Complexity effect of project team member selection practices in construction

Within construction the activities at the various hierarchies making up the delivery process have an influence on each other. This creates interconnections and boundaries between the activities as well as the individuals within a team and teams as a whole within the project. The interconnection structures often cause complexity, which could lead to a reduction in performance if the resulting interface is not purposefully and efficiently managed. Understanding the characteristics of the complexity from these interconnections, and how these affect the selection of members into teams will enable the development and implementation of project actions that will support the management of complexity from interconnection structures. Within this paper, the authors present the results of a study of construction organisations to shed more light of the influences of complexity generated by the interconnections. It uses team selection as a proxy to investigate the level of actions / techniques used to manage the effects of complexity. The results from the study have significant implications for the way teams are put together on projects.