Understanding Impacts of Social Network Interventions on Engineering Project Outcomes

该项目将进行基础研究，通过研究大型工程项目中的团队，了解复杂工程项目中跨学科和组织的团队互动如何影响项目成果。工程项目的绩效既取决于个人的绩效，也取决于团队成员之间知识流动的网络。这些网络影响信息访问和团队成员朝着共同目标工作时的协调能力。建立高效的知识转移网络是工程项目团队面临的一个挑战，但关于网络结构和动态对项目结果的具体影响的证据有限。利用任何给定时间内项目网络中专业知识分布的信息，本研究将评估具体的网络干预措施对改善个人或群体中知识转移相关行为的潜力，以及这是否对项目结果产生积极影响。该研究将侧重于leed认证建筑的建设项目，但其结果将与许多行业的大型系统工程项目相关，包括制造业、民用基础设施、航空航天和国防。成果将包括项目的广泛观测数据、数据的统计分析和工程解决方案，以系统地改善项目团队的协调并提高项目成果。研究目标是促进对跨组织工程项目团队中如何操纵跨学科边界的交互能够改善个人、子团队和项目绩效的理解。本研究将采用纵向比较研究设计，以两个建筑、工程和建设项目团队为研究对象，其中一个团队将接受社会网络干预。研究团队将采用一种探索性的方法来研究网络特征和协作媒介，这些特征和媒介可以改善个人和团队绩效，以及团队绩效和项目成果之间的联系。将采用定量方法来测试干预措施对个人和小组绩效的影响。干预的多个周期将告知工程项目团队如何在个人和子团队层面对网络干预作出反应，以提高项目绩效。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will conduct fundamental research to understand how team interactions across disciplines and organizations in complex engineering projects impact project outcomes by studying teams on large engineering projects. Engineering project performance depends on both the performance of individuals and the networks through which knowledge flows between team members. These networks impact information access and the ability of team members to coordinate as they work towards common goals. Establishing efficient knowledge transfer networks is a challenge in engineering project teams, but there is limited evidence about specific impacts of network structure and dynamics on project outcomes. Using information about the distribution of expertise in a project network at any given time, this study will evaluate specific network interventions for their potential to improve knowledge transfer-related behavior in individuals or groups and whether this has a positive impact on project outcomes. The study will focus on construction projects for LEED-certified buildings, but the results will be relevant to large systems engineering projects in many industries, including manufacturing, civil infrastructure, aerospace, and defense. Outcomes will include extensive observational data of the projects, statistical analyses of the data, and an engineering solution to systematically improve coordination in project teams and enhance project outcomes. The research goal is to advance understanding of how manipulating interactions across disciplinary boundaries in inter-organizational engineering project teams can improve individual, sub-group, and project performance. The study will adopt a longitudinal, comparative research design with two architecture, engineering, and construction project teams, one of which will be treated with social network interventions. The research team will pursue an exploratory approach to examine network characteristics and collaboration mediums that can lead to improved individual and team performance and the links between team performance and project outcomes. A quantitative approach will be followed to test the impact of interventions on individual and sub-group performance. The multiple cycles of interventions will inform how engineering project teams react to network interventions at the individual and sub-group levels to improve project performance.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.