PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT OF MULITDISCIPLINARY R&D TEAMS THROUGH PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Abstract

The past two decades have been characterized by profound changes and reallocations of human and material resources, worldwide, with implications in the dynamics of the companies and research institutions. Therefore, nowadays, R&D may involve personnel located at various geophysical locations. In spite of their benefits, these changes raised significant challenges, particularly in terms of integrations, coordination and management of human resources, particularly for R&D teams. Moreover, there are several challenges associated with the new dynamics such, cultural, societal, fundamental organization dissimilarities (i.e., different routines, procedures, goals, and expectations) that exist between partners might complicate managing the projects. Although several factors may affect the development and execution of the project, however, the project management plays a vital role. In this research we analyse the feasibility of a flexible management approach in the sense that it takes into account the management practices already existent and extract the similarities among all the partners involved in the R&D effort.

Keywords

• team management
• work performance
• cohesiveness
• team engagement
• team effectiveness