Determinants of project team performance in road sector projects in Ghana perspectives of road construction consultant

Abstract

Increasingly, project teams in the road construction industry are usually established as soon as a new project start. This is done to meet today’s competition and customer expectations. A project is said to be successful when it meets all the project objectives; time, cost, quality, environmental considerations, and health and safety. The study aimed to assess the determinants of road sector project teams performance in the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions of Ghana. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design and quantitative research methods using survey questionnaires. One hundred and fifteen (115) questionnaires were deployed to the construction consultants currently working on projects and recently finished projects and fifty–seven (57) valid questionnaires were retrieved and analysed. Relative Importance Index and factor analysis were used as tools to analyse the data. This study found that the effective execution of the six characteristics of project team performance (leadership style management, leader comfortability, effective planning, gender difference, project quality assurance, and final product satisfaction) has an impact on project performance. The study also obtained six strategies to improve road project team performance in Ghana, these were; the high motivation of team members, high-quality supervision, the firm establishment of member’s roles at the initiation stage, team determination to accomplish a project on time, encouragement of high performance and quality work, and team/individual workload. The study concluded that every effective road project team must inherit all six project team performance characteristics. Implementation of the six important strategies in a road project team enhances effective team members' performance on current and future projects was also a conclusion of the study. For a successful road project, the project team must be characterised by ‘effective leadership style management and comfortability, effective planning, gender difference management, project quality assurance, and final product satisfaction. Clients and consultants in the Road Sector and the Construction Industry must ensure that project team members are highly motivated and are supervised to enhance team performance.