Aki Aapaoja

The characteristics of and cornerstones for creating integrated teams

Purpose – Defective stakeholder management has frequently resulted in conflicts and partial failures. Integrated project delivery (IPD) and team integration provides opportunities for organizations to achieve more than they could on their own. The purpose of this study is to analyze the level and challenges of team integration. In addition, study tries to recognize the cornerstones for creating integrated teams in construction projects.Design/methodology/approach – This paper discusses the characteristics and level of team integration in a construction project, but the main purpose is to derive the cornerstones for creating integrated teams. Results are derived from the analysis of current literature and an empirical case study.Findings – This paper describes the 12 characteristics of an integrated project team. In addition, the cornerstones for creating integrated teams were recognized as the early involvement and assessment of stakeholders, continuous communication and interaction, cultural change, and ...

Early Stakeholder Involvement in the Project Definition Phase: Case Renovation

Relational project delivery methods (RPDMs) have been widely offered as a solution to increasing holistic project value creation. Furthermore, early stakeholder involvement has been emphasized as one of the cornerstones of RPDM. The purpose of this paper is to examine who the stakeholders are that should be involved early in the project definition phase. This paper discusses the process and nature of the project definition phase in RPDM, with the main focus on early stakeholder involvement. The results are derived from the analysis of the literature and an empirical study (interviews). The stakeholders, their roles in the renovation project, and at which stage they should each be involved in the project definition process are determined. The findings show that projects cover different levels of stakeholders, whose requirements and purposes must be considered and managed. Early involvement allows room for creative solutions and the intensive exchange of ideas. Thus, it leads to procedures that run in phases, which in turn change the project’s value creation to holistic value cocreation. This article facilitates and contributes to early stakeholder involvement and the creation of integrated teams by identifying and consolidating the different levels, roles, responsibilities, and objectives of the stakeholders.