatives for behaviour when they attempt to solve interpersonal difficulties. For example, some problems can be solved simply by increasing inclusion activities or by allowing someone else to express a little more control. There is an assumption that teams composed of compatible individuals are more satisfying to members and more effective than teams composed of incompatible individuals. Actually, Schutz have found that in interpersonally compatible groups there is more interpersonal attraction among members, more positive group climate, more cooperative behaviour on tasks and more productivity in accomplishing tasks. They can solve the problems faster and make fewer errors. Many researchs confirm this prediction. For example, DiMarco has found in 1974 that low incompatibility scores result in more favorable attitudes of subordinates toward managers. Hutcherson has found in 1963 that students achieve higher levels in classes when compatibility with the teacher is high. Friends have also been found to be chosen more often from among those with compatible scores. Using the FIRO-B Survey, Architect Füsun Ertan has investigated changes and project performance through interpersonal relationships in Turkish Building Industry in her Master's Thesis at the Building Construction Management Programme in Istanbul Technical University. Her research study is based on the opinion that, there is a need for those individuals who use the services of the Turkish Building Industry, xii to be involved with social implications of the problem of post-contractual changes, as well as technical. This study therefore looks at the project performance from the point of view of a socio-technical approach. A socio-technial approach was conducted, as changes were affected by both the technical and social system of the building process. The premise was that, both technical and social systems of projects influenced the incidence of changes. However, social system was more emphasised, because it was investigated and reported by the participants that, the technical difficulties were contributed by interpersonal working relationships. Ertan found that the reasons for project delays, conflicts and difficulties are often seen in personal terms such as incompetence, laziness and personal greed. For working effectively and performing cooperatively, there must be group cohesion and compatibility. This depends on the relationships of team members. This is also related to the apparently well definition of the roles and the responsibilities of the participants of the group. However, confusion can still arise due to poorly constructed contracts or the habits of individuals. Ertan suggests the evidence from case studies that social system (interpersonal social and ex-change relationships) has a dominantly important part on the changes and performance. The social system and human resources of projects should be carefully analised. Ertan' s findings from her research support that the characteristics and enacted roles of team members affect the quality of work of the team and their project performance. SPI suggests the best team role for each member of the team. SPI describes a number of team roles and understanding the different roles helps the members in finding their right place during the life-cycle of the project. Selecting people upon their technical competence and experience only is a great mistake. Research done by Belbin proved that team comprised of very clever members can have a significant poor performance compared to other teams. Teams need to have several of the different roles presented in order to be successful. Determining of the team roles at the beginning of the project can be a tool for analyzing teams and improving performance. In each individual the team-role behaviour is influenced by personality, role learning, experience, mental abilities, current values, motivations and field constraints, The nine team roles identified in Belbin' s research can be classified as action-oriented roles, people-oriented roles and cerebral roles. Each role is characterized by clusters of useful forms of related behaviour. An individual will likely have one or two team roles to which they are ideally suited. They will also have several team roles if there is no other suitable candidates for that role. Understanding of team roles reduces conflicts, both in team situations and throughout the organization in general. The following results are drawn from the cross-case analysis. Team members firstly prefer the action-oriented roles. Teams are comprised to achieve project goals, therefore the most important thing is accomplishing the tasks. People who are xiii successful in social environments are more compatible in interpersonal relations. Role conflicts occur when some of the team members have to enact the roles that are different from their natural roles. To make generalizations from these results is not possible because the sample size was not enough. For getting significant results, the sample size has to be expanded. Another interesting result of the study is that the feminen team members have not preferred the people-oriented roles. The incompatibility scores of women are fewer than others. In addition, taking team roles depends also on the working time in the same organization. The members which are working less than two years in the organization have preferred mostly the action-oriented roles. However, members which are working more than ten years in the same organization have preferred the people-oriented roles. Because they have technical and social experience they can easily coordinate people and help them doing their work. The task of the project manager is to understand the necessary things for a successful team. Using these surveys the project manager can learn about the members and use this information for teambuilding in the early stages of the project. Projects have an ongoing process. Knowing the interpersonal orientation and roles of the team members can also help project managers in solving problems and difficulties. In addition, understanding the different roles helps members in finding their right positions. This research can give a project manager or a team member a guideline when building a team. In this study the team members are investigated which have the same organizational goals. However, teams made of from different organizations, which have a very complex structure, can also use these surveys to perform better together and increase their project performance. There is fewer studies about teamwork in Turkish Building Industry. For developing the Building Industry in Turkey more studies are needed. Studies in this area are all foreign. Today, most organizations abroad prefer teamwork to be able to use human resources effectively in the developing and competitive business environment. They are using surveys like FIRO-B and SPI to place individuals in suitable positions where they can work effectively. The project managers in the organizations in Turkish Building Industry have to learn these techniques to be able to increase project performance in their own organizations and to be able to compete with international firms.