Interorganizational Teamwork in the Construction Industry

Interorganizational teamwork has attracted considerable attention over the years and is one of the characteristics of the construction industry. However, most of the research has just focused on the factors necessary for team success, rather than investigating human perceptions of interorganizational teamwork and what factors affect the individual’s perception that they are working in a team. Building on a modified model, the effects of cultural and context factors (individualism and power distance) and employee attitudes (task interdependence and trust) on team orientation (the individual’s perception of working in a team) were investigated in this research. Data were collected via questionnaire surveys from a sample of construction practitioners working in interorganizational project teams in Hong Kong. Using correlation and multiple regression analyses, the findings indicated that, as hypothesized, there were positive relationships between team orientation and contractual trust, competence trust and task interdependence, but there was a negative relationship between team orientation and opportunism. The results further suggested that the influence of team orientation was moderated to a certain extent by individualism and power distance in some employees’ attitudes.