Building high-performing and integrated project teams

Purpose: Effective inter-organisational relationships are key to engendering innovation and ensuring the successful delivery of infrastructure projects. Relationship-based contracts are thus widely used to stimulate best-for-project ideals and attenuate the otherwise adversarial relationship that often exists between clients and contractors. This study examines the effectiveness and limitations of a project facilitation model as coaching tool for developing conducive inter-organisational relationships for construction project delivery. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopts a case-study approach using evidence from triangulated data sources of focus group workshops, semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Findings: (1) The facilitation model enabled an environment for psychological safety to be developed, which engendered a platform for effective cooperation for problem-solving and achieving quasi best-for-project ideals. (2) The model provides the mechanism to develop team behaviours that support enhanced performance and create an environment less adversarial and more collaborative than traditional contracting. Originality/value: The novelty of this research is that relationship-based principles have been utilised as part of a traditional design-bid-build contract with lump-sum payment arrangements.