Complexity and the Process of Selecting Project Team Members

Abstract

The sub-process of selecting team members, as in people not organizations, is not applied. It is however a fact that interconnections and boundaries are formed between individuals within a team and teams as a whole within the project and these cause complexity. Complexity characteristics have been identified and if project practitioners understand how these affect the process of selecting team members they will be able to manage its affects. A study was conducted with construction project practitioners from six organizations, which included questionnaires and interviews and investigated the level of implementation of team member selection and the level of actions taken / techniques used to manage the effects of complexity of interconnections. The results concur with previous findings that existing techniques are not implemented but also confirm that the process is not considered as means to manage the effects of complexity. Based on these findings a framework was developed which not only promotes the process and a number of the existing techniques but also enables practitioners to take appropriate action(s) for the management of the effects of complexity of interconnections using its characteristics.